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June Monthly News and Views  - The Transportation Issue!
Updated 6/01/06.  This page is updated monthly.  Please send submissions by the third week in each month.  Next update scheduled for June 30th.

Special Events:
Biointensive Gardening Workshop in Brattleboro
Local Living Economies Events in Burlington!
Vermont Biofuels Association 2nd Annual Biodiesel Workshop
Vermont Earth Institute's 3rd Annual Sustainable Living Celebration
An Inconvenient Truth
Under the Golden Dome:
 
This Year's VT Legislative Accomplishments
Creative Economy to be tracked and developed in Vermont
Tracking Legislation in Vermont
Quote of the Month:  
Jason Bradford:  No Time to Mess Around
And Giving us Pause:
Post Oil:  Zero Money and Zero Growth
Editorial:
A Ways to Go
Guest Editorial:  
An Option for the Future:  The Champlain Parkway Plan

Articles:
- Bikes -
Bicycle at the Beginning and End of the Journey—Your Choice In Between (Folding Bicycles)
The Soul of a Pedicab Chauffeur
In Praise of the Bicycle
Your Ideas on Biking and Walking
The Lamoille County Rail Trail
Vermont Bike/Ped Organization
Bike Recycle Vermont

- Trains -
In Praise of the Train
Vermont Rails
The Lamoille County Rail Trail - Short Sighted Decision?
Your Ideas on Vermont's Railways

- and Automobiles -
Carless in Vermont at 1600 Feet!
LINKS - CCTA's Express Bus Service
Biodiesel - Made in Vermont
Green Technologies on Biodiesel Qs and As
Your Ideas on Motorized Transport (Cars, Busses, and Telecommuting)
LACE:  Local Agricultural Community Exchange - Peak Oil, Transportation and Food Security
Got Biodiesel?
Two New Carpooling Options for Central Vermonters
Portland, Oregon's Car Sharing Project
Scangauge - The Educational New Toy for your Car

- and don't forget the Planning!
On-Line Chittenden County Transportation Survey
Vermont Sprawl's Annual Vermonter Poll
Your Planning Suggestions
As the Crow Flies:  Reports from Around the State
ACORN - Addison County
Cabot Peak Oil Network
Mad River Sustainability Group
PLAN C - Chittenden County
Post Carbon Tunbridge
Post Oil Solutions - Windham County
Second Tuesdays - East Montpelier
Columns
Doctor Gloom's Soapbox - (He's BA-aaack!)
Book Review  
Coming Home to Eat:  The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
Gold Stars to...
Super Biker!
CCMPO - Chittenden County Municipal Planning Organization
The Localvores!
Small Dog Appliances
REV and NRG! Promoting Renewable Energy Through the Arts
Green Mountain Power
Action!
Hazardous Waste Collection Dates and Depots
Organize a Peak Oil Book Display
Write a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Paper!
Write a Letter to a Local Representative (two examples)
Write your Congressman!
Securing American Energy Independence Act
What's a Citizen TO DO? newsletter
Plan Ahead
Local Power:  Energy & Economic Development in Rural Vermont
Facing the Media Crisis
Resources (click here to get there!)
Food For Thought Tool Kit
Second Tuesdays' Power Point Presentation on Peak Oil
Connect! - On-line Peak Oil Discussion Group for Vermonters.
VPON Archives

VT Resources
- Sustainability, Food, Farm & Garden, Energy, Local Economy, Community Building, Transportation, and Planning. 
National Links/Educational Resources - charts, DVDs, posters, and more.


Special Events
Biointensive Gardening Workshop in Brattleboro
A Biointensive Gardening workshop, led by one of the nation's only certified  GROW BIOINTENSIVE™ instructors - Tom Fugate - will be held June 3rd from 1 to 5 pm at the new community gardens in Brattleboro. Tom is also a member of VPON, with the Mad River Sustainability Group.  Biointensive Gardening may be one of the best skills we can learn as we strive to increase self-sufficiency and community resourcefulness.  The workshop is being sponsored by Post Oil Solutions.  For more information on the workshop, and on Post Oil Solutions events in the Brattleboro area, contact:  postoil (dot) vt (at) gmail.com - or visit their new website at: www.postoilsolutions.org.

Local Living Economies Events in Burlington THIS MONTH!

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies will hold its Annual Conference "Creating Sustainable Communities" June 8th - 10th in Burlington, VT. (Registration and more info:  www.livingeconomies.org)  A number of related events are being scheduled for the Burlington area - and here they are:

Open Collective 2006 for the local currency community - June 5-7:  Burlington, VT.  Join practitioners from around the world! Intended for those who are local currency practitioners or in the planning stages of a local currency system.  Julian Darley will be presenting.  Consider attending some or all sessions of the 3-day practitioners’ Open Space collective from June 5-7, hosted in Charlotte, VT. Info and registration at http://ccit.wji.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=65 

Burlington Local Currencies Event!  A special Burlington-area potluck gathering of Vermont peakers interested in meeting each other and learning about local currencies is in the planning stages for the evening of Wednesday, June 7th.  If you are curious about local currency and want to get involved, this is the gathering for you!  Meet and greet others in Vermont who are learning about local currency.  The timing is intended to facilitate attendance at the BALLE “pre-conference” on June 8th.  Further details on location, time and overnight accommodations soon!  Please contact Cara at cltaussig (at) earthlink (dot) net to indicate your interest in attending the potluck.

Complementary Currencies: Money for Local Living Economies - June 8 (BALLE “Pre-Conference” on Complementary Currencies).  The "Money in Local Living Economies" pre-conference will briefly exlore the evolution of our current money and financial system, how it works and why it is detrimental to healthy local economies and communities.   The rest of the day will explore the world of "complementary currencies," visionary and practical monetary innovations that have arisen in response to these flaws inherent in our current system and the potential of these systems for stimulating local economies, increasing the circulation of wealth, developing loyalty to local and regional businesses, and empowering municipal governments.  $45 includes breakfast and lunch. Register through the general BALLE registration: http://www.livingeconomies.org/events/conference06/related  Seminar co-sponsored by the E.F. Schumacher Society and the Burlington Currency Project.

Vermont Biofuels Association 2nd Annual Biodiesel Workshop
Meeting the Energy Challenge - June 8th -Registration Underway!
Vermont Law School in South Royalton, VT
This day-long conference will build on the successful Vermont Biodiesel Workshop held at VT Law School in 2005. Learn from interactive workshops in three concurrent tracks: one for "Fuel Users" one for "Fuel Dealers and Distributors" and new in 2006; a learning track especially for "Farmers and Biodiesel Producers." Join workshop participants and presentersfor a discussion of Vermont's Energy future. For additional information, call 802-388-1328 or email us:
mailto:info@vermontbiofuels.org
 
Keynote by Michael Dworkin, Director of Institute for Energy and the Environment:  "Meeting the Energy Challenge"
 
A partial list of confirmed presenters and their topics include:
Steve Russell - Fleet manager, City of Keene, NH - B20 use in fleets and emergency vehicles
Heather Darby - Agronomist, UVM Extension - biodiesel crop development in Vermont
Bob Noble - Noble Consulting - Biodiesel distribution and marketing
Glenn Goodrich - VT Maple Sugar Maker's Association - B20 in oilheat evaporators
Peter Sexton - U. Maine Extension - Canola crop and biodiesel production and economics
Bob Hedden - National Oilheat Mfgs Association - Bioheat for residential heating applications
 
Vermont Earth Institute's 3rd Annual Sustainable Living Celebration
Saturday, June 17th - Knoll Farm, Waitsfield, VT 10 am - 4 pm  
$15 for VEI members and $20 for non-members.
Workshops, events, a children’s program for ages 5-12 and lunch made from locally grown food.  Peter Forbes, Director of the Center for Whole Communities, will open the day with a brief talk about creating whole communities. Amy Hyatt of the Wilderness School and the Manitou Project will lead the children’s program. Guest workshop presenters include Tim Stevenson of Post Oil Solutions, Ben Falk of Whole Systems Design, and Jim Merkel, Dartmouth College’s Sustainability Coordinator and co-director of the Global Living Project. Other workshops include expanding Localvore and Sustainable Living Network activities, skill sharing, and building a root cellar. And there will be time for a swim in the pond, work in the garden, meditation, or a walk in the woods.   For a full listing of workshops and presenters, see www.vtearthinstitute.org.

An Inconvenient Truth
(From Sundance Film Festival Review):  Extreme poverty, intractable wars, virulent disease, hatred of all stripes–these are a few of the scourges we live with today. And yet global climate change trumps them all; for if it's not addressed, all life on the planet will be devastated, regardless of geography, class, race, or creed. The Inconvenient Truth is the gripping story of former Vice President Al Gore, who became interested in this startling issue while at college 30 years ago, and now devotes his life to reversing global warming. Traveling the world, he has built a visually mesmerizing presentation designed to disabuse doubters of the notion that climate change is debatable. The heart of Davis Guggenheim's film is this elegant multimedia lecture itself, where Gore indisputably correlates CO2 emissions with exponentially rising temperatures, already responsible for dramatic climactic shifts like ice-cap melting, drought, and rising sea levels. Interwoven with this riveting public address are intimate moments revealing the poetic, searching side of Gore as he struggles to define his purpose in the aftermath of the 2000 election. This is activist cinema at its very best, for it serves to popularize and demythologize a problem long obscured by those most threatened by the solution. With humor and searing intelligence, Gore outlines crucial steps we must take to avert impending disaster and proves that inaction is no longer an option–in fact, it's immoral.

The truth can be seen at these Vermont theaters in June and July:

VT      Bennington      6/24    Cinema 7        
VT      Brattleboro      7/1      Latchis Brattleboro     
VT      Burlington        6/17    Roxy    
VT      Manchester      7/1     Village Picture Show    
VT      Montpelier       7/1     Savoy   
VT      Rutland            6/24   Plaza   
VT      St. Johnsbury   7/1     Catamount

Interesting activism around the movie and expanding list of theaters showing the film:  http://www.climatecrisis.net/


May 22nd's Washington Post had this to say about Gore, the movie, the issues, and the way the current administration is playing right into Gore's hands... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/21/AR2006052101183_pf.html


Under the Golden Dome
    Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius––and a lot of courage––to move in the opposite direction.
                                                                                                                         - attributed to E. F. Schumacher
Key Legislative Efforts in VT This Year  
(from:   http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060514&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=605140305&SectionCat=&Template=printart)
Highlights include:
Price gouging: The Attorney General's Office will have more ammunition to investigate price gouging in sales of gasoline and home-heating oil and to protect consumers who enter into pre-buy contracts for home-heating fuel. S. 228.
Energy Emission Caps: Vermont now has some of the toughest pollution-reduction targets in the country. S. 259.
Energy-efficiency standards: Five categories of products must meet new energy standards to be sold in Vermont, some starting in 2008. H.253.
Greenhouse gas: The state will set annual budgets for allowable greenhouse gas emissions by electric utilities in keeping with targets set by a coalition of Northeastern states. The state will be able to trade allocations of greenhouse gas emissions. All profits must benefit consumers. H. 860.
Renewable energy: The Department of Public Service will set up a statewide process for public discussion of electric power needs, availability, and energy efficiency. The measure increases funding to a clean energy fund; sets new energy-efficiency standards for commercial buildings that take effect in January; and makes it easier for consumers to do small, renewable-energy generation projects at home. H. 859.
Eminent domain: Property in Vermont may not be seized through eminent domain if the purpose is primarily for economic development. S.246.
Growth centers: Incentives will be offered to make it cheaper and easier to build in designated growth centers as a way of encouraging development in concentrated areas while preserving rural farmlands. S. 142.
On the farm energy: Beginning next winter, farmers will be able to consult a state-maintained Web site for information on how to invest in and develop energy projects such as bio-diesel on their farms.  See also H. 314, supporting the development of renewable farm-based energy, such as biodiesel fuel, biomass fuels, methane or methanol, wind, solar, ethanol, and other renewable energy sources (approved last June).
Farms and schools: Schools will be encouraged to serve locally grown produce in cafeterias and to work with farms to educate youths about agriculture and nutrition. H. 456. 

Many far-sighted bills were Tabled, ("ordered to lie"), and will have to be reintroduced in the fall.  Be sure to contact your representatives and request they revisit the bills you care about.

Creative Economy to be part of Vermont's state economic planning.
The "Creative Economy" was recognized as an important component of our economy.  H. 690, titled "The Identification, documentation, and advancement of the creative sector of the State's economy" passed both House and Senate, and was ultimately incorporated into the final budget and in S. 165.  The bill, introduced this session, was trimmed considerably on its way through House and Senate Committees. However, a core part of the bill is now embedded in a law that calls for a new commission to take over the role of developing the state's five year economic development plans.  The bill, as passed, will begin to identify what makes up Vermont's creative economy, how to track it, and ultimately how to strengthen it.  After years of VANPOs (VT Association of Non Profit Organizations) efforts to research and promote the concept of nonprofit organizations as an important sector of the State's economy, the Legislature officially called for nonprofit representation in the State's economic planning process as a result of this bill.  Please thank members of this Conference Committee for recognizing the vital economic role of nonprofit organizations in this state. Conference Committee members: Representatives Otterman, Reese, and Monti; and Senators Cummings, Illuzi, and Miller. For text of the bill, search for S. 165

(Thanks to Katherine Long, Director of Public Policy for VANPO for permission to send this short version of her legislative wrap-up.)

Keep Track of what's happening with legislation in Montpelier:  http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/database2.cfm  


Quote of the Month
The people in Willits who have stuck with its remarkable sustainability efforts and are successfully building community are those with a sense of urgency, who realize that they have no time to mess around, and who have the maturity to address their personal issues—along with sustainability issues—as quickly as possible. 
- Jason Bradford, Ph.D., botanist, and community organizer in Willits, California.

Post Oil:  Zero Money and Zero Growth
by Carl Carlson.

It will be a very good life. We will retain our collected knowledge, wisdom, and technology to develop a lifestyle that requires very little of what we currently perceive as work
while enjoying vastly expanded opportunities to socially interact at a much more engaged level.
Only two things are required to achieve this lifestyle.
1) Zero population growth.  2) Zero money.


In sixth grade Paula Sawyer was our social studies teacher. She asked us to do some fun stuff like figure out how old we would be in the year 2000 (34). She entered the class in a national essay writing competition about what we would do in the event of a nuclear war. I won some kind of award for my story about grabbing my family and stealing snowmobiles to drive to the North Pole to escape the fallout even though there’d be no food or heat for us there. I won an award for that and something in my brain snapped.
 
In one of Paula’s texts there was a section on world populations. It showed a polymorphic picture of the average human once all the races merged. The poly-person in the book was very Asian in appearance and although innately racially terrifying, the look and concept was alluringly attractive in a novel, seductive kind of way. In the same chapter the authors predicted that we would grow smaller and hairless as we spent more time indoors and population increases put pressure on physical space. In 2040 they figured we’d be down to about 35 square feet per person on the worlds’ inhabitable surfaces.
 
To a sixth grader these were some pretty heavy-duty concepts to grapple with. It is not that I really understood the nature and meaning of the concepts and numbers. What was understood but not fully acknowledged was that we weren’t going to get there (2040). It was obviously just not feasible. So when I say I snapped, I mean I changed. My family probably knows better than me how those changes manifested themselves. I just know that after that point in my life I looked at our lives and everything about them with a certain underlying sense of sarcasm in the bitter fallacy of it all.
 
So for thirty years these thoughts were pretty much shelved although the certainty that I was on the last train of this epoch led to some fairly risky lifestyle decisions. I’ve literally had something like three hundred employers from dish dog to Fortune 1000 business consultant. I’ve driven everything from a ’61 beetle to a ‘01 BMW. I’ve been around the world three times on business and pleasure. My son is half-Chinese and I’m bald now (thanks Paula!). Last fall, I filed for bankruptcy and decided to just ditch the house and car instead trying to refinance or sell. I got fired somewhere back there too.
 
Oddly enough none of that makes me unhappy or bitter. It was really great to fully enjoy last summer and have time to reflect, which I did. It seemed time to start doing something with some positive social merit – and then I happened to hear Bill Ryerson speaking on VPR’s Switchboard. I’d never heard of him or his organization, the Population Media Center, but my sixth grade thoughts clicked in and I decided to ask Mr. Ryerson if he knew if any papers or journal articles existed that proved that an expanding economy was dependent upon an expanding population. Mr. Ryerson sent me some links to articles posted on Populationmedia.com but they were all related to developing third world populations and economies.
 
That was not too much of a surprise or disappointment; Mr. Ryerson and I maintain a regular dialogue and are planning to meet this summer to see what contributions I might be able to make to the Population Media Center’s efforts. I really look forward to meeting with Bill and in the interim I continue to research population and peak oil issues.
 
‘Ah,’ you say – finally he gets to peak oil. How it happened is this. A good friend of mine had been watching me plot Excel graphs of population growth and oil depletion. I had no idea what peak oil was; I was concerned about at what point the expanding population would run out of fuel but didn’t know it was already an established theory and movement. Joe (my friend) suggested I look up “Hubberts’ Peak” and I landed on a Prius blog which pointed me to www.hubbertspeak.com.
 
After a few days of visiting this website I found Hubberts’ “Matter, Energy and Monetary Systems” and it was kind of like finding the Holy Grail. Finally, here was a paper that definitely linked an economy’s requirement for economic expansion to exist, and an economy’s dependence upon an expanding population to sustain the requisite economic expansion. In addition to population expansion, Hubbert also stated that an economy is equally dependent upon expanding matter and energy supplies to be processed and consumed by the expanding population in support of the expanding economy.
 
If we step back for moment and look at Hubberts’ work here, there are only really four components. Three of them are real and one is artificial. They are 1) population, 2) matter, 3) energy, and 4) economics. Hubbert states clearly that an economy demands ever-increasing supplies of energy and matter to exist. Hubbert implies the requirement of an ever-expanding population to process and consume the ever-expanding supplies of matter and energy. Although this makes perfect sense, matter-energy alone was inflammatory enough in his time so it is no wonder he veiled it a bit.
 
Hubbert’s proposed solution is simple enough, abandon money (economics) and the rest will take care of itself.
 
Why? Because every time we do something that adds value to a good or service, we have effectively created money (we expect to get paid for that right?). If the money supply was finite and we all kept making value, no one would ever get paid because the fixed supply of money could never keep up with the expanding amount of value. This is why economies must always expand; we keep creating value and therefore keep creating more money. This money wants to go somewhere. It looks for places to make more money by investing in something that consumes more resources to make more money. We go along with the prosperity and opportunity for richness and produce more and more people to process and consume the resources needed to make more money.
 
This is why we must abandon money, thoughts of richness, and the endless manufacture of disposable goods. Even a stable, non-expanding population will consume to depletion any available non-renewable resource. I’m not really a granola type of guy. I liked my BMW, big house, and a huge stockpile of gadgets and gizmos. But they’ve really got to go. All of it.
 
Applying the Sherlock Holmes’ theory of deductive reasoning, if we take away money, we take away industry and commerce. That pretty much leaves us with nuts and berries and a little Iron Age ingenuity on the side to keep us in nails, plowshares, cauldrons, and horseshoes.
 
If we’re really smart, we’ll also give up money’s evil little stepchild, barter. Ultimately we should found communities where each individual produces enough of a food or service to meet their own requirements and the requirements of other members of the community that produce a different good or service. At a macro level, clustered communities will exchange goods and services under the same model.
 
It will be a very good life. We will retain our collected knowledge, wisdom, and technology to develop a lifestyle that requires very little of what we currently perceive as work while enjoying vastly expanded opportunities to socially interact at a much more engaged level.
 
Only two things are required to achieve this lifestyle. 1) Zero population growth. 2) Zero money.
 
If you doubt this consider Einstein’s relativity theory E=MC2. You just can not break it down further than energy, mass, and the speed of light. Same is true for the basis of an economy; it needs expanding matter, energy, and populations to exist. We cannot just strike out a component of E=MC2 because it is wholly a natural equation. But we can strike out the economic factor in the matter, energy, population equation as it is an artificial element, and in fact we must if we ever want to live in a sustainable fashion.
 
The hard truth is that our current population is far in excess of any sustainable level. We are artificially supporting our current population with the incredible amount of energy available from a barrel of oil. A barrel of oil is eight people working at hard labor for a year. Right now the world consumes 82 billion barrels of oil a year. When the numbers get that big, I get lost but I think that’s the human equivalent of 6.4 trillion people working at hard labor each year. Currently we’ve got 8 billion souls so we’re just a wee tad short there.
 
When oil is no longer readily available, we will never be able to supply the manpower required to substitute for the agricultural work that a barrel of oil provides and billions are going to die. There is going to be a very difficult period while we readjust and hopefully achieve a zero growth, zero dollar way of life.
 
Another hard truth is that we don’t have much time to talk about or prepare for this. Outside of the Peak Oil community, last week there were two significant developments in the media regarding faltering economies and food supplies. The first was a report from the OECD stating the United States’ current trade deficit and deficit spending at 80 billion a month are clearly unsustainable and will result to an overnight economic collapse mimicking the recent collapse of the former Soviet Union in the very near term. The second was an equally authoritative report announcing that all of the world’s fisheries are radically over harvested in a manner that is destroying the environment our staple fish exist in while at the same time harvesting them to the point of extinction.
 
So whether it is Peak Oil, food stock depletion, or just general economic collapse that triggers the end of this epoch, it is certainly coming very soon. The method of collapse is not really much of any importance. What is important is that the survivors of the collapse relay the message of zero money and zero growth to the coming generations so that we may finally live lives of content and happiness.

(Carl Carlson is a welder, sculptor, bike mechanic, struggling writer, and software sales rep living in Montpelier. Carl blogs at http://toomanymeople.blogspot.com/.  


Editorial
A Ways To Go
by Annie Dunn Watson

A child born in the middle 1930s will have seen the consumption of 80% of all American oil and gas in his lifetime.  A child born about 1970 will see most of the world’s reserves consumed.
 – M. King Hubbert, in an interview with Arthur J. Magida, mid 1970s

   
Well, there I was, preparing to put up a rather optimistic editorial based on the wealth of ideas our generous readership contributed to this transportation issue.  And I am grateful for those, even made optimistic, because the ideas demonstrate the kind of outside-the-box thinking we need to do so that future generations might inherit an earth they know how to properly steward.

And then came Carl Carlson's article (above).  I was tempted to put it on hold 'til fall, when I thought we'd run an issue on Creative and Local Economy. But the article (and Carl) persisted; and so it leads off our edition, not to cast a pall, but perhaps to put everything else in context.

As difficult as it may be for a sixth grader to grasp the concepts of exponential growth and overshoot, it's still strikingly difficult for the average adult to reckon with them as well. When we think about our transportation needs, we have a hard time considering them outside the box of our usual routines and expectations.  Anita Kelman's article "Car-less in Vermont at 1600 feet" comes close, but as even she admits, she survived those two weeks with the help of friends who were not car-less, nor fuel-less.  And how long is that going to last?  Carl's essay reminds us that what we need is a paradigm shift - we're not just going to be hopping in anybody's car for much longer.

How should we be spending our remaining time and resources?  What does it take to truly identify and assess our needs, and to relocalize the means of their production?  Will we be able to evolve a system of co-operation and self-sufficiency - even bartering! - that fends off greed, reversing the tendancy in our culture to want more at the expense of others, and in the long run, at great cost to our own and the next generation's future?  

A lot of people have decided that, given overshoot and its unpleasant ramifications, they are going to spend their remaining time doing what seems reasonable and useful, now and in the future.  Here on the VPON site, I try to strike a balance between presenting difficult information and highlighting what's being done about it in Vermont (a slow process of awakening here, but faster than in other parts of the country).  To achieve this, articles bring attention to existing assets (accessible legislature, knowable communities, existing infrastructure and organizations, agricultural resources); as well, efforts are made to keep community projects and new initiatives in front of the readership - a task greatly aided by your submissions from around the state.

Given exponential growth and our continued reluctance to deal with it, am I/are we wasting our time?  Should we be hitting harder with the facts?  Spending less time lobbying for improved railway systems and more time learning to live - and work - on the survival basics, at or close to home?  In the regional VPON groups, people are wrestling with the topics Carl raises here:  how to become more self-sufficient, more locally interdependent.  They see that as the best alternative.  How much time do we have to educate ourselves and others, to make this transition?  Again, I have to ask, "and are we wasting our time?" 

The answer, for me, remains, No, we are not.  And that is perhaps why Tolkien's quote sits at the bottom of every letter I send from my VPON post.  (In my other life, my part time job, I am an educator/administrator.  At the bottom of those emails, you would find this:  "Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors." - Jonas Salk, MD).  I may not live to see how this all spins out, nor may you.  But maybe our children, and future generations, will inherit an earth that has some possibility of enduring, and will represent a more sensible civilization than the one whose demise we are witnessing (I'd prefer to think of it as a transformation, but the time frame may be too lengthy...) We each, in accordance with our knowledge and vision, do what we are called to do, and capable of doing.  We persevere, with thoughtfulness rather than violence, and toward cooperation rather than control.  And with that, I present to you the June Transportation Issue.

In this edition of Monthly News and Views, thanks to the generosity of our readership, you'll find commentary, essays, and a wealth of ideas on responsible means for getting around the Green Mountain State.  These ideas are being forwarded to a number of planning commissions and organizations around the state; consider sending them to your local planning boards and state representatives as well.

Our Guest Editorial features Ron Krupp's visionary model of an integrated travel, residential, and commercial corridor along the unused Champlain Parkway.  (Why haven't the affected planning groups in South Burlington, Burlington, and commuter towns along Route 7 jumped on this one?)  Sustainability requires an ever-evolving vision that is broad enough - and flexible enough - to embrace the also ever-evolving economic, environmental, and social needs of the community.  Ron's Champlain Parkway initiative is just such a model for addressing the complex challenges of sustainable development at this time.  

Many of you wrote in praise of The Bicycle.  I've heard it said that there are not too many tools that are as useful and relevant today as when they were first produced.  The bicycle deserves high praise as being one of them.  Any forward-thinking urban plan must incorporate the bicycle as a reliable means of transportation.  

Is there hope for our rail systems?  Are we making a mistake by devoting rail corridors to recreation trails?  Check the info and your ideas below.  Move over Bulgaria?  We'll see...!

As creative and thoughtful as all of these submissions are, we have a ways to go.  We will have to ask ourselves some hard questions.  We will need to think about those sectors of the population who CANNOT easily get around as it is - the elders, the rural poor, whose economic opportunities and other lifelines dwindle when transportation options fall away.  When we re-vision our communities, we will need to re-organize with them in mind, bring them to the table, and encourage everyone to play an active role in producing the desired result.  

We do have a ways to go, but we are on the path.  So long as we continue the dialogue, and remain active and involved, perhaps we'll get there.  As Netaka White says in his article on applied uses of biofuels, "We’re not out of the woods yet - But together, We are making a difference."


Guest Editorial  
An Option for the Future:  The Champlain Parkway Plan

by Ron Krupp

Burlington could deal with the problems of the high cost of gas and carbon dioxide pollution from cars, the housing crunch and sustainable/economic development - all with one stroke.  Of course, people would need to change their driving and shopping habits.  Do you remember how people resisted recycling cans and bottles?  Now they feel good about it.

A few weeks ago, I was riding north down the bike path on my old Schwinn from my home in Queen City Park in South Burlington to Burlington's waterfront.  On my way home, I decided to take a short  detour and ride on the Southern Connector or what is now called the Champlain Parkway, "the road that no one travels."

I had an epiphany that day.  Why not use the Champlain Parkway as a parking area close to Route 7 for cars coming into Burlington.  The pedestrians could then jump on light rail and be transported to the waterfront where busses and trolleys would carry them up to Church Street and beyond to UVM and the hospital or leave them off on the Waterfront for walking, shopping and watching sunsets.

The Champlain Parkway could solve the city's housing crunch by having developer's build homes along the corridor into the city.  Small shops would fill in the spaces along the way.  The final destination for the light rail train called "Champlain Light" would be the Moran Plant which would become the "Waterfront Market."  The indoor-enclosed-year-round market would include many different kinds of businesses similar to the year-round markets in Montreal with floral shops, a craft and arts cooperative store, restaurants, farmers' markets, Vermont gift shops, bakeries and small eateries, fish and meat markets, and even a shoe re-pair shop.  Portland, Maine now has a year-round market and many are familiar with the Pikes Place Market in Seattle and the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.

The light rail system would move people from the Waterfront Market back to College Street in less than 2 minutes.  Champlain Light would run continuously.  It would take only take a short time to move folks from the Waterfront out to Route 7 where their cars would be waiting.  The tracks are already there.  They were up-graded and refurbished years ago.  The light rail system would need to be efficient and run every ten minutes from one end of the corridor from the Moran Plant to Route 7 with regularity. Light rail is used in Portland, Oregon with great success.

Burlington could deal with the problems of the high cost of gas and carbon dioxide pollution from cars, the housing crunch and sustainable/economic development - all with one stroke.  Of course, people would need to change their driving and shopping habits.  Do you remember how people resisted recycling cans and bottles?  Now they feel good about it.

The tracks are there, the land for housing is there.  All we need is imagination and courage and the political will and  entrepreneurial spirit to create a new vision for the 21st century. The Champlain Parkway could become the southern gateway to the city.

By the way, many years ago, trolleys carried Burlingtonians south to Red Rocks Park close to where I live in Queen City Park in South Burlington.  It was the summer beach area for Burlington.  Glenn Miller played music aboard the Ticonderoga and children and families frolicked on the beaches.  The South Burlington beach remains and the Ticonderoga sits happily at the Shelburne Museum.  Where do you stand on the future?

Ron Krupp is a garden writer who is a resident of South Burlington.  He wrote and published The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening, a Vermont organic gardening book in 2000. Ron started the Waterfront Market initiative in 1996 and was the founder of ReCycle North in 1989.


Articles

The Bicycle:  "There aren't too many tools that are as ideal today as when they were invented, in just the same form as they were originally conceived. But the bicycle is one. Simple, cheap and accessible, absolutely no existing transportation solution could be better for reducing greenhouse gases, untangling snarled urban streets, and improving human health than getting more people on two wheels...  All over the world, bicycles are getting much-deserved reconsideration as a no-brainer solution to fundamental problems in transit, community, and the environment... But the challenges are many."  (from Bicycle Roundup - READ MORE:  http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004490.html)

Bicycle at the beginning and end of the journey—your choice in between.
By Carl Etnier

Imagine having your bicycle with you always, taking it everywhere, just in case you might need it. A bicycle that folds down into a compact package, and can even be made to “disappear” completely into a bag or suitcase, suddenly becomes like a pair of seven league boots. Would you like to take the bus to work, but the nearest stop is a mile or more from your house and/or your work? Easy—speed to the bus stop on your bike, fold the bike for the bus trip, and speed away again.

The folding bike I have is called the Ultimate Folding Bicycle (UFB), and creator Len Rubin has good reason to claim the name. His goal is to create a bicycle so light and easy to take along, that it will be like a folding umbrella—no one takes a folding umbrella out on a threatening day and regrets the inconvenience, Rubin says. The UFB is based on the British Brompton, long recognized as the most ingeniously designed and compactly folding bicycle. The standard Brompton comes with a maximum of six gears; Rubin tricks out his UFBs with 24-27 gears, making them much more suitable for the hills of Vermont. The bike goes from ready-to-ride to a compact 22x21x10” package in less than 20 seconds.

Transportation planners refer to a trip made on more than one type of conveyance as multi-modal transportation. With the proper equipment on busses or space on trains, even a non-folding bike can be used for multi-modal transportation. Many busses in Vermont come equipped with bike racks in front. If I have a medical appointment in the middle of the day, I’m faced with riding from downtown Montpelier up the hill to Central Vermont Hospital in my office clothes—or taking the time to change into cycling clothes. No sweat! I place a mountain bike on the front rack of the bus from Montpelier to the hospital and ride the bus up the hill for a dollar, sweat-free. Having the bike with me means that I can ride back down to work without waiting for the next bus—and the downhill ride is sweat-free, too.

A folding bike works for multi-modal trips with practically any other means of transportation, not just those with special facilities. The Brompton fits behind seats on trains. It can be checked as luggage on airplanes or busses—where non-folding bikes often incur extra charges and must be disassembled and boxed, if they are not forbidden. It can be tossed into the trunk of your car. Or someone else’s car—if you want to carpool or ride to a good hitchhiking spot at the outskirts of town, for example. During the fifteen years of my adult life I lived car-free, the UFB gave me mobility I otherwise would have lacked in many situations.

Folding bicycles are also easier to take indoors and store out of the weather, or just keep an eye on. When I got a UFB, the first place I took it into was a bank. I wheeled it through the doors and folded the back wheel under the rest of the bike in a corner of the lobby, not bothering to fold it the rest of the way. A bank employee walked by me as I did that. Instead of the looks of suspicion I'd expect when bringing a normal upright bike into a bank, she just said "Wow" and continued on her way.

When I lived in Norway, I moved most of the contents of my apartment from a town 30 km south of Oslo to Oslo with the help of the UFB, one bicycle trailer-load at a time. An Equinox flatbed trailer held quite a lot, and I’d tow that to the local train station. On the platform, I separated the trailer from the bike, folded the bike, and walked aboard the train—wheeling the trailer and carrying the bike. Once in Oslo, I’d unfold the bike, attach the trailer, and bike the rest of the way.

A folding bike can even be pulled behind another bicycle. The first week I had the UFB, I picked up another bicycle at the bike shop with the UFB and a folding trailer. First I took apart the BOB Coz trailer and put it inside its luggage box. It was no problem to strap this rather large (26x18x12", or 92 liter) but light package onto the front rack of the UFB and ride down to the bike shop. Once there, I put together the trailer, attached it to the other bike, and strapped the UFB down in the back. The arrangement worked fine. A similar strategy could be used to pick up or drop off a single visitor coming with the bus or train, if one doesn't have a tandem.

One doesn’t need elaborate arrangements with trailers to enjoy a folder. I frequently travel to conferences or to visit client, taking the UFB with me. I can see much more of my surroundings in half an hour or an hour cycling than by walking around the same amount of time. The bike is heavier and bulkier than an umbrella; Len Rubin has a ways to go in realizing his ambition. Still, I enjoy carrying it around with me and using it. And I savor the expressions of delight and amazement on people’s faces when I unfold a compact package of practically unrecognizable machinery into a bicycle in 20 seconds and ride away into the sunset!

Pictures of Bromptons:
http://www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk/home/_images/formatting/img_bikerangestype.jpg
http://www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk/home/_images/formatting/img_bikerangestype1.jpg

http://www.treehugger.com/files/brompton_bike.jpg

http://www.loro.co.jp/lrs/fb-brompton-t6.html

(Carl is an avid cylcer, and member of the Second Tuesdays peak-oil aware group in East Montpelier.  In another life, he was a pedicab chauffeur!  See following...)


The Soul of a Pedicab Chauffeur
by Carl Etnier

"Pedicabbing doesn't make me a better person. By trying to become a better person, however, I am becoming a better pedicab chauffeur. This is the story of a little spiritual journey I've taken over the last year, stimulated in part by my pedicabbing..." (from original 1997 posting of this article).  MORE... http://www.sheldonbrown.com/pedicab.html


In Praise of the Bicycle
by Moshe Braner
Here's in praise of the lowly bicycle.  It's not well suited for winter use here in Vermont, but the rest of the year nothing can beat the sense of freedom one gets riding a bicycle.  It is the most efficient transportation tool ever, by far.  In a poll in Britain last year asking people to identify the most important invention of the last 200 years, the bicycle won, over such candidates as the transistor -- to the consternation of the organizers of the poll.  I am talking about biking for transportation, not recreation, although one can also get exercise and views while transporting oneself on a bicycle -- sure beats driving the SUV to the gym.  The bicycle is a vehicle and belongs on the road, not the sidewalk.  For those who are unsure about how to ride safely in traffic, see some good advice in these web sites:

How To Ride in Traffic
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/traffic/traffic.htm

The Street Smarts booklet by John Allen is online here:
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/index.htm
(it's also available in hardcopy form - ask Carl Etnier!)

Road Vogue  by Wayne Pein
http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/roadvogue/index.html

Much additional good advice can be found on Ken Kifer's Bike Pages, http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/commute/index.htm -- e.g., Using Errands for Bicycling Exercise (when one is not ready for bike commuting), How NOT to Bike-Commute, and Problems and Solutions to Riding a Bike to Work.

While the development of viable electric cars is taking its time, the electrically-assisted bicycle (e-bike) is here.  Millions are sold every year in China.  The idea is "augmenting, not replacing human power" -- using our muscles, getting much needed exercise, but without too much strain.  Why drag hundreds of extra pounds along?  Much about this idea, and actual models available, here: http://www.electricvehiclesnw.com/main/augment.htm - "The intuitive, pedal-activated system in effect 'abolishes head winds', and 'flattens hills'. ...  We have the option of arriving at our destination after a full work-out, or without a single bead of perspiration on our brow."

I have ridden an e-bike over 600 miles in the last year, mostly on a 19-mile-roundtrip non-flat semi-urban commute.  I find the trip on the e-bike much less physically demanding than with a conventional bicycle, and more pleasant, and not much slower, than driving.

Riding a bicycle can save the world!
http://www.energybulletin.net/15484.html

(Moshe is a member of Chittenden County's Plan C.  He is also a lecturer and educator on the physics of energy, exponential growth, and how these impact our responses to peak oil.  Moshe can be contacted at:  mbraner (at) hotmail (dot) com)


Your Ideas on Biking and Walking
- The biggest mention was that bicycles are not treated as vehicles - and if we want them to play more than an auxiliary role in our transportation future, we've got to learn to see them that way (as vehicles).
- Make accommodations for bicycles on streets - shoulders, appropriate speed limits where bikes share the roads.
- Traffic lights that don't require a car presence to change would help bikers out.
- Better road drainage would prevent puddling - good for bikers and pedestrians both, who don't want to be splashed or peddle through puddles.
- Bike racks, bike shelters, lockers at workplaces, etc.
- Create biking and pedestrian-safe environments.
- Not just bike trails/biking for recreation, but for transportation purposes.
- Really share the road! The current situation is dangerous and scary; no/minimal road shoulders, speeding drivers on their cell phones, etc. This writer says, "My son lives in Burlington yet he doesn't use his bike to get to his job- would you ride your bike on Shelburne Road?"
- Integrate biking into other transportation networks - more racks on busses for bikes, bike-to-train networks, etc.
- Bike locks, showers at work places to encourage bike commuting.
- Folding Bicycles!
- Pedicabs (when seasonally possible)
- Consider an electric bicycle!  


The 96-mile Lamoille Valley Rail Trail! It's coming!....
from the Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition
Thanks again to Congressman Bernie Sanders for securing $5.8 million in funding for the trail! The rails are being pulled up, and the trail is on its way (although it may still take some years; construction projects move slowly.)   How will it work for bicycling? Walking? Running? At the prompting of the VT Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition, a new group of non-motorized advocates is forming along the trail. The Coalition will be a member-organization of the new multi-use Friends of the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. Find out more about the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail. Contact Becka at VT Bike Ped – becka@vtbikeped.org or 225-8904, to get connected -- and for details of the next meeting.


Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition
Share the Road Campaign... Bike Safety Education... Advocacy for Bikes and Peds...  Vermont's Bike and Walking Trails, and more!

The Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition’s mission is to promote bicycling and walking in Vermont, emphasizing access, safety, and education. We hold this vision, that as a result of our work, public attitudes and policies will create an environment across the state that promotes bicycling and walking as safe and valued modes of transportation and recreation.

Our members believe passionately in the value of human power. They walk and bicycle for fun, for health and fitness, for sport, and to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. As a Coalition, we work with the legislature, the Agency of Transportation, and many other agencies and organizations toward common goals. We promote bicycling and walking facilities in our communities and teach bicycle safety to children. We urge motorists and bicyclists to “Share the Road” for the safety of all. In the ideal world we strive to create, those who wish to walk or bicycle may travel safely from anywhere in Vermont to anywhere else on a network of quiet country roads, shared roadways, bike lanes, wide-shouldered roads, sidewalks, or bike paths.

The Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition is a membership organization. The more bicyclists and walkers on our membership roll, the stronger our voice will be in our town halls and in the halls of the statehouse in Montpelier. Collectively, we can make our byways safer for all. I urge all who ride a bicycle or walk—whether to work or to school, to run errands or for fitness, for transportation or just for fun—to lend your voice in support of the Coalition by joining us today.

Richard “Bunky” Bernstein, M.D.
Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition

From Vermont Bike/Ped News (www.vtbikeped.org):
Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan - How should the State of Vermont invest in bicycling & walking over the next 5 years, and into the future? What is the current status of bicycling & walking in Vermont? Are the programs & facilities we have now the right ones? Take a look at the current AOT Bike/Ped plan, and let us know your thoughts! Public outreach meetings were held in the fall of 2005, and more meetings will be announced in June 2006. 

We’re also working with police departments to improve motorist education and enforcement. While walking or biking in Burlington, if you witness an act of aggressive driving, please contact Corporal Phil Small (psmall@bpdvt.org or 658-2704x345) with a description of the incident, license plate, car model, time and place. The Burlington Police will follow up with the vehicle owner. Let’s work together to make our communities safe places to get around.

Federal Transportation Bill brings over $29 million for bicycling & walking in Vermont! $5 million for Safe Routes to School, $5.8 million for the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, $2 million for Island Line improvements in South Hero, $1.2 million for the Cross Vermont Trail, and $15 million or more for Transportation Enhancements local grant program. Wow! It all adds up to over $29 million in bicycle & pedestrian-related funding - for a mix of construction, education, and encouragement. Thank you to all our members of Congress -- especially Senator Jeffords (a key Senate proponent of Safe Routes to School), and to Congressman Sanders (especially for the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail and the Cross Vermont Trail funding). Senator Leahy also deserves recognition in particular for his vote in favor of a national Complete Streets policy (which unfortunately did not pass).  

RESOURCES:
Bike to Work Resources (including "How Not to Get Hit by Cars", my favorite!) http://www.vtbikeped.org/resources/advocacy-design.htm#Commuter
Directory of Biking and Pedestrian Organizations in Vermont.
Portland, OR integrated transportation system:  http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?


Bike Recycle!
Bike Recycle Vermont (Burlington)  With a mission focused on repairing and providing bicycles at no charge to Vermonters of little or no means, BRV's services are in high demand. This year, over 300 bikes were repaired and provided to income-eligible applicants, including members of the resettled refugee community and homeless adults and youth.  Bike Recycle welcomes volunteers and interested visitors!


The Train: "Today, most rail transport in the United States is based in freight train shipments. Substantial passenger railroad traffic exists only in a few pockets of the country. About two-thirds of U.S. rail riders and one in every three U.S. mass transit riders lives in New York City."  - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_the_United_States )

In Praise of the Train
by Annie Dunn Watson
In 1960, you could open an atlas of the United States and see a finely-meshed network of railways crisscrossing within and over the boundaries of many a state.  Most were freight carriers, but even in the 60s, many carried passengers as well; all featured stops at multiple towns and cities along route.  Today, the remaining rail service in the U.S. is primarily devoted to moving products around.  A quick review of rail service history in this country shows that the decline of the passenger rail system, along with that of the trolley car, happened in tandem with the automobile's rise to its current position of transportation eminence.  And since that day, most of us, in our cultivated preference for "freedom of the road", have contributed unwittingly to the demise of rail as an efficient public transportation medium.

I remember the pleasant journey by rail from Salem (my home town) to Boston, a straight shot that allowed me to avoid traffic congestion along Highland Avenue, Route 1 and Western Ave.  I could read the newspaper, fall asleep - neither one recommended if you are sitting behind the wheel of a car -, or peek into the lives of the folks whose houses, yards and businesses dotted the corridor.  The railway passed alongside a wetland (and if you are environmentalists, you are probably shaking your head about now), but the ducks and tall grasses seemed relatively undisturbed.  I looked forward to this journey for so many reasons, preferring it to travel by car or bus into the Big City.

Moving to Burlington in my early 20's, I found that public transportation by rail was almost non-existent.  Of course, in a rural state with such low population density, this made sense.  But there weren't a lot of busses, then, either, and it was hard to get around.  For a time, one could take the train from Essex to Montreal, but not to Burlington (different line after all, and the train that stopped in Essex Jct. only did so grudgingly - or so it is said).  And soon enough, the trip to Montreal disappeared as well.  Attempts to revive passenger rail between Burlington and points south seemed premature, and were criticized as costly.  But at least the tracks are there, should we figure out how and when to use them.

Vermont aside, why aren't we funding our railroads?  Let's take a look at Amtrack, one of the country's few remaining passenger lines.  Amtrak has been plagued by lack of investment and unreasonable expectations that it operate inter-city rail service at a profit without government subsidies almost since its inception in 1971.  Monies for transportation were increasingly shuffled into projects that served The Personal Automobile - roads, highways, bridges, interchanges, parking garages and more.  And Conservatives have long believed rail service a waste of taxpayer dollars; G.W. Bush was not the first president to try to "zero fund" the system:  Regan ran that proposal through Congress no less than 8 times (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6942852/).  

In defense of recent '06 budget proposals by the Bush Admistration to cut funding to Amtrak, transportation policy expert Robert Poole said that most Americans probably never set foot on an Amtrak train (I'll be doing so next week!  Can't wait!)  To be fair, Poole (by his own admission) loves trains; he simply believes the time has come to rethink the need for passenger rail service in the U.S.  His proposal would see the elimination of long-haul routes, and a shift of the subsidizing responsibilities to states serviced by rail corridors. When asked about the fact that many states might thus be left without passenger rail services, Poole said, “you could also say they would have no horse and buggy service... Those people are not cut off from being transported. They have cars, Greyhound, and in many cases they are within 100 miles of an airport.” ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6942852/) - (italics mine).

The inability of citizens and policy makers to come to grips with the consequences of reduced fossil fuel resources permits us to make, and accept, statements like these without blinking an eye.  It could also be said that to imagine improved/revitalized rail service will save us from the inevitable end of oil and its uglier ramifications is another sort of denial.  I find myself somewhere in the middle, looking toward solutions that will get us moving in the direction of as soft a landing as possible. For the moment, I'll consider the possible usefulness of the train.

Portland, OR includes light rail in its innovative and integrated transportation planning.  That city has become the best bicycling and one of the best walking cities in North America. Portland is also the site of the first U.S. large-scale TravelSmart project. The project, which includes light rail, has proven successful in reducing car travel and increasing cycling, walking and transit.  (see: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm? for more on Portland's transportation initiatives).   We might look to Portland and other such models as we work to re-vision our transportation methods (and let's not forget the crucial role relocalization plays in all of this).

Fortunately, there are still many tracks in place in Vermont and across the country; and corridors now devoted to bicycling and other recreational uses could, if needed, be restored for light rail and freight service. The questions before us:  is it worth preserving and restoring the national and regional rail service lines?  And if so, will we have the foresight to do it in a timely and responsible manner?

RESOURCES:
Amtrak in comparison to other transportation:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak#Energy_consumption_.282001.29
List of Amtrak stations:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amtrak_stations
Passenger Rail Service in the U.S. prior to Amtrak (1971)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amtrak#Passenger_rail_service_before_Amtrak
History of Rail Transport in the Unitied States:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_the_United_States -
Portland, OR integrated transportation system:  http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?


Vermont Rails
Vermont owns approx. 453 miles of the 748 miles of rail lines in the state (the rest are privately owned).  The Agency of Transportation's Rail Program aims to ensure "the highest and best use of rail corridors as part of a statewide transportation network and (to maintain) an important state asset."  The agency recognizes the social, economic and environmental importance of rail service as an integrated part of the state's overall transportation system, and assists shippers and passengers in developing rail options for transportation (from: http://www.aot.state.vt.us/Rail/)

In 1993, by executive order, The Vermont Rail Council was created to advise the Governor as well as the Agency of Transportation on rail issues.  Membership now includes representation from private rail industry as well as state-operated lines.  According to AOT website, freight shippers, environmental and economic development organizations, regional chambers of commerce, regional planning commissions, the House and Senate transportation committees and travel and recreation organizations also have a seat at the table.  

This Council meets bi-monthly, and the public is welcome.  On occasion, VTrans holds meetings specifically to "provide an update and receive public input on the development of its Vermont Rail and Policy Plan. The plan will include an inventory of Vermont’s existing rail system and assess the state’s ability to respond to changes in interstate rail traffic; it will also include policy guidance and recommendations for prioritizing rail improvements and the continuing maintenance of the state’s rail infrastructure and industry."

Meetings are held in the Boardroom on the 5th floor of the Transportation Building, North Lobby of the National Life Insurance Company complex in Montpelier, Vermont. The Rail Council is staffed by the Operations Division. For more information contact Nancy Rice at 828-5993.    

2006 MEETING SCHEDULE
Unless otherwise noted all meetings will be held on the following Wednesdays from 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M.
June 8, 2006
August 23, 2006
October 25, 2006
December 7, 2006  =  Thursday

VT RAIL RESOURCES:
Vermont Rail at VTrans:  http://www.aot.state.vt.us/Rail/
Rail Service in Vermonthttp://www.aot.state.vt.us/Rail/trainframe.htm - current (Feb. 2006) 
Passenger Rail Service in Vermonthttp://www.aot.state.vt.us/Rail/rail_travel_in_vermont.htm


Lamoille Valley Rail Trail:  A Short Sighted Decision?
from Steve Gorelick of Walden, VT
A matter that has so far been largely ignored by the peak oil crowd involves motorized recreation.  At the same time that we're all looking at ways to cut fossil fuel consumption and make do with far less, we seem afraid to confront the powerful snowmobile lobby, as well as the growing ATV lobby.  One issue that brings all of this together is the Lamoille Valley Rail to Trail project (LVRT).  Thanks to porkbarrel funding Bernie Sanders earmarked in last year's transportation bill, funds were provided to tear up the tracks along a 96-mile rail corridor running from St Johnsbury to Swanton, in order to turn it into a recreational trail, with VAST as the leaseholder.  The whole question of whether or not this east-west route, a public asset with millions of dollars of track already laid, might someday be a valuable transportation option was largely ignored (at the same time that an east-west superhighway from NY to Maine is being proposed, but that's still another matter).  For the six years or so that the LVRT has been in the planning stages, it has been described as a non-motorized trail for use by bicyclists, equestrians, hikers, skiers, etc., with the only exception being snowmobiles in the winter. 

Now, in a last-minute behind-closed-doors deal that completely ignores the promises and repeated assurances that ATVs would not be allowed on the trail, Gov Douglas and VAST have altered the lease agreement to open the door to ATV use.

It seems to me that we can't just ignore this stuff.  For example, in an economic impact study commissioned by VAST in 2001, they add in (as a benefit to the state, no less!) the fact that something like $7 million was spent by snowmobilers on gasoline and diesel.  At 2001 prices, that's a lot of fossil fuel.  It seems to me that one role we can play is to point out to state officials that we don't want them using our tax dollars to subsidize and promote motorized recreation, which is what they continually do.

(ed note: thanks, Steve, for bringing the issues of motorized recreational vehicles and the possible loss of a valuable state asset - existing rail systems - to our attention.)


Your Ideas on Rail Service in Vermont
- Train Service- eventually replace most of the LINK commuter busses with train service as applicable.
- The train needs to be affordable and have a reasonable schedule.
- Train system should be upgraded and expanded.
- Better integrated/connected with other modes of transportation (bus, park and ride, etc).
- Make it easier for bikers to use the trains - bikes on board!
- Preserve the existing corridors and infrastructure.
- Train routes to Montreal and other interesting cultural destinations (NYC, Boston) should be reinstated, maintained.
- Trains need to become an affordable and reliable means of commuting to work.  
- We really ought to reinstate trolley cars.  Low infrastructure cost, less costly than railroads.
- Encourage rail for shipping goods throughout Vermont.  


The Car:  "In the future, parking will be the least of our worries..."  - James Howard Kunstler.

Car-Less in Vermont at 1600 Feet
by Anita Kelman
What I noticed as the weeks went on were several things. First of course is that I've got some wonderful friends and neighbors(who are also friends as well as neighbors). 
They all responded with a spirit of generosity and willingness to help.   I also noticed changes in me...


My car has come back from the shop at last, after two weeks spent getting its engine rebuilt. So that was two weeks without a car, following over a week of very limited use of it as it was only running on three cylinders; essentially three weeks car-less. Not an easy prospect here in Vermont up on a mountain at 1600 feet in the middle of “East BF nowhere” as a good friend of mine puts it!

It's been an interesting three weeks though, and something has changed for me, although I can't put my finger on what exactly it is. The timing of it all was reasonably good actually. The engine gave its last gasps on my way home from teaching my last class of the semester. That meant that I only needed to find transportation to work related activities two or three days/week. Unfortunately most of this work involved locations such as South Royalton, Plainfield, Stowe and Randolph; not exactly  mecca's of mass transit. And there was the fact that I am a one-car household up on a small dirt road, also not exactly a mass transit hub. What to do?

My first thoughts involved my bike. Fill the tires with air, and bike. Not a reasonable journey for nearly all of my work days however, as I also needed to haul massive amounts of “stuff” for conferences and the like. Bike trailers? Then, there was the distance factor. Time for Plan B. My trip to South Royalton was solved by carpooling with my co-worker Gina who stopped to pick up me and all my stuff on her way there. Actually, we both had more fun than we would have driving separately. After bringing me home, we then changed clothes and went out to pick ramps together. This was good.

I borrowed a friend's car for a few days, which solved a couple of work event commutes. This, other than the sudden scary mechanical problem her car developed as I was driving it (not my fault - honest!) was fun too. Charen  and I spent more time together through the need to drive to each others homes to facilitate the car loan, followed by dinners, than we've spent for awhile given our schedules, her kids, life in general...

I considered biking to Randolph where I needed to pick up a friend's child at school, but there was still the issue of getting said child to his house with only one bike. And the niggling discomfort I feel at the prospect of biking on Route 12; no shoulders, speed demons, anything goes mentality on that stretch of road. And the thought of biking all the way home afterward. Uphill. This was solved by carpooling with my neighbor Kathy to work, as her schedule was similar to mine that day. It was an enjoyable ride actually, and I got to hang out with her a bit at the garden center she works at, chatting as I helped put away the plants for the night. More time than we've spent together for awhile.

Social events such as the neighborhood baby shower were easy; carpooled with my neighbors Kathleen and Greg. Also fun of course, and one less car on the road.

What I noticed as the weeks went on were several things. First of course is that I've got some wonderful friends and neighbors(who are also friends as well as neighbors).  They all responded with a spirit of generosity and willingness to help.

I also noticed changes in me.  I have always, due to the distance I live from town, attempted to lump all my errands together when I drove in. Still, I just had the need to know that I could hop in the car and go somewhere if I wanted to. That sort of restless, gotta go somewhere feeling. That and my newspaper addiction. I feed that addiction well during the school year with a cut-rate subscription to the NY Times, plus numerous other Vermont papers I pick up.  Newspaper delivery, other than by mail, is not an option here. My limited mobility was going to put a damper on this. What to do? I signed up for the NY Times e-mail updates. Not quite as satisfying as holding a paper in one's hand, but between that, CNN on-line, and the Free Press website, I kept up with the news. I'm semi-cured. I did nab the paper on my first car trip back to town but now I know I have other options.

I also got used to just being here at home more. Lost that feeling of needing to drive somewhere. The weather was great for most of the period. I got lots done; prepped for strawberry planting, worked on the garden, stacked wood, did some reading. It wasn't lonely either as various friends stopped by. I did give up playing music in a “kitchen jam”in Montpelier for the duration. I missed it of course, but had no way to get there at night.

So how does this fit with Peak Oil? Obvious differences are that my friends still had vehicles(and gas). As long as I could arrange a ride I had this option. But it entailed arranging rides, car-pooling, adjusting my schedule (and theirs), and minimizing my travel. If I had a chance to get to the store, I bought a bunch of groceries; no telling when I'd get there next. Stock up when I can.

 It did however point out the real difficulties involved with living up here and needing to travel distances either to work or for shopping. For bikes to be practical, at least during the Spring through Fall, there will have to be considerable effort made to ensure biker safety. Roads must be changed to accommodate bikes, as well as walkers. It is unacceptable for cars to rule the road in the fashion they do now, terrorizing and endangering bikers or pedestrians. Although I take the bus from Montpelier to Burlington when I teach, I still drive to Montpelier. What would it be like to bike there? Car-pool with neighbors? There would need to be compromise in our schedules. What about a bus traveling up Route 12 from Randolph to Montpelier?

My car gets great mileage, 43 mpg prior to its rebuild. (Not sure what it gets now but will determine that when I fill the tank next.)  But if gas climbs to $4/gallon or $5, how will that change things? And higher than that? Would more of my neighbors be interested in car-pooling to work? To town for errands? Sometimes I go to town and while at the co-op will see several neighbors from my road there. Obviously we didn't all have to make the trip separately in our individual cars but we don't have a history of thinking about these things.

There is a passage in James Kunstler's book “The Long Emergency” that was like a dagger through my heart when I first read it. “One of the basic confusions inherent to the suburban experiment was the idea that people could live an urban life in the rural setting. The Long Emergency will revise that. People who live in rural areas, or resettle there, must prepare to lead rural lives and follow rural vocations.” Guilty as charged. I confess I started out with notion of farming, growing most of our food, heating solely with wood, you know, the whole deal. And I tried. But after living hand to mouth for a number of years on what I was able to earn farming it was clear I needed to do something different. So now, I enjoy my rural setting, heat partially with wood, grow some food, no longer milk goats or have chickens, and commute to white-collar professional jobs in urban/suburban settings where while not well-paid, I certainly earn more than I did farming and don't work 80 hours a week.

So depending on how Peak Oil transpires, will it even be feasible for my neighbors and I to be commuting to these jobs? Or will we have to work more locally? But there's nothing here other than a gas station 3.5 miles away, and a dairy farm 4 miles down the road. And my farm of course. So for whatever the reason, I'm going back into strawberries. Haven't grown them since 2001, but had the land tilled this year for the first time since then and will be planting them this spring and summer. I still grow  blueberries so it's a good fit and I love to grow fruit despite the difficulties of freak frosts, insects and other trials and tribulations.

I haven't solved any of these issues obviously. But these past three car-less weeks have forced me to confront some of this, much of which I'd rather not think about actually. So, my car's engine is rebuilt and my head is somewhat changed, I think for the better. Where I will go with this I'm not sure. It almost feels as if I had to begin to confront some of my Peak Oil fears though, and realize that it may all be better in the end. Different, but perhaps better.

(VPON member Anita Kelman lives in West Brookfield at 1600 feet!  She says the coffee plants she's nurturing along in her greenhouse are "still growing and green"...!)


LINKS!
The LINK Express is your direct bus connection between Chittenden County and Addison, Washington and beginning October 17th - Franklin Counties. CCTA LINK routes are easy, economical and they connect you to dozens of other communities and destinations.

Think about savings. If you commute to and from Burlington, Montpelier, Middlebury or St. Albans five days a week, your costs for fuel, parking, depreciation, insurance, and maintenance could add up to $3,500 a year! Compare that to the LINK, which can cost less than $1,100 a year for unlimited rides.

Think about time. When you board the LINK, you can indulge in your favorite book, read the newspaper, chat with a friend, or just relax. Whatever you do, it is sure to be more enjoyable than driving!

Think about relaxing. Why cope with the stress of traffic and weather? Our professional drivers will make sure your trip is pleasant and safe. Think about convenience. Wherever you are going in Addison, Franklin, Chittenden or Washington Counties, our busses will take you close to your destination.

And there are so many places to go! Your LINK pass connects you to:

21 cities, towns and villages
17 shopping centers
6 colleges and universities
9 performing arts centers
20 recreation areas

Find out more:  http://www.cctaride.org/main.php/Links


Biodiesel - Made in Vermont
by Netaka White
Whether we are at or near “Peak” really doesn’t matter when already lean margins from farm income are squeezed, farm viability is threatened
and carpooling to harvest this year’s hay just isn’t an option.


It’s early May 2006 and the price of gasoline is $2.89 at the pump.  If you’re a farmer in Vermont you’re paying about $2.50 a gallon for ‘off-road’ fuel to plow your field and plant this year’s corn, soybeans, tomatoes or lettuce. Last year at this time you were paying $1.85 per gallon, a 26 percent increase. If you were to ask a few farmers if they expect fuel prices to return to below $2.00 and stay there, heads are going to wag. More than likely talk turns on the looming concern of prices marching past $3.00 (and milk prices falling below $10 cwt).

Whether we are at or near “Peak” really doesn’t matter when already lean margins from farm income are squeezed, farm viability is threatened and carpooling to harvest this year’s hay just isn’t an option.

There are no easy answers, quick fixes or panaceas. However, for over two years, the dozen or so founders of the Vermont Biofuels Association have accepted the reality of global warming and the inevitability of the peak in oil and natural gas in our lifetime and taken steps to build and encourage a sustainable biofuels network. The local production and distribution of biodiesel, for instance, will not only reduce airborne pollutants and Greenhouse gas emissions, but will add real value to our rural economy, increase the prospects of farm viability and local food production and help to insulate the region from fossil fuel price and supply fluctuations. To unhinge from the petroleum age will require many steps and a variety of solutions and adaptations.

Let us consider how in just a few years some of the community and on-farm projects in place today can mature to meet these challenges in a ‘post-peak’ Vermont.

Fast forward to 2015: Located strategically throughout the state 5 or 6 biodiesel production facilities are now up and running in communities that can support the demand for feedstock, i.e. vegetable oil and animal fat supplied by local farms and restaurants. Each facility supports dozens of jobs directly and many more in indirect goods and services. Thousands of acres of farmland grow seed-oil crops in rotation with food and livestock forage.  Many individuals and small producer Co-ops now make biodiesel for their own use as well.

Most of these low-impact ‘bio-refineries”, including the state’s second largest located in Shoreham, are cooperatively owned by the farms supplying soybeans and canola to turn out biodiesel as well as high-protein seed meal and glycerol.

The seed meal comes as a by-product from crushing the grain to extract the oil and is fed directly to our state’s dairy and livestock herds and the glycerol (also a by-product) is fed to anaerobic (methane) digesters (in combination with farm manure) to make electricity. The production of algae to make high-grade biodiesel has also begun on Vermont farms, using manure to feed the algae bloom; the process invented by a Montpelier woman in 2006.

“Biodiesel – Made in Vermont” now proves to be another source of local pride and a boon for business alongside Vermont maple syrup, artisan cheese and Cow Power™.

Although petrodiesel is now selling at the pump for $8.50 per gallon -- The cost of petroleum is beginning to show signs of price stability, having fallen off from record $14 per gallon highs in 2012. Nationally mandated conservation and efficiency standards are starting to work and renewable energy incentives have added thousands of jobs in manufacturing, energy production and related services.

The high cost of petroleum has had the benefit of a dramatic increase in local food production and distribution including the growth of a robust market for organic VT soy-products. The cost of chemical fertilizer, produced with significant inputs of natural gas, is sky-high and this too has lead to the growth in organic farming. The majority of the state’s grain is also produced with organic methods due to the increase in demand for chemical-free milk, eggs, and meat and these farms must rely on organically grown protein to feed their livestock.

There are now over 5 million gallons of biodiesel made in Vermont, and every farm and maple sugaring operation that chooses to is running their equipment and heating their farmhouses and greenhouses with 100% (B100) biodiesel – fuel that has been made in Vermont at less than half the cost of purchasing petroleum, (even when factoring in loan costs of capitalizing the construction of each $500k facility). A virtuous cycle of production and prosperity is well underway, creating meaningful employment, food, feed and fuel.

Meanwhile political and military shenanigans beyond our borders are still pushing global tensions and all transportation costs remain high. Since 2007 this situation has lead to interruptions in Vermont’s supply of petroleum. Our species’ contribution to Global Warming is now an undisputed fact and every effort is being made to reduce CO2 emissions worldwide.

The use of locally-made biodiesel alone has contributed to a net reduction of over 80 million lbs of greenhouse gas CO2 emanating from Vermont’s farms. Biodiesel and ethanol use elsewhere in the state, as well as statewide conservation measures and an increase in renewable energy production, have made real contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Because all of the state’s agricultural fuel demand is now being met with Vermont biodiesel, with enough excess to supply fuel for our snowplows, public transportation and emergency vehicles and some back-up electrical generation, our communities are less anxious and a little more secure in the Twilight of the Petroleum Age.

We’re not out of the woods yet -
But together
We are making a difference.

(Netaka White is one of the founders of the Vermont Biofuels Association, and a member of ACoRN.  VBA is holding their 2nd Annual Biodiesel Conference  Meeting the Energy Challenge on June 8th at the Vermont Law School in South Royalton, VT.  For more info:  mailto:info@vermontbiofuels.org)
 

Biodiesel Q and A's
from Sarah Locknar and Scott Gordon of Green Technologies, LLC.
Colin McClung, investigative reporter for this month's Monthly News and Views, posed the following questions about biodiesel - its applications to transportation and heating, and challenges facing small biodiesel producers in Vermont.   Founded by Scott in June, 2003, Green Technologies is the largest producer of biodiesel in the state of Vermont. 

1) What are some of the challenges and necessities of getting a plant to function at a level where it could operate on road grade certified biodiesel and why might that not be the goal of micro-biodiesel plants?
Setting up a "road-grade" biodiesel plant on a small scale is no easy task. "Road-grade" biodiesel must meet ASTM (American Society for Testing and Manufacturing) fuel specifications, which requires standardized testing. ASTM testing is basically too expensive for most small biodiesel producers. That is why we are currently focused on "off-road" biodiesel production. We do in-house testing to verify the purity of our fuel, but we do not currently follow the full set of ASTM protocols. The off-road market is large enough to sustain many small biodiesel producers. Applications include heavy machinery, farm equipment, snow-making, boating, mining, home-heating, and maple-sugaring- pretty much anything that uses a diesel engine that isn't a car, truck or bus. Ultimately however, high level testing is necessary for any serious commercial producer regardless of whether the intended market is on- or off- road so that the producer can be certain that all of the fuel being sold is of top quality.

2) How has something as seemingly innocuous as geography played a part in the challenges of biodiesel (gel point as one example)?
Geography and climate in particular are definitely factors to consider when developing biodiesel markets. In cold temperatures, biodiesel gels or freezes at much higher temperatures (20-40 degrees) than petroleum diesel (around zero degrees), so for outdoor use (including transportation and snow-making) strategic heating of the fuel system is necessary, or you're forced to go to much lower biodiesel blends (5% for example). On the other hand, cold temperatures open another market to us- home heating. In Hawaii, for instance, there really isn't a market for biodiesel/heating oil blends. We've been burning B100 to supply heat for our factory since February,2006 so we're getting quite a bit of experience in heating with higher blends of biodiesel.

3) What are the differences between SVO (Straight Veggie Oil) and Biodiesel vehicles?
SVO vehicles are more complicated than biodiesel vehicles. The SVO conversion includes two fuel tanks (a diesel/biodiesel tank for cold-starts and the SVO tank) as well as strategic fuel system heating. A biodiesel vehicle is essentially any diesel vehicle. We've found that the TDI (turbo direct injection) diesel engines are well suited to biodiesel, but all diesel engines will work. As described above, if you want to run the vehicle on high biodiesel blends over the winter, some strategic heating is needed.

4) Why Biodiesel instead of ethanol?
The two fuels are really complimentary in that biodiesel works in a diesel engine while ethanol works in flex-fuel engines which are essentially gasoline engines. Other factors such as net energy balance/life cycle analysis are much talked about, but the thing to focus on is that biodiesel and ethanol provide practical, affordable, locally produced alternatives to the current petroleum infrastructure that relies heavily on imports of middle eastern crude oil. So the better question isn't "Why biodiesel instead of ethanol?", but "Why not biodiesel and ethanol instead of petroleum?".

5) What are the byproducts of biodiesel?
The major byproducts of biodiesel manufacture are glycerol, salts, fatty acids, soaps and trace methanol. Currently we compost most of the biodiesel byproducts. By design, we use potassium hydroxide for biodiesel synthesis, instead of sodium hydroxide, because potassium salt byproducts can be composted more effectively. Potassium salts are often used as fertilizers. We are also working to find uses for glycerol and fatty acid byproducts to further reduce our generation of waste products and glean more value from our starting materials. The major byproducts of biodiesel combustion are carbon-dioxide, water, residual hydrocarbons and particulate matter. The big advantages of biodiesel combustion are the dramatic reductions in CO, SOx, particulate matter, and cancer causing aromatic compounds compared to petro-diesel. One disadvantage of biodiesel can be a slight increase in NOx when burned in a combustion engine. Not all studies agree that NOx increases by a significant amount for biodiesel use in engines, some report negligible increases, some report increases on the order of a few %. In light of the dramatic reductions in other pollutants, and the increasing use of new NOx control technologies in diesel engines, the use of biodiesel offers a large net benefit. For open flame combustion (home heating) ALL pollutants are decreased using biodiesel including NOx.

6) What are biodiesel's potential and drawbacks in the home heating market?
The potential for biodiesel in the home heating market is huge. Most people don't know that #2 home-heating oil is actually diesel fuel. Biodiesel can be mixed at any concentration with #2 fuel oil. The ideal situation for a home-heating customer is an oil-storage tank in the basement at a temperature of 50 degrees or higher. At these temperatures, "splash mixing" by pouring biodiesel into the fuel already in the tank works well. As with changing any fuel system over to biodiesel, we recommend starting with less biodiesel (5-10%) and increasing over time. If you ultimately want to run 40% biodiesel or higher, your system will have to be evaluated for material incompatibilities (biodiesel causes swelling of some rubbers common in heating equipment). The nozzles and pumps will need to be adjusted as well because biodiesel is slightly more viscous (thick) than home-heating oil. Since we have been running 100% biodiesel in our factory for some time now, we have real world experience running higher biodiesel blends. Our prices are currently comparable or less expensive than #2 fuel oil.
 
(Sarah Locknar and Scott Gordon of Green Technologies, LLC. can be reached at:  www.greentechvt.com )


Your Ideas on Motorized Transport (Cars, Busses, and Telecommuting)
- Telecommuting is a big one, especially for government employees. There are few municipal entities that allow it and the state has a policy against it. Even a day a week can increase worker morale, reduce pollution, and lighten congestion.
- Telecommuting is a wonderful concept, but in Vermont, even in 2006, there are lots of places where people live that won't have any broadband or wireless internet or even good cell phone service for a long time...at least according to those companies currently providing that option.  So, either there has to be another technology, or a better way to get it distributed so everyone has the option if they want it...Now, would be nice.
- Expand the LINK service. Weekends? Would be nice to go to Burlington on the weekend sometimes, or in the evening to the Flynn. Other LINKS?  (St. Albans, Middlebury, and Montpelier are currently served by CCTA’s LINK express busses to and from Burlington.  See: http://www.cctaride.org/main.php/Links)
- How about commuter busses to connect with the LINK? A bus from Randolph to Montpelier traveling up Route 12- would connect VTC, Norwich U, Montpelier and then Burlington.
- Busses to Montreal- It would be nice to be able to take a train or bus to Montreal for the day- how about one that leaves at a reasonable time, say 7:00 am from Montpelier and leaves Montreal at 9:00 pm or so? Currently the schedule is so bad one is forced to drive.
- Improve Bus Stations - Cherry Street in Burlington - the air quality is a disaster due to the idling busses. This needs to be looked at. Why idle? Why aren’t they using Biodiesel?
- Mass transit to the ski areas. The ski areas are large users of single-car transport. Huge parking lots, loads of large SUV's, etc. What about mass-transit options for them?
- Work with the college students/staff/faculty at the Colleges to promote mass transit. In Burlington this would really make a difference in road traffic.  (ed note:  students in the Peak Oil course at Burlington College suggest screen painting happy travelers on CCTA busses instead of ads... make "riding the bus cool again.")
- More routes for commuter busses. (There is a "work in progress" in this writer's area which involves having a commuter bus run from either Royalton or Randolph to Montpelier.  She says, "I think the idea is for it to travel up 89; I would hope it would at least stop at the Northfield Park & Ride, although I would love it if it would go up 12 instead.  It would go right past Norwich U, thru Northfield, and could pick up people along the way.")
- Park and Ride!  - Montpelier- forget another parking garage. Do a better job with a “Park and Ride”- with a free shuttle bus connecting the lot(s) and downtown- no more than a ten minute wait. It would be nice to get most of the traffic out of Montpelier, and find a parking space without making a sacrifice to the gods of parking first.
- Investigate models for coordinated ride-share programs.
- How about a Car Share Program?  See:  http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=34776
- Work closer to home/relocalize means of production.
- Where are the trolley cars?


LACE addresses PEAK OIL and FOOD SECURITY
by Ariel Zevon, founder and director of LACE.

As concern over fossil fuel depletion mounts, many of us are asking how we can improve food security for our families. In Vermont, any single food item in the supermarket has traveled an average of 1,300 miles from the farm to the grocer's shelf.1  The U.S. food system uses over 10 quadrillion Btu (10,551 quadrillion Joules) of energy each year. Growing food accounts for only one fifth of this. The other four fifths is used to move, process, package, sell, and store food after it leaves the farm.2 A return to local food systems, and more localized economies in general, offers an effective and basic way to address the issue of food security.

LACE (Local Agricultural Community Exchange) is a new business that plans to do just that.  Opening in November 2006, in Barre, LACE will provide a commons for Vermont's family farms and the public.  LACE will eliminate distributors and wholesalers, which will in turn yield higher fiscal returns for farmers and lower costs for consumers.  Through LACE, farmers and citizens can participate together beyond the exchange of food products in recreational, educational and progressive programs that will strengthen the community's health physically, socially, economically and environmentally.

Ariel Zevon, founder and director of LACE, believes that one of the most significant political actions we all take each day is deciding what to buy and eat.  The idea for LACE was born when Ariel and her family moved to Central Vermont.  She wanted to raise her children breathing clean air and eating healthy farm fresh foods.  In no time, she realized that for the sake of convenience, economy and availability, she was still shopping in chain supermarkets.  As she began studying the issues around feeding her own family, she quickly understood that buying local foods that are in season would reduce dependence on distributors and wholesalers thereby reducing transportation and farm energy use, and at the same time improving food safety and security. The more she looked into the issues affecting her own family, the more she realized that acting at the local level is the only way to address national and global issues of food security. Encouraging people to buy fewer processed, heavily packaged, and shipped foods could cut energy use and marketing costs. Eating lower on the food chain could reduce pressure on land, water, and energy supplies. Looking at Peak Oil scenarios, it became apparent that oil supply fluctuations and disruptions could send food prices soaring overnight. Decoupling the food system from the oil industry is key to improving food security, and Ariel felt compelled to do something about it.  After two years of research, classes, conducting surveys and knocking on doors, she embarked on an ambitious plan to address the issues of food security in her own community; she founded LACE.

LACE's function is multi-faceted offering a Vermont Fresh Market, a Vermont Fresh Café, a Community Center, a Farm to Community Kitchen Connection, LACE Learning Programs and Farm Fresh Food Drives. 

LACE's Vermont Fresh Market will provide the community with locally produced foods straight from the farm at friendly prices, as well as a wide variety of Vermont-made and manufactured products.  Informational displays will introduce the consumer to the farm, farmer and farming methods of all available products. In this way, LACE will bridge the ever-widening gap between people and food growers.  For participating farmers, LACE will not only provide direct-to-consumer marketing and referrals, but will provide pick-up and delivery service in an eco-friendly, SVO truck.  For products that require packaging, LACE will offer this service on site in a fully equipped commercial kitchen facility. 

The Farm Fresh Café will offer seasonal menus utilizing locally grown foods.  Through the Café, LACE will hope to show the public the wide variety of foods that can be made from local products even in the darkest of winter months.

The LACE Community Center will be available for the free exchange of education, fellowship and entertainment.  The Kitchen Connection will offer citizens and farmers a facility to prepare foods at a professional level as well as offering a space for seasonal cooking workshops including courses on canning, drying, fresh freezing and other age-old methods of food preservation which will help families work toward a more sustainable future that is economically and environmentally efficient. 

The transition to a fossil-fuel-free food system is an immense challenge and will call for unprecedented levels of creativity at all levels of society. In a culture that has grown to expect tangerines in January and tomatoes year round, it will take some time to adjust to a new way of celebrating the food that is grown by our friends and neighbors. There is some individual effort that needs to take place in order to make our food last through the long harsh winters of Vermont. Since food is a universal need for health and survival, is it not worth the little bit of extra attention and time? LACE would like to encourage Central Vermonters to invest in their surrounding land and farmers. Let's support local economies so that when the truck loads of citrus and tomatoes are no longer able to make the journey from across the continent, we will be comforted to know that we have enough food right here at home. Come celebrate the culinary culture of Vermont with us!

1 The Intervale Website, Burlington, VT
2 Oil and Food: A Rising Security Challenge by Danielle Murray, Published on 11 May 2005 by Earth Policy Institute.


(You can reach the Local Agricultural Community Exchange at 43 Orange Street, Barre, VT 05641 - 802-479-5364, or www.laceVT.org)
LACE will be at the Barre Farmer's Market Grand opening! Come and enjoy fresh, local produce at the Grand Opening of the Barre Farmer's Market, and meet the folks who are bringing LACE to the community!  They will have a table at the Market to introduce people to LACE and spread the word about the opening of the Cafe in November and the Fresh Market next spring.  (And, they'll be giving out some free local food samples, of course!)  Drop by and say hello.  Pick up a flier about VPON, too!


Got Biodiesel?
Dan and Whit's general store in the center of Norwich, VT now offers a biodiesel pump. The fuel is B20, a fuel mixture composed of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel. B20 is suitable for any vehicle with a diesel engine, including cars, trucks, and tractors. Dan and Whit's also sells pure biodiesel (B100) in pre-filled 5-gallon containers. For more information, please contact BioQuantum at 802-221-1382 (or info@bioquantum.net), Dan and Whit¹s at 802-649-1602, or Evans Motor Fuels at 800-258- 7552.


Two New Carpooling Options for Central Vermonters
Carpooling is a great way to save money, reduce consumption, and make a contribution to the wise use of resources in Vermont.  With these goals in mind, the Randolph Sustainable Living Network has developed two ways for carpooling to happen in the central Vermont area and possibly beyond.

The first carpooling option involves going to the Randolph Cooperative Market bulletin board in the foyer and signing up directly  there. One sheet of paper is for offering rides; the other sheet is for those needing rides.  Scrap paper is available to jot down names and phone numbers.  Feedback about the Ride Board can be given by calling 728-9033.

The second carpooling option involves using your computer to access a list made available through Yahoo. To learn more about this list, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ride-share

To Subscribe to this list, write to the following email address: ride-share-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.  You do not need to put anything in the text of the email;  this is an automatic service provided by yahoo.com.

Once you have joined, you can post a message, which will go to all the members of this list. The address is: ride-share@yahoogroups.com.  If you are looking for a ride, please put NEED in the subject are of your email along with date and destination.  If you are offering a ride, please put OFFERING in the subject area of your email along with date and destination.  Keep the text  short and sweet; we do not want this list to turn into a chat room.

To Unsubscribe from the list, write to the following email address: ride-share-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Comments on how to make this list a better resource? Write to the List owner: ride-share-owner@yahoogroups.com

This list is being managed by a volunteer member of the Sustainable Living Network. The Ride-Share home page is being carefully laid out so as to follow its goals of  helping individuals reduce consumption, save money and help develop a system in our community that addresses wiser use of our resources.


Portland, Oregon's Car Sharing Project
Instead of owning a car or maintaining a second car, drivers in the Portland and Seattle area can join Flexcar. Members reserve one of dozens of vehicles located all around Portland anytime by phone, for a full day, half day or just an hour. You pay by the hour and by the mile.  Could this work in Vermont?


Scangauge - The Educational New Car Toy (why should Prius owners have all the fun?)
from Moshe Braner
Everybody knows that hybrid cars get better mileage, but it is not well known that there are several separate reasons for that.  The hybrid drive train is one.  Second, the car is made lightweight and streamlined.  Third, hybrid cars have nifty displays that continuously display the fuel consumption rate.  Studies have shown that most drivers cannot ignore that display, naturally wanting to better their "score" from the last trip.  Thus they learn to drive in ways that are more efficient, such as lower highways speeds, slower acceleration, and coasting to stops.  These techniques can be just as effective in non-hybrid cars, but they lack such a display.  It should be required by law!  Meanwhile, it turns out that one can buy an add-on display that does that and much more: it plugs into the car's computer connector (under the dash), and gets all its info from there.  It can display "trouble codes" (that turn the "check engine" light on) and allows one to reset them (turn that light off).  A new model just came out, with a new and higher price ($170), but the original model can be found on eBay for half that.  A pricey toy for nerds?  Perhaps, but it can pay for itself if one saves a couple of trips to the mechanics.  Not to mention the savings in fuel.  And it can be easily moved from car to car, so several people can share one.  See:  http://www.scangauge.com/

(Moshe Braner has a background in physics, ecology, and statistics.  He loves to tinker - and therefore has a scangauge in the car.  Moshe is a member of Plan C.)


PLANNING:  "1 out 3 Vermonters are willing to trade a larger home in a rural setting for an in-town location closer to services and these numbers are increasing - a trend that will likely continue as people spend more time in their cars and oil prices increase."
 - Vt. Forum on Sprawl - Annual Vermonter Poll.

Online County Transportation Survey
How would you rate the importance of each of the following?
    Providing bike paths or bike lanes
    Providing bicycle amenities such as bike racks, bike shelters and lockers
    Fixing existing sidewalks that are in poor condition or providing new sidewalks
    Encouraging development that locates jobs, housing, schools, services and recreation within walking distance of each other
    Provide amenities such as green strips, benches, trees and other landscaping to improve the pedestrian environment

Believe it or not, this question and many others are being posed by local planners to help improve our transportation system! The Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization (CCMPO) is conducting a survey of individuals working in Chittenden County regarding their transportation needs. Take just a few minutes to fill out the survey. Your answers will help make decisions that affect your community! Contact Peter Keating at CCMPO with any questions: 660-4071x14 or pkeating@ccmpo.org.

TAKE THE SURVEY: http://www.n-r-c.com/survey/chittenden/chittenden.htm


Vt Sprawl's Annual Vermonter Poll
Annual Vermonter Poll
Beginning in 1998, the Vermont Forum on Sprawl has partnered with the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies to conduct an annual poll to determine Vermonters' knowledge and attitudes about sprawl in Vermont. Our 2005 Poll indicates Vermonters want action to stop sprawl. 1 out 3 Vermonters are willing to trade a larger home in a rural setting for an in-town location closer to services and these numbers are increasing - a trend that will likely continue as people spend more time in their cars and oil prices increase. In fast-growing Chittenden County, 2 out of 3 people would prefer a home in an urban or village setting.  See the results here:  http://www.vtsprawl.org/Initiatives/research/VermonterPoll.htm


Your Planning Suggestions
- Look at our rural areas- how do they connect to work/retail? Ride-sharing options? Van-pools for work at hospitals, schools, etc?
- People with disabilities/elderly - How are they getting around? What are their needs? Expanding transportation options would likely help them as well, as would developing mixed-use, walkable communities.
- My vision is for all transport in Vermont to be energy-efficient, environmentally-sustainable, universally available to even the most rural travelers, and AFFORDABLE to all.
- The Federal Government should offer grant monies to Universities willing to work toward these solutions. All too often Universities have to make the difficult decision to take on "Classified" research grants that may have questionable motives. Let's make this an issue of "National Security" so that it because a "Classified" and "Unclassified" opportunity.
- I wish more little communities could support their own clean-fuel commuter vans that would coordinate with the larger work-place towns' bus systems so people could get to & from work/shopping/appointments, etc., affordably and efficiently.
- I wish the trash/recycling & other service/company vehicles serving all the towns in VT could be efficiently and safely fueled, so those services could be of even more service (there's no such thing as "too much service.")
- I wish that all the tractor-trailers passing thru VT could be biodiesel-fueled.  
- Manure and leaves and maple syrup are 3 things we have a lot of in Vermont....could we make a good quality fuel out of them, do you suppose?
- I propose that the city of Burlington slowly incorporates more solar paneled electric car parking/re-charging stations using pennies on the dollar of a gas tax and creates a tax incentive policy for purchasers of electric cars with portions being passed on to the companies that sell these vehicles and offer a rebate for said purchase. Since parking will continue to be a premium real estate issue, a ratio of these spaces, of say (2:25) could be written into any future developmental plan.
- Flexible fuel vehicles continue to be a sound (and less risky) investment than biodiesel since ethanol can be mixed with gas. So any plan (tax incentive based or subsidy based) should have this as a integral part of their transportation scheme.
- More roundabouts!
- More efforts to cultivate businesses in areas where people can live AND work.  RELOCALIZE!  Reduce the need for commuting.

RESOURCES:
Vermont Association of Planning and Development Agencies http://www.vapda.org/
Regional Planning Offices (list):  http://www.vapda.org/rpclist.htm

As the Crow Flies:  Reports from Around the State
ACoRN - Addison County Relocalization Network
ACoRN is a cooperative response to an energy-constrained future. Our mission is to revitalize our local economy to help our communities provide sustainable sources of food, water, energy, employment and other essential resources, and to promote conservation and a healthy environment.

ACoRN meets on the fourth Thursday of each month, usually at the Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury. Currently, they are discussing the formation of a Renewable Energy Cooperative, Local Food supply and more.  Meetings are informative and participatory.  ACoRN periodically screens End of Suburbia and hosts a discussion group after the film.

For more information about ACoRN, contact Greg at gpahl (at) sover (dot) net


CPON:  Cabot Peak Oil Network
CPON has decided to focus on helping develop our local Farmers Market this summer, and to begin inviting other people into the group by having parties where we don't attend to our normal agenda, but have some type of discussion instead. We are also beginning to interface with the town around starting a Cabot Newspaper. One of our members is a writer. For more information about CPON, contact Lee: leeb (at) fairpoint.net


Plan C - Chittenden County Peak Oil Group
A group with representatives from Burlington, Charlotte, Essex, and Richmond came together in March, and welcomes your input and participation.  Next meeting on Thursday, June 22, at 7 to 9 p.m., at the CEDO Conference Room, 2nd floor (above City Market/Onion River Co-op); Enter from sidewalk at 82 S. Winooski Ave, Burlington, VT.  For more information, e-mail ccpeakoil (at) yahoo (dot) com
 
Plan C has developed the following Committees:  
A. Education/Outreach - communicating through other groups, though workplaces, through websites and meetings. It will spiderweb outward. Positive and fun events will be offered. Cultivate newspaper coverage, local experts interviewed, flyers, postings and radio.  A Skillshare list is being formulated.  Proposal to have a monthly "skills practice" meeting.  A list of organizations and schools group members are connected with is being formed.  

B. Big Picture Group - Assessment of what the county needs, including statistics. Jobs, local economy, Cedo, Livable Community Project.  Also assess county's existing assets.

C. Policy: Some members of the larger network have met with legislators and Leahy in past months. September is a good time for political action. Money may be needed
for a statewide resource data base - the work could be hired out. The government has money for such projects.  Should Vermont have Community Choice Laws as some states do, choosing where they can buy their power from? The wind power debate must be kept open.  Communication with other organizations is important, especially
if we can send out emails to their members. How do we prepare State for $100 barrel oil? Greg will contact Gioia Thompson (Gioia.Thompson@uvm.edu), Sustainability Coordinator at UVM to ask about students that can do service projects for us, research, grant writing, whatever needed.  (ed note:  suggest this group work with other regional groups to develop the most coordinated statewide approach to these bigger picture issues.  Coordination prevents redundancy, and reflects a stronger voice when speaking with state legislators - i.e., more than just one county is concerned, etc.)

D. Entertainment Group: working to keep the membership connected and happy!  Member poet Nik coordinating a day-long social event.

E. Service Committee (new): This committee, which may rotate every few months, will make sure that there is an agenda and a facilitator
for meetings, make sure we have a meeting place, and will take a higher level of responsibility. Discussion: is such a committee necessary? Thoughts-it may increase effectiveness; may be necessary as members increase. Suggestion: we ask Greg and Cara and Rachel to try it. Greg accepts.

F. VPON - the statewide Network. A conference is being planned for June of 2007, with workshops, film showings, and special guests.  The regional groups will be surveyed this summer to give input about what they would like to see happen at this conference, and to offer voluntary contributions of skills toward getting this event underway.   Formation of a Conference Steering Committee will be discussed at next VPON meeting.
 
NEXT MEETING of PLAN C: June 1, 7-9, Cedo Office (see above).  Nik will facilitate.


Mad River Sustainability Group
Meets third Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m., with a topical discussion or event to kick off each meeting. For more information:  nbehn (at) northernpower (dot) com
 
Hello!
We had a lively meeting last week and achieved a lot in two short hours.

NOTES:
- First we dug into the many suggestions for renaming our group and debated the message we want to send through our name. Here were the general criteria we came up with:
1) Locally Identifiable (Mad River)
2) Descriptive of our purpose
3) Upbeat, Positive
4) Open to new membership and public participation. A true community effort.

After healthy debate we came up with a nearly unanimous vote for "Mad River Sustainability Group". We decided to open the name for tweaking to the email group to see if anything would emerge. Since nothing definitive emerged the name will stand as: "Mad River Sustainability Group".

- Next we tackled the list of projects proposed and came to the conclusion that many tasks had commonalities and so we developed, and adopted, a project which is a hybrid of several on the list which we are calling "Resource Mapping". The Resource Mapping project will involve creating maps and an associated database and creating a public report to be released at the end of the project. If anyone has suggestions regarding this project please email us or get involved directly by coming to our monthly meeting.

NEXT MEETING:
June 20th
Roots Work (upstairs of East Warren Grocery)
Topic: Robert Riversong will present on how to measure your ecological footprint
Project: Resource Mapping

Best,
Nils Behn
Mad River Sustainability Group
Tel. Office: (802)496-7272

Please visit us at:
VPON-regional <http://vtpeakoil.net/regional.html>
      And
Relocalization Network | Post Carbon Institute <http://www.postcarbon.org/groups/>

Post Carbon Tunbridge
Post Carbon Tunbridge comes on line! They will be meeting 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month.  Proposed Mission statement:  "Work together to maximize  quality of life as we reduce dependency on oil." Welcome, and best wishes as you move ahead!

PCT meeting notes from 5-23-06 - 11 Attending; approximate total of 65 individuals on our "interested" list.
Interests presented:
Looking for the people to share the other end of the crosscut saw; interested in generating sharing; local community building; what is community, what strengths do we have? focus on community- do it locally; learning to be a boon to neighbors; the Watershed is a strong unit to work together; love to see Tunbridge generate all its own energy; community working together to generate it own wealth inspite of climate change & peak oil.

Self identified skills represented: ideas, make anything; do anything-not metal; organize, analyze, education-public awareness; coordinate events-conferences, planning, understand organic agriculture; thinking and talking; feeding people; woodsmithing-community building; builder, farming, facilitating; good planner-researcher of systems; idea guy, wood-turner, hands on;  community spirit, growing, feeding, siting for net metering.

Proposed ideas list from “Brainstorming session”:
PUBLIC AWARENESS HEIGHTENING: campaign to get people to do energy audits through Efficiency VT www.efficiencyvermont.com/, working from home, commit to an electric free day for publicity, something for Memorial day… march-float-table, weatherize an older person's home - demo and publicity, just build a wind thing... a water thing for awareness, home tours, create cost effective demo projects, energy efficiency workshops, open our meetings with a presentation on sustainable skills/techniques, show end of Suburbia and other notable consciousness-raisers, press releases for all.

DEVELOPING HUMAN RESOURCES: have regular open meetings inviting the public/ grow it, make a community directory starting with those attending.

DEVELOPING NATURAL RESOURCES:  Explore and identify workable sites for wind, water production of electricity for both single users and group net metering, municipal energy production from wood chips, grass pellets, biodiesel and methanol production from wood and grass.

DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS WITH PUBLIC ENTITIES:  involve the Town: energy conservation program, energy production for town buildings, get road people to the biodiesel workshop on June 8th 8 AM at the Law School; instigate or make use of the town revolving loan funds to finance infrastructure bringing us towards sustainable living… weatherization, broadband, wind and water, biofuels production; develop working relationship with Law School, explore how we can have electric power autonomy- have control of the power we generate.

LOCAL PROJECTS:  start building power generation sites for net metering, biodiesel production, grass pellet production, methanol production, establish a local currency...a $ that stays in the local economy,  make money for local people with these activities plus perhaps a solar store-energy office.

TOOLS TO EXPLORE:  systems analysis as practiced by http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/

OTHER ISSUES THAT IMPINGE ON A POST CARBON WORLD, health care delivery and availability, ride share-bus/jitney or work more from home.

Possible action steps:  Individuals will rank their top 5 from here or above:
Contact the town for biodiesel.
Contact the town for revolving loan fund establishment-use.
Show End of Suburbia – other public outreach.
Start identifying and surveying wind and water resources.
Look into local production of biodiesel, grass pellets or methanol from bio.
Identify presentations for meetings.
Sustainable living: house and farm tours.
Explore local $s and making money in the community.
Public awareness for energy efficiency - Weatherize a demo house.
Explore systems analysis.
Transportation issue and solutions.

Next meeting: Monday June 12th 6:30-8:30 then on to the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month.  Contact Henry at:  swayze (at) pngusa (dot) net

Post Oil Solutions (Windham County)
Post Oil Solutions is a Windham County group working to advance cooperative, sustainable communities in an age of global climate change and declining fossil fuels.  They meet in Brattleboro on the first and third Wednesday evenings of each month.  For more information, email postoil(dot)vt(at)gmail(dot)com, or call (802) 869-2141.  POS has a number of initiatives underway in local economy, food production and preservation, social network building, education, basic herbal and natural health care, and more..  

Post Oil Solutions celebrated it's 1st anniversay on Sunday, May 28th, with a good turn out, homemade mead wine and McNeils beer on tap, badminton birds and bocce balls, music and dancing, and, of course, lots of dishes featuring local food.
 
While POS is involved in a variety of activities and projects, food sustainability is unquestionably the top initiatve at this point, as it has been during the first year of our existence.
We just turned over the ground of a community garden in Brattleboro Saturday May 20, with the help of one of our farmer members, her father, and their four magnificent horses.  We will have a full-page "Eat Local" pledge ad in a special Brattleboro Reformer supplement, "Scene and Herd: A Celebration of Agriculture in Windham County," in a few days, that will feature the names of hundreds of local citizens who have taken the pledge. We are sponsoring a localvore challenge this August, in which participants pledge to eat only local (within a 100 radius for a week, a month, or to have at least one local product with eacvh meal), a project that will also involve the Brattleboro Area Farmers Market, local CSAs and farmers, the Brattleboro Food Co-op, and the Riverview Cafe.

We have just begun "A CSA in Every Town" project that, over time, will attempt to not only bring together potential shareholders with interested farmers in the towns of our region where there are no CSAs, but to also help them get their own started. We also have a committee that is looking into organizing a winter farmer's market in Brattleboro.
And on 3 June, we will sponsor a bio-intensive gardening workshop with VPON member Tom Fugate leading it. This is the latest in a series of workshops we've organized, that include permaculture and two on putting food by.

The other major inititive at this moment involves helping to organize a post oil group in the Saxton River/Bellow Falls area, the northeastern part of Windham Co to our southeast. The possibilities of working as two (possibly three), autonomous, collaborating post oil groups has already surfaced at our initial meeting with a dozen enthusiastic local activists. Over the course of 10 days in early June, we're going to have a screening/discussion of "Suburbia" on one night, "The Power of Community" a week later, and a pot luck/peak oil organizing workshop/initial organizational meeting two days after that.  There is a lot of excitement around this. We'll see what happens.

Other current activity revolves around:
- our website (www.postoilsolutions.org) was launched this week;
- a community currency committee is actively exploring, researching, studying;   
- a number of fund-raising initiatives around a 5K race in September, screening of The Power of Community, a contra dance, and a benefit concert by a well-known blues singer in the area who I can't identify by name right now;
- the first organizational steps toward bring together a number of area folks with a particular interest in local agriculture/food processing and/or alternative energy (especially those two, but also clothing) who are also interested in exploring the possibility of developing regional/local community owned and run co-ops;
- on-going discussions within POS around emergency preparedness (what are we doing for ourselves, what can we do for each other), and post oil, non-pharacological health care.

Second Tuesdays (East Montpelier)
Second Tuesdays initiatives:
June 6, 7 pm, Unitarian Church, Main Street, Montpelier. Showing of "CNN Presents: We Were Warned" and "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil." Discussion afterwards. Contact Carl Etnier 223 2564 or carl @ etnier (dot) net for more information.

June 20, 7 pm, 225 Sparrow Farm Road in East Montpelier. Monthly meeting. Call Carl Etnier 223 2564 or carl @ etnier (dot) net for more information and travel directions.
       
Second Tuesdays' Power Point Presentation on Peak Oil now available!  The East Montpelier Peak Oil Aware group used this power point in its discussion session with Vt. Representatives and other officials (report appears on May 06 VPON Monthly News and Views Page - archived).  Here's where you can download the power point presentation:  http://rapidshare.de/files/19947345/Peak_Oil_final_for_2006.03.21.ppt.html  The download takes @20 minutes on a dial-up connection.

Columns
Doctor Gloom's Soapbox
from Doctor Gloom
Dr. Gloom is back for another installment. Remember, the good Dr. does not like to be gloomy, but once in a while we need to see things from the "big picture" perspective, and that is often gloomy.

It has been said that we are not facing an energy crisis, but rather an energy shortage leading to a cultural crisis. There are many technical ways to make do with a somewhat smaller dose of our fossil fuel fix. But powering down is impossible, not only due to our growth-based financial system, but also because it runs against human nature. We have evolved, millions of years ago, in the context of resource scarcity. Thus we tend to seek domination of resources, and are hard-wired to make use of all the resources we can corner, in order to enhance the number of our likely surviving descendents. This does not have to happen on a conscious level, the subconscious drives may subvert any ideology or education. We build elaborate mental superstructures, such as religion, or theories of economics, and do not realize that it is all just papering over the reptilian brain.

In biological evolution, copies of genes is all that counts. Any physical or behavioral trait that is genetically determined evolves, in ways that enhance the success of the genes carrying that trait to reproduce themselves, relative to alternative versions of these genes. Natural selection is often misunderstood to be working for the good of the species. That is not the case, although often what is good for the gene is also good for the individuals and for the species. A very good explanation of all this can be found in the book "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. (Caution: this book may make you gloomy!) But the message of this book is unwanted by most people, and thus it has been criticised by many, including some who havn't even read it. Some think that its title refers to a gene for selfishness, or that the book suggests that we should be selfish. Rather, the point is that the gene itself is selfish, not in the sense that it thinks or feels, but in the sense that natural selection pits one gene against another, with no regard for anything else. Nevertheless, some altruistic behaviors, where individuals make an effort, and even endanger themselves, for the sake of the group, are seen in nature. These can usually be explained by the fact that the small groups involved are genetically related, and the behavior is a benefit to the gene that causes it, at the expense of the individual that is carrying one copy of the gene. The exception proves the rule.

Given all that, can we expect people to voluntarily limit their reproduction, or live more modestly than they can? Even if a group manages to do that, it would be overcome by other groups that are doing the ancient conquer-and-reproduce thing. This has happened many times in history, especially in the last 500 years as the aggressive European mercantile drive displaced one native culture after another. The only way that an old, stable, culture could defend itself was by adopting a militaristic stance, thus becoming their own enemy - see "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunshine" by Thom Hartmann. In "Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization", Richard Manning says that the invention of agriculture made it possible for one person to feed several, and this enabled some humans to enslave others and live off their surplus product. This domineering continues to our day, "The Culture of Make Believe" by Derrick Jensen expounds on the many ways in which the USA is guilty of brutally exploiting others. Although old-style slavery has been finessed into subtler forms, it may make a comeback, as once again feeding human slaves may become more profitable than fueling and maintaining machines.

While our future as a species depends on our getting together to deal with Peak Oil and Climate Change via cooperation and self-limitation, our nature is such that we will rather kill each other. Just watch how the world's only military superpower, and biggest gas-guzzler, is putting all its resources into the "last man standing" warmongering approach, rather than mention the "C" word (conservation). Even when we look for "alternatives" they involve using other people's food (or arable land) as feedstock for making fuel for our wheeled toys. And "efficiency" alone does not conserve resources, because what we save by being efficient, we spend on additional consumption. Individual choice to consume less is ineffective, as money not spent directly is loaned by the bank, several times over, to others who want to consume more. This is called "Jevon's Paradox".

Will anything save us? The only hope is to break away from our biological destiny. The genes are selfish, they don't serve us -- can we choose to stop serving them? Perhaps any such attempt is a delusion, or doomed to be overrun by other people. But perhaps it is possible? Evolution gave us brains that can reason and plan ahead, because those are useful tools for the purpose of aggressive domineering. But the same tools can be used for other purposes. It is sort of like buying a Windows PC and running Linux on it instead: the hardware is built to be flexible enough to run other software.

Cultural evolution is not the same as biological evolution, it is not based on genes, and happens much faster. And yet, looking at the actual cultural changes over the centuries, do we see enduring progress? Or is our current notion of progress an illusion, derived from the exuberance of the fossil-fuel-burning party of the last two centuries? Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" is subtitled "How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed". If we fail, it is because we choose to. But do we really have the capacity to choose otherwise? The Easter Islanders failed to choose not to cut their last tree. Will we cut our last trees to keep warm here in Vermont? Perhaps we will be wiser than that, wiser than yeast in a vat of grape juice. Perhaps.


Book Review
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
Review by Pat McGovern
I’ve just finished reading Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods by Gary Paul Nabhan. Nabhan lives in the Southwest and is a great forager; his book tells of native foods such as pit-roasted mescal, saguaro fruit, organ cactus jam, mesquite tortillas, ocotillo blossom, elderberry tea… and rattlesnake road kill. He also speaks of “freshly picked and lightly steamed lamb’s quarters, purslane, tansy mustard, and cress….” Hey, don’t they grow here?! Reading this inspired me to dust off my old copy of Stalking the Wild Asparagus and now I can’t wait to see what I can find locally. I’ve been pulling purslane and lamb’s quarters out of my garden for years but I’ve never tried eating them. I do love making dandelion quiche, and last year Jean Howe and I discovered the inner core of cattail stalks, which tastes remarkably like cucumber. I have been fighting a losing battle with Japanese knotweed in amongst my daffodils and now read that it’s good to eat! The season of springtime foraging is fast approaching. I want to
share with you my dandelion quiche recipe and I hope, if there are foragers out there, you’ll share tips and favorite recipes.
Dandelion Quiche
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp. butter or vegetable oil
1 cup grated cheese
2 1/2 cups chopped tender, young dandelion greens, well rinsed
2 eggs
2 oz. cottage cheese
salt, pepper, nutmeg
9-inch uncooked pie shell
Slowly sauté onions in butter or oil until they are nice and sweet. Add greens and sauté briefly. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Bake empty pie shell for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees.
Put onion-dandelion mixture in pie shell. Sprinkle cheese on top. Puree eggs and cottage cheese with the salt and pepper.
Pour over greens. Add another sprinkle of nutmeg. Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes. Enjoy!

Upper Valley Localvore sources:
http://vitalcommunities.org/Agriculture/localvore/localvorehome.htm
http://vtearthinstitute.org

Gold Stars to...
Super Biker!  
Part of Vermont Bike/Ped Coalition's Bike Smart bike safety program, "Super Biker" is a hit with the elementary classroom set.  See:  http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060531/NEWS02/605310308/1007

CCMPO

Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization.  Communities working together to meet Chittenden County's Transportation Needs.  Great website, with information on planning and events related to transportation issues in Vermont.  CCMPO also sponsors Internet links to member governments, selected transportation planning (regional, statewide and national), and related informationational sites, many of which support environmentally and socially intelligent transportation planning.  

The Localvores!  
They're springing up everywhere!  Local foods groups are forming in the Champlain Valley and in the Mad River Valley.  Localvore leader Pat McGovern has established a tri-state Localvore list-serve with lots of good sharing of food sources. To join the serve see http://lists.valley.net/lists/info/localvore-discussion.
 The Champlain Valley group has a web site: http://www.eatlocalvt.org. And check out the Mad River Valley Localvore Challenge!  During the Challenge, community residents will have a chance to sign a pledge to eat only locally grown/produced food for one week in September (September 11-17, 2006). You can find out more about the Mad River Valley Localvores at www.vermontlocalvore.org where we will be posting details on future events, listing resources for finding locally-grown grown foods, and collecting recipes for cooking with local and seasonal foods.

Small Dog Applicances E-Waste Recycling Program  As part of their mission as a socially responsible company, Small Dog participates in an “e-waste” recycling program to safely dispose of home electronics. For 25 cents per pound, you can bring old stereos, printers, computers, VCR’s, TV’s, monitors, and related add-ons to Small Dog and they will arrange for them to be responsibly recycled.
According to Small Dog:
• More than 220 tons of electronic waste is dumped in landfills every year in the U.S.
• Less than 15% of the 20 million computers disposed of in 2001 were recycled.
• Electronics contain substantial amounts of toxins and hazardous materials such as lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium; these toxins affect our earth, water, and air.
To find out more about e-waste and how to handle it, see Small Dog’s website:  www.smalldog.com/ewaste

Promoting Renewable Energy through The Arts!  (from Renewable Energy Vermont): Think that what renewable energy needs is great art? We agree! REV and REV member NRG Systems have joined up to promote renewable energy through the Vermont Art Council's annual Palettes of Vermont art project. This year the council is distributing 7,000 free maple palettes and 30,000 paper palettes around the state to serve as canvases for community artwork. Check out the Vermont Art's Council website http://www.vermontartscouncil.org/palettes/  to see a gallery of palettes from previous years, and contact REV director Andrew Perchlik at 802-229-0099 or at REV@sover.net to find out where you can pick up a maple palette to create your own RE art masterpiece. 

Green Mountain Good Works:  Renewable Energy Vermont member Green Mountain Power is providing $15,000 in matching funds to the City of Barre to study the feasibility of generating electricity from micro-hydro sources, including the municipal water system. Micro-hydro is defined as small-scale, low-impact sites such as water supply facilities, run-of-the-river and farm ponds. This type of electrical generation has minimal impact on rivers, fish and wildlife.  See:  http://tinyurl.com/jvgjl


Action
HAZARDOUS WASTE COLLECTION DATES AND RECYCLING DEPOTS
STATEWIDE  
Do you have paint, pesticides or cleaning products to get rid of?
Then bring them to a CVSWMD Hazardous Waste Collection!

Montpelier
Saturday, April 29, 9am - 1pm
Saturday, October 21, 9am -1pm
Memorial Drive, Dept. of Labor parking lot

Bradford
Saturday, May 13, 9am - 1pm
Saturday, September 30, 9am 1pm
Bradford Town Garage

Tunbridge
Saturday, May 20, 9am - 1pm
Tunbridge Transfer Station

Barre Town
Saturday, June 10, 9am - 1pm
Saturday, October 14, 9am 1pm
Barre Town Garage, Websterville Road

Hardwick
Saturday, September 9, 9am
Hardwick Town Garage


Please note: Businesses must call ahead and pre-register.
2006 Collection Schedule Disposal Costs
$10 per car for most residential loads. Call for more information.
Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District ph: 800-730-9475
www.cvswmd.org

CHITTENDEN COUNTY
CSWD Environmental Depot 1011 Airport Parkway, South Burlington, 863-0480
Wed, Thur, Fri, 8:00 to 2:00 and Sat, 8:00 to 3:30

BOOKS - 50 cents per blue bin full of books.
Used hard cover and soft cover books are accepted at all CSWD Full-Service Drop-Off Centers.

CLOTHING / TEXTILES - No charge!
Includes sheets, towels, belts, purses and pairs of shoes tied together. Must be clean and dry. Deliver to:
Any CSWD Full-Service Drop-Off Center
NOTE: Special EXTRA HOURS at Burlington Drop-Off: Tues. May 30, 9:30 to 5:00

Salvation Army Warehouse
Industrial Parkway, Burlington, 860-1117
Open Mon - Sat, 9:00 to 4:30

FOOD - No charge!
Non-perishable, unopened food only. Deliver to: Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.
228 No. Winooski Ave, Burlington.  658-7939.

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS & FURNITURE
Including couches, rugs, appliances, kitchenware, computers, electronics, sporting equipment and more. Items must be clean and in good condition. Electronic items must be relatively new and repairable.
Deliver to: ReCycle North

or see "Furniture - Used" in the Yellow Pages.

HAZARDOUS ITEMS - NO CHARGE!
Batteries, motor oil, gasoline, paints, cleaning chemicals, fluorescent bulbs, insect spray, and other potentially hazardous materials are accepted at:
CSWD Rover Four days at the CSWD Burlington Drop-Off Center, 339 Pine Street,
Wed., May 17 and 24, from 9:30 to 5:00 and
Sat., May 20 and 27, from 8:00 to 3:30

CURBSIDE RECYCLING
The City of Burlington provides weekly curbside pick-up of household recyclables including bottles, cans, mixed paper and cardboard. For more information, contact: Burlington Public Works, 863-9094.



Organize a Peak Oil Book Display!
A few libraries in Vermont have generously agreed to host a resource display focusing on peak oil for a month.  Talk to your town librarian about setting up a peak oil display in your local library.  A simple way to get the word out! The library is limited to books in their collection, so if you feel a title is lacking, you can fill out a purchase request or donate a copy to the library.

(ed note:  thanks to Matt Burke of the Chittenden County group for initiating this fine idea!)

Write a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Paper!
It's easy.  Keep it brief and concise.  Use it as an opportunity to express your concerns re:  fossil fuel depletion (the term "peak oil" has some currency now; you may want to go with that, or perhaps avoid it and point instead to some of the specifics:  higher fuel costs, increased costs of food, destabilized economy, further threat of global warming if we switch to coal, etc.) Let whatever you are most moved to bring to the discussion be your guide:  not everyone is an energy expert, but each of us is a citizen. Let's enjoy and maintain our right to freedom of speech.

Write a Letter to a Representative 
Dear Representative So and So:
You wrote: "Do you have specific ideas about what we can do at the state level?"
I'm glad you asked.  Here are some preliminary ideas... (pdf)

This one went out to the select board in Tunbridge:
For consideration of select persons meeting 5/31/06:

I recommend that the town send a delegate to this workshop to bring back to the town information and a recommendation for the town’s use of biodiesel in its trucks and school busses.  My take on the potential benefits are:
    - Cleaner burning.
    - Kinder to the lungs of  passengers.
    - Uses less fossil fuel and encourages a replacement industry.
    - Has the potential to be produced locally benefiting our local economy.
    - May be similar in cost.
    - Helps reduce climate change.

It would be great for select persons to grain additional knowledge on issues of making Tunbridge more self sustainable in the future as oil prices continue to work their way upward making life as we now practice it more difficult.  A member of the road crew or school board would also be great to have there.  I think Michel Sacca is planning to go.

Submitted by Henry Swayze on behalf of the POST CARBON TUNBRIDGE committee. 
We meet on the second and fourth Monday of the month… June 12 @ 6:30 town hall basement - all are welcome.  We would love to have a select person join us.

What's a Citizen TO DO?
There are so many issues needing attention in our communities, regions, and state-wide.  What's a Citizen TO DO? is an e-newsletter that offers weekly updates on events and actions needing a citizen's response.  Rallies, celebrations, workshops, conferences, exhibits, and legislative action alerts of interest to Vermonters, as well as news of national and international issues needing citizen attention, are featured.  If you would like to find out more, email debra (at) vtlink (dot) net.
 
Dear Senator Leahy..., Dear Congressman Sanders..., Dear Senator Jeffords...,
Now's the time to contact Vermont's representatives in Congress to ask them to support the Securing American Energy Independence Act (SAEI), which extends the federal solar and fuel-cell tax credit (currently set to expire at the end of 2007) for eight more years. Click on the following link to take action now and please forward it to friends and family who care about promoting solar.  http://tinyurl.com/jk3fh


Plan Ahead
Local Power:  Energy & Economic Development in Rural Vermont
A Vermont Council on Rural Development Roundtable Exploring Opportunities for In State Fuel Development and Power Generation
August 22nd, Lyndon State College
Lyndon, Vermont
9:00 am - 4:00 pm.
For further information, contact  Bonnie Smoren at 802-828-6022  or vcrd2@sover.net

Facing The Media Crisis:
Media Education for Reform, Justice and Democracy

October 6-8, 2006: Burlington, Vermont
The Wyndham Lakefront Hotel and Champlain College
Dialogue with our courageous and compelling Summit keynote and plenary speakers: U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Sanders, Sut Jhally, Jean Kilbourne, Bill McKibben, Robert McChesney, Robert Jensen, Peter Phillips, John Stauber, Diane Wilson - and more than one dozen other prominent media educators and citizen/activists!

Submit a workshop proposal of your own! Teach others about your media education work!  For more information about the Summit, including speakers, workshop proposals, and registration, please visit http://www.acmecoalition.org   Earlybird registration is happening now!
 

Resources
Food for Thought Tool Kit - Got media education? Re-inventing a more sustainable relationship to our food first means questioning the stories told about food in our 24/7 corporate commercial media culture. McDonald's: Are you REALLY loving it? Is steak REALLY what's for dinner? The FOOD FOR THOUGHT tool kit, co-produced by the Vermont chapter of the Action Coalition for Media Education (ACMEVermont at (http://www.acmevermont.org) and Rural Vermont (http://www.ruralvermont.org), uses a media literacy education approach to raise vital questions about food-related stories, and provides a host of useful classroom and community activities and multimedia resources for any Vermonter interested in growing a more sustainable alternative to our current unsustainable corporate commercial model. Download it for free, and use it in your classroom or community!

Second Tuesdays' Power Point Presentation on Peak Oil now available!  The East Montpelier Peak Oil Aware group used this power point in its discussion session with Vt. Representatives and other officials (report appears on May 06 VPON Monthly News and Views Page - archived).  Here's where you can download the power point presentation:  http://rapidshare.de/files/19947345/Peak_Oil_final_for_2006.03.21.ppt.html  The download takes @20 minutes on a dial-up connection. (Special thanks to Moshe Braner for finding this site for us to use for large downloads shares.)

Connect! On-line Peak Oil Discussion Group for Vermonters
   
The Archives Strike Back!  The Archives page is finally up. The Index will help you find what you're looking for.
   
VT Resources page hosts links to organizations working on Sustainability, Food, Farm & Garden, Energy, Local Economy, Community Building, Transportation, and Planning Commissions and Organizations.  We live in an amazing state.  Check it out.

Additional resources - DVDs, charts, posters, more - on the National Links/Educational Resources page.


If you would like to submit a Guest Editorial or an article, please
contact us.

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