Washington County Peak Oil

ACEEE “RATES THE STATES ” ON EMPLOYING ENERGY EFFICIENCY AS THE “FIRST FUEL ” TO POWER THEIR ECONOMIES

plunsfo — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:52:59 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Inflationary U.S. bailout may boost oil: Merrill

plunsfo — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:41:16 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Energy Department warns of higher heating costs

plunsfo — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:36:10 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

2nd Annual Peak Oil Forum at Pacific

plunsfo — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:31:17 -0700

Start: 2008-10-12 19:00

End: 2008-10-12 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

16th Annual Heirloom Apple Festival

plunsfo — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:31:33 -0700

Start: 2008-10-18 11:00

End: 2008-10-19 16:00

Washington County Peak Oil

Crossroads Lecture: A History of Climate Change in the Willamette Valley

plunsfo — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:28:39 -0700

Start: 2008-10-15 15:30

End: 2008-10-15 16:30

Washington County Peak Oil

Community Action's 6th annual Energy Fair

plunsfo — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:08:54 -0700

Start: 2008-10-11 09:30

End: 2008-10-11 14:00

Washington County Peak Oil

The September Education - Action Meeting

dmaebori — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:14:32 -0700

We had our first meeting on September 9, second Tuesday of the month, using our new format for education - action meetings.

Peter and Donna started us off with updates on the world energy situation. Already there are many places in the world with significant energy shortages. Our jobless rates hit hits highest point in 5 years. State and federal governments have less revenue as people are driving less which is lowering the amount gathered by gas taxes. And, the price of oil is going down, but, not the price of gasoline at the pump...for various reasons.

Cal then gave a presentation on food production concepts for the years ahead when food will not be so easily available in grocery stores. Cal covered subjects of gardening, composting, community gardens, food storage and cooking. Peter, by the way, gave us all lots of tomatoes from his garden.

We ended with a discussion about our organizations' name and if it is a barrier to people wanting to come to the meetings. The main outcome of the discussion is that the choosing of a name has to do with the purpose of the group, and maybe it is time to redefine or reclarify the purpose of our organization. Nathan and Ivy agreed to be a subcommittee on this topic and have since posted a forum piece to foster discussion over the coming weeks until our next meeting.

Thank you to all who came and to everyone who contributed to the meeting!

Washington County Peak Oil

Radio Interview on Peak Oil

dmaebori — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:15:47 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Livestock owners may run afoul of city codes

plunsfo — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:36:23 -0700

Yamhill Peak Oil

Hurricane IKE Track is Bad News

plunsfo — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:03:24 -0700

Clackamas County Peak Oil

Before Renaming, Let's Talk About Purpose

IvyRoberts — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:14:22 -0700

Hi Everyone! My dad and I had been discussing our assignment to lead a discussion about choosing a different name for Washington County Peak Oil and defining our mission. We thought we should work on defining our mission before we did the actual renaming. Here's stuff we would appreciate everyone to think about:

On our home page we have this as our mission:
As a group of concerned local citizens with diverse backgrounds and interests, motivated by an awareness of the looming crisis caused by the peaking of world petroleum supplies and by a hopeful vision of future possibilities, we have come together to:
• Create awareness in Washington County about the peak oil crisis and it's economic, environmental and social implications.
• Serve as a community network to identify and share individual and collective strategies to effectively cope with the peak oil crisis.
• Influence policies of local governments for constructive and sustainable solutions.

On July 1st, Peter wrote:
One of the key goals of Washington County Peak Oil is to motivate positive changes in the County and among our citizens to reduce our risks from energy depletion. In that context, this forum is dedicated to putting forth realistic ideas that will will:
1) Reduce petroleum consumption by local citizens, and
2) Be realistically achievable.

In the forum, there are posts about:
-Sustainable Population
-Creating a lifeboat community
-Backyard gardening
-Greening our local governments
-Pollution credits
-Recycling
-Food storage
.... and a lot of other stuff.

I think we will get more done if we narrow our focus and set measurable goals. Everyone in WCPO is intelligent, motivated, dedicated, hardworking. I love the energy. I'm sure we can do anything but, we need to focus all our energy and talent on one thing. We need to choose a mountain and conquer it.

Please think about what I've written and post your answer to the following:
-What is the purpose of WCPO?
-Why does WCPO exist?

Washington County Peak Oil

Drilling In Stormy Waters

plunsfo — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:58:54 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Oct. 14 Education-Action Meeting

dmaebori — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:17:41 -0700

Start: 2008-10-14 19:00

End: 2008-10-14 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

Oct. 28 Book Club

dmaebori — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:10:43 -0700

Start: 2008-10-28 19:00

End: 2008-10-28 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

Sept. 23 Book Club

dmaebori — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:05:23 -0700

Start: 2008-09-23 19:00

End: 2008-09-23 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

transition handbook author you tube

ellengentry — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:19:26 -0700

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGHrWPtCvg0

Washington County Peak Oil

transition handbook author you tube

ellengentry — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:19:21 -0700

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGHrWPtCvg0

Washington County Peak Oil

Governor creating an OPEC

plunsfo — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:40:03 -0700

Coordinator HUB

Cylvia Hayes talks about viewing climate change as our big break

plunsfo — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:16:08 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Airlines to cut 60m seats for Christmas

plunsfo — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:22:39 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

I Wonder

plunsfo — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:28:25 -0700

Coordinator HUB

Americans need to take control of spending wheel

plunsfo — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:46:28 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Can't Drive 55

plunsfo — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:55:23 -0700

Yamhill Peak Oil

Sept. 9 Education-Action Meeting

dmaebori — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:28:00 -0700

Start: 2008-09-09 19:00

End: 2008-09-09 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

IEA warns non-OPEC oil could peak in two years

plunsfo — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:41:20 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Sherwood leader touts golf carts for the street

Christiana — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:42:04 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

High costs lead to end of test of biodiesel buses

Christiana — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:39:45 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Gore sets energy goal for next president to heed

plunsfo — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:31:00 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Food Storage on No Budget

plunsfo — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:17:55 -0700

The following article is from Sharon Astyk’s Ruminations on an Ambiguous Future. The original can be found here.

What ideas do YOU have about food storage and stocking up for that rainy day...or month...or year?

The people who most need a food reserve are the people who struggle the most to get it. As food and energy costs inflate, and the safety net for the poor begins to break apart, the lower your income, the more urgent it is for you to take advantage of economies of scale, to buy food at lower prices, the more necessary it is that you have some reserve to tide you over in hard times. But that’s incredibly tough if hard times are already here.

And often, the people who have the least ability to take advantage of these resources are the ones who need them the most. Millions of really poor Americans are homeless, or effectively so, living in subsidized motels or other housing that has no cooking facilities. Millions of American working families combine two, three or four jobs and leave the cooking to younger children - or simply have no time to cook or shop at all. Millions of Americans have budgets that already don’t reach the month, and can no longer put together an extra $50 to buy beans and rice in bulk or pay for a CSA share upfront than they can fly to the moon. And these are precisely the people most likely to lose a job, have their kids go hungry, and find that their barely-making-it budget is a no-longer making it budget.

Now much of the time when I’m speaking of food, I advocate ethical practices. Because most of my readers - not all by any means, but most - are comparatively well educated (whether autodidactically or otherwse), and most of them have some ability to pick and choose their foods, either because they are middle class already or because they have carefully and consciously managed to leave some reserve in a small budget by the choices they’ve made. I want to be clear - for those with enough money to do this, ethical food is still the priority - the dollars we spend now on food are investments in future food systems - the systems we will need to feed us in difficult times. We can’t afford to throw that money away on systems that won’t be there, if there’s another choice.

But for those without a range of choices, just having some food stored is essential. At present, the safety nets are fraying - the food pantries are struggling, food stamps and other social welfare programs are heavily burdened, and a food stamp budget no longer enables people to make it to the end of the month. Those programs are likely to struggle further as energy and food prices rise. And because there are no large government stockpiles remaining, because costs are rising so rapidly and because jobs are so unstable, it is essential that lower income families have a reserve of food - no matter how they have to buy it.

So here are some suggestions on how to build storage cheaply.

1. Emphasize foods that haven’t had huge price rises - potatoes, for example, peanuts and peanut butter, and oats all have gone up, but not nearly as much as corn, wheat and soy. Consider a storage program that emphasizes these lower cost foods - but make sure you are focusing on things with high nutritional value.

The more you can adapt your diet, the better off you will be. So do some research on what foods are reasonably priced and find recipes and practice with them if you can.

2. If you have minimal or no cooking facilities, or if the household cooking is being done by children, you need foods that can be heated up easily, using sterno or hot plates. The best really cheap ways to get a lot of instant and pre-processed foods are to dumpster dive and frequent odd lots stores. Because stores discard cans with damaged labels, or anything dinged or damaged, processed foods are often discarded when they are still safe to eat (do not eat anything from a can that appears to be leaking or has odd bulges on it). Do this carefully - wear gloves if possible and watch out for sharp objects. Websites on “freegans” will have a lot more information than I can include. I will note that dumpster diving is on the rise, and you may find more competition than in the past. The other advantage of dumpster diving is that it may cut your food budget enough to allow you to make additional bulk purchases, even if you don’t need pre-processed food. And don’t forget drugstores for slightly-past-expiration vitamins to supplement your diet.

Odd lots stores buy stuff up that other stores can’t sell - you get weird brands, sometimes cans with no labels, but often quite good prices. And sometimes you get good stuff cheap - the one near my Mother offers tons of gluten free foods from Bobs Red Mill at very low prices - tough things to find for low income people who need special diets. They aren’t as cheap as dumpster diving, but I’ve seen canned goods listed at 10 for a dollar there.

3. Glean - in many places, there are gleaning programs. Most commercial harvesting programs leave a lot of fruit on the tree and a lot of vegetables in the field. So Gleaning Programs (our farm is actually named Gleanings Farm, because in Judaism, we are prohibited from harvesting too fully, because a share belongs to the poor by right - we do our own gleaning, though, and give it to the food banks). In some places you split your gleanings with the local food bank, in others you keep everything. But that food can be stored and preserved for offseasons.

4. Minimize waste. Create a “soup jar” and make soup out of leftovers. Do a daily check of your fridge - what needs eating? Don’t think that just because it isn’t a meal’s worth, you can’t eat it. Fruits and vegetables are especially expensive on a low budget - so make full use of them - peel and eat the broccoli stems, grate the orange zest and dry it for flavoring baked goods if you can. Make fried rice out of bits of leftovers and cold grains (you can make fried rice equivalents out of barley, bulghur, etc…).

5. If you can cook at all, beans, rice, lentils, and cabbage are probably your best friends in the world. They are cheap, bulky, nutritious and can be made to taste good. It is hard to get used to a limited diet of these foods - it is also worth noting that a limited diet in a norm in most of the world - it is not at all unusual to eat beans and rice 2xs a day, or bread and lentils the same. Americans put enormous emphasis on diversity in their diet - and our nutritional information puts that emphasis on it to. But war era diets are often more nutritious than more diverse diets - what you need are a reasonable quantity of several fruits and vegetables, and staple foods. The rest is really not so very big a deal.

The cheapest places to buy these are from coops, buying clubs and warehouse stores - although you should check that the warehouse membership will pay for itself. Or maybe go along with a friend who has a membership or take advantage of free 1 month trials. Buying in bulk can be tough - but if you can find the money anywhere, you’ll pay so much less than you will at the store. Remember, if you can’t afford veggies, most grains can be sprouted, and offer the benefits of fruits and vegetables this way.

6. Animal products are expensive - think the parts that most people don’t use. We all know meat isn’t necessary, but some of us like it for flavor, and if you are eating a lot of low-protein, processed food, some meat probably will improve your nutrition. Soup bones, chicken feet (they make great stock and are a texture delicacy in parts of Asia), chicken livers, etc… make good gravy to flavor bread and beans, good soup stock to fill with cheap vegetables, and generally provide some nutritional benefits.

7. Farmer’s markets at the end of the day. This can be tough (all of this can be tough) if you work long hours, but consider pushing your lunch break late on Farmer’s Market day, and arriving at the end of the market - many farmers won’t want to haul home produce that has sat all day in the hot sun - it isn’t worth it. Buy it cheap in quantity, take it home and dehydrate it in your car or can it or whatever.

8. Some food pantries have trouble getting rid of bulk foods like wheat berries, dried beans, etc… They receive these items, but comparatively few people know how to use them. Ask if they ever have extras of these to give away, and explain that you are trying to build a food reserve - the worst anyone can say is “no.”

9. Give the gift of food - if someone wants to buy you a present, consider asking for a gift certificate to Walmart or Sam’s Club or Amazon or some other place that sells food and other goods - that way you don’t have to admit that you need the food badly - but you can use the gift for what you need most.

10. Don’t expect to do it all at once. All of us need to scale up gradually, unless we’re Bill Gates. If your budget is tight, and you are new to food storage, at a difficult time, it will take time to build a reserve. An extra can here, a few lbs of beans there - it doesn’t seem like much. Remember that it is - small things count. They add up. If you can find $10 in your budget to cut out of something - get rid of an appliance, turn down the power, etc…, it will count and it will build up. I know you may have already cut all the fat you’ve got to cut, or it may be a struggle to find a little more. But this is worth it - this is a measure of hope and security for your family.

Comments?

Washington County Peak Oil

Matt Simmons Shocks CNBC

plunsfo — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:05:08 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Crises in Fuel, Food, Housing and Banking

ellengentry — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:08:17 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

WC Sustainability Network Meeting

plunsfo — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:45 -0700

Start: 2008-07-23 15:30

End: 2008-07-23 17:00

Washington County Peak Oil

Saudi Oil: A Crude Awakening on Supply?

ElektrikGene — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 10:44:35 -0700

Portland Peak Oil, Portland Oregon

Gazprom warns oil could hit $250

plunsfo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:09:01 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Bike Path mapping petition and map

plunsfo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:39:12 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

My Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil - T. Boone Pickens

plunsfo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:32:27 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Beaverton Farmer's Market Part 6

Adam Mayer — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:45:07 -0700

Posted at http://sustainourrights.blogspot.com/

Beaverton Farmer's Market Part 6

Glad to get back to the farmer's market, missed last week due to my wife and I are in the middle of buying a house. Each week there are more and more items showing up. We took a walk through the entire market first to see what was there and to compare prices and quality.

First got small Yukon and red potatoes, they can be roasted whole, about five stalks of broccoli and a pint of plum tomatoes. Grabbed some more rhubarb to make another pie, see previous posts for the recipe that I'll use. I'm going to bring it to a Peak Oil meeting this week, I've been told it's great to read about me cooking, but they haven't done any tasting yet ;-).

Seeing that the weather will get hot this week, we decided to make a chef salad one night. Picked up tomatoes, cucumbers, head of lettuce and some sugar snap peas. Mixed with some turkey breast, salami and whatever else is in the fridge, makes a great meal.

Onions are looking great, got two very large Willamette Valley sweet onions which I used in the recipe of the week. I added them to chicken Madeira, a great dish that is not hard to make but it very fancy. It's a good meal to make for a dinner party or a special occasion.

Chicken Madeira

3 to 4 chicken breasts
1 large onion
12 mushrooms
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 1/4 cup Madeira wine
1 tbs corn starch
3/4 cup flour
salt
pepper
2 tbs olive oil

1) Clean and cut chicken breasts if desired, mix salt and pepper in the flour and dredge the chicken to coat.
2) Heat a skillet, recommend cast iron, add one tablespoon of olive oil and fry the chicken until its browned on both sides, about two to three minutes a side. Remove from pan and put into a oven or Pyrex dish.
3) Cut up onion and add to skillet after de-glazing with the remaining olive oil. (De-glazing is adding a liquid to a pan after frying to scrape up the little bits that are stuck to the pan.) Cook onion for about five minutes until the onion begins to soften.
4) Slice mushrooms and add to onion and cook for another five minutes, they should be tender and cooked. Add broth and Madeira and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow sauce to reduce. Add seasonings, I put a dash of granulated garlic as well as some pepper.
5) To thicken sauce, strain off about a half a cup of liquid and mix with corn starch. Stir well to remove lumps and add back to the pan. Stir and allow to return to a boil, the sauce should thicken up nicely.
6) Pour mixture over chicken and bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees, or until chicken is cooked.

Made this with the broccoli and rice. Rice is a good side dish since it sops up all the gravy. Note the more broth and Madeira you add, the more sauce you'll get, I make extra sauce since I love the taste. Feel free to use less if you don't want it as "saucy".

Grabbed some blackberries and raspberries since they are now in season. Also got more artichokes, this time tried an Italian artichoke as well as a regular one. Made them for lunch on Sunday. The Italian artichoke is meatier and has a strong artichoke flavor. The leaves are thicker and the heart was amazing. Not to diminish the regular artichoke either, it was just as good.

Still anxiously waiting for eggplant to show up, I'll be posting a bunch of recipes then.

Washington County Peak Oil

Wind surge poses a risk to salmon and reveals flaws in BPA's power-regulating system

Christiana — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:09:57 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

The Bottom Line about Offshore Drilling for Oil

bobmmay — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:21:59 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Party for a Cause in Forest Grove

ENGEL — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:58:29 -0700

On the evening of Thursday, July 17th, students from Pacific University will host a "Lightbulbs to Leadership" house party at the Pacific campus. The event - part of a national Sierra Club day of action to inspire leadership on climate issues - will focus on local initiatives to stop global warming and cut our dependence on fossil fuels. The Cool Washington County and newly-formed Expose Intel campaigns will be discussed, and participants will have the chance to make a real difference to both projects. Interested? For more information, see http://exposeintel.blogspot.com/

Washington County Peak Oil

10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas

Christiana — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:33:59 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Register NOW for the 2008 ASPO-USA Peak Oil Conference

plunsfo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:29:35 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

August 26 Book Club: World Made By Hand

dmaebori — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:34:25 -0700

Start: 2008-08-26 19:00

End: 2008-08-26 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

August 12 Education-Action Meeting - Film Screening: The Eleventh Hour

dmaebori — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:24:26 -0700

Start: 2008-08-12 19:00

End: 2008-08-12 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

July 22 Book Club

dmaebori — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:16:52 -0700

Start: 2008-07-22 19:00

End: 2008-07-22 21:00

Washington County Peak Oil

Editorial: Start by blaming oil companies?

Christiana — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:11:19 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

US Energy Secretary Blames Oil Prices On Insufficient Output

Adam Mayer — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:54:33 -0700

Washington County Peak Oil

Beaverton Farmer's Market Part 5

Adam Mayer — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:29:31 -0700

Posted at http://sustainourrights.blogspot.com/

Beaverton Farmer's Market Part 5

It was good to get back to the farmer's market yesterday after missing last week. My wife and I were out house hunting, one of the many reasons for us to get a house is to be able to start growing our own food. I'll still hit the farmer's market, but it'll be great to grow my own. Also found out that garlic is planted in September, hopefully we'll have a place by then and I can try growing that first.

From my last post, I did use the basil to make a pesto sauce but found out that you really need two bunches of basil to make it work for about a pound of pasta. I'll try again later in the summer and get a good recipe together. Cooked the last of the potatoes as well, they taste great just roasted in the oven.

Yesterday walked through and found even more fruits and vegetables being sold. Picked up some large sweet onions, very large. Probably will only need a half for most of what I'll cook. Got more potatoes, one booth has a mix and match for the same price, grabbed reds, fingerlings, purples and yukons to roast.

Broccoli is now showing up. Usually when I get it in the supermarket they cut off most of the stem, I got three stalks to use. I cut the florets off and will use them for another meal and cook the stems. The florets of the broccoli can be steamed or sauteed or even eaten raw. Here is a basic recipe to use for broccoli stems.

Sauteed Broccoli Stems
2 to 3 stems
3 to 4 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Italian seasoning
Balsamic vinegar
Lemon juice

1)Slice the garlic thinly and saute in olive oil for about a minute.
2)Cut the stems thinly, on an angle if possible for more even cooking, add to garlic.
3)Fry until garlic and stems are tender, about 5 to 6 minutes and add Italian seasoning, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice (about a tablespoon each), stir until well mixed and serve.

Artichokes are now in season, got two of them, medium sized. Be careful of the thorns on the leaves, I cut my index finger handing them over. Artichokes are easy to cook, simply cut the bottom stem off so that the artichoke can sit evenly. Also cut the top quarter of the artichoke. I boil them in a pot of water for about twenty to thirty minutes until the artichoke is tender, you can put a knife through the center easily.

Turn the artichoke upside down to drain out any water and peel the leaves off to eat. The outer leaves have less "meat" the ones closer to the heart have more. The bottom part of the leaf is edible, it's the most tender part. Also when buying artichokes look for a head that is very tightly closed.

Grabbed some more strawberries, their my wife's favorite as well as yellow plum tomatoes for snacking. New item to try this week, radishes. The greens on top are edible, try those in a salad and see how fresh radishes taste. I'm not much of a fan, but it's worth a shot.

Washington County Peak Oil

The 'Idle' Oil Field Fallacy

plunsfo — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:01:00 -0700