The "Resolution to Establish a Peak Oil Task Force to study and make recommendations regarding the consequences of diminishing energy resources on Bellingham and Whatcom County" passed the Bellingham, WA City Council unanimously on Monday, May 19, 2008.

Councilmember Jack Weiss introduced proposed changes - a compromise with County Councilmember Sam Crawford's Resolution that City Environmental Resources Manager Clare Fogelsong had worked out, in hopes that the city and county could pass this resolution unanimously. Other council members stated that if they were to vote on these changes, they would want to study them. They were more comfortable with the original resolution we had prepared, so they voted on and passed the original resolution instead. However they wanted Jack to communicate to the County Council that if the county passes a different resolution, they would be willing to re-look at this to make them compatible.

Comments from council members:

Louise Bjornson: Commented about being amazed how many people in Bellingham are talking about and working on turning vacant land to gardens. This is a tribute to Sustainable Bellingham's recent work in this regard, as well as Bill Dean's efforts. She also brought up again John Rawlins' comment about needing a Farmer's Market expanded 100 times, and she wanted the Task Force to emphasize these food related issues. Jack assured her this would be an important focus, probably getting more attention than the other areas.

Terry Borneman commented about the enormous amount of fossil fuels it takes to grow food. 10 calories of fossil fuels for 1 calorie of food.

Jack Weiss emphasized this task force is about being prepared as prices increase and supply decreases - not about evaluating national energy policy.

Louise Bjornson also stated that this also fits in with emergency preparedness planning and local self reliance issues.

On Tuesday, May 20, 2008, The Whatcom County Council voted unanimously to adopt a Resolution to establish an "Energy Resource Scarcity Task Force to study and make recommendations regarding the consequences of potential changes to the supply of energy resources on Whatcom County and the City of Bellingham." A compromise had been reached negotiating the differences between the original "Peak Oil Task Force Resolution" put forward by Council President Carl Weimer and the "Energy Resource Scarcity Task Force Resolution" offered by Councilmember Sam Crawford.

I gave my spiel in the public comment period that the proposed task force would primarily be about our community facing the long term challenges associated with energy uncertainty, and coming up with recommendations on how best to address these challenges on the local level (nod to Daniel Lerch). One other person (unknown to me) also spoke briefly in favor of the task force. Like the City Council meetings, no one spoke against it.

At one point during the long Council meeting, Council member Barbara Brenner used the peak oil presentation as one reason to oppose the Council action on Water Resource Program Level of Service options. Not an exact quote here, but she basically said, "How can we charge people money for non-essentials after that doom and gloom peak oil presentation?"

When the combined compromise Resolution finally came up, Councilmember Sam Crawford said he was "Excited to see it move forward," and thanked City Councilmember Jack Weiss, City Environmental Resources Manager Clare Fogelsong and the others who were willing to negotiate a compromise Resolution so that he could support it. Barbara Brenner also liked the compromise Resolution, as it provided a "broader approval and ownership," although I believe she said she would have supported the original Resolution.

Daniel Lerch, Program Manager of Post Carbon Cities for the Post Carbon Institute has commented, "I think this is the first instance of two local government bodies joining forces to initiate an energy depletion task force. We've added an entry to our Actions page at http://postcarboncities.net/peakoilactions, and will get copies of your resolutions up shortly."



Many thanks and Congrats to those working with me for all for all the hard work on this project, and providing the City and Ccounty with Resolutions that passed unanimously, with the Mayor and County Executive's support!

David MacLeod