Today marked an important milestone for Washington County Peak Oil. We were invited to address a monthly City Managers Meeting -- a monthly event that brings the City Managers of all the municipalities in the County together into a collective meeting to discuss issues of mutual concern. We were allotted 15 minutes to present our "case". Prior to the meeting, we were invited to provide a briefing paper on the peak oil issue, which would be included in the meeting agenda papers prior to the meeting to enable the attendees to familiarize themselves with the issue beforehand. We sent this document. [Word doc]

I was introduced as the guest speaker. First, I presented the meeting with 15 copies of a reference book I had put together -- one for each municipality. This reference book contained copies of many of the most important reports and papers published over the past few years that address the peak oil issue. They included:

• A chart showing the most recent data on oil fields in decline around the world
• A chart showing oil price history and trend lines
• The Post Carbon Cities Executive Summary [pdf warning]
• The WASHINGTON COUNTY ACTION PROPOSAL that we presented to the County Board of Commissioners late last summer (2007)
• The PORTLAND PEAK OIL TASK FORCE BRIEFING BOOK
• The White Paper: FUTURE OIL SUPPLY UNCERTAINTY AND METRO
• The U.S. Department of Energy Report: PEAKING OF WORLD OIL PRODUCTION: IMPACTS, MITIGATION, & RISK MANAGEMENT - (aka THE “HIRSCH REPORT”)
• The U.S. GAO Report: UNCERTAINTY ABOUT FUTURE OIL SUPPLY MAKES IT IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR ADDRESSING A PEAK AND DECLINE IN OIL PRODUCTION
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Report: ENERGY TRENDS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. ARMY INSTALLATIONS
• The OIL SHOCKWAVE SIMULATION REPORT AND SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: OIL CRISIS EXECUTIVE SIMULATION
• The International Energy Agency's 2007 MEDIUM-TERM OIL MARKET REPORT
• The White Paper: IMPLEMENTING THE MOST EFFECTIVE TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT (TDM) STRATEGIES TO QUICKLY REDUCE OIL CONSUMPTION
• The White Paper: TRANSITION INITIATIVES PRIMER (from Kinsale)
• The ICLEI Guidebook: PREPARING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE -- A GUIDEBOOK FOR LOCAL, REGIONAL, & STATE GOVERNMENTS, and,
• The White Paper: MAJOR US CITY PREPAREDNESS FOR AN OIL CRISIS

All together there were roughly 1,000 pages of relevant information which addressed projections, implications, challenges, and solutions.

I also provided them with almost two dozen Oil Age posters to take back to their offices and to post in City libraries. Then I presented the talk.

I introduced the presentation by saying, "Let's get right to the point -- We have an imminent and potentially devastating emergency to deal with."

The presentation itself was given extemporaneously from these notes, [Word doc] and followed them pretty closely.

Following the presentation the chair asked the meeting participants if they had any questions, and there were none. I was then thanked, and excused -- the meeting had a full agenda following my presentation.

So the bottom line is that we have now presented to all of the City Managers, and separately have provided copies of our Washington County Proposal to all the County Commissioners. We have also, separately, been e-mailing peak oil information and ideas on energy reduction strategies to all the Mayors fo the County for several months now. There should be no municipality in our County that is unaware of the peak oil issue. Whether they choose to act on this information remains to be seen, and of course we will both monitor that progress and continue to provide information.

I'll blog further about any feedback we receive, and we certainly welcome any feedback you, the reader, may have for us [use the "reply" link].

But today would be a very good time to sit down and jot a note to your City Manager and express your personal concern about the problem.

Peter