[Peak Oil Action] Vermont peak oil action digest

Wed Apr 23 22:28:07 EDT 2008

Hi folks,

1. Heinberg in Vermont
2. Vermont Peak Oil Report
3. Tell your representative to mitigate peak oil, not investigate 
market manipulation

1. Heinberg in Vermont
With Richard Heinberg visiting Vermont today and tomorrow, there's a 
great opportunity to educate people with regard to peak oil.

Heinberg was to meet with the Brattleboro Regional Peak Oil Task 
Force and the Brattleboro Select Board this afternoon, before giving 
a talk to the public in Brattleboro. Tomorrow, he'll be speaking at 
the legislature at 9 am, introduced by Gaye Symington and Peter 
Shumlin. At least two committees (House Agriculture and House 
Commerce) will be holding their hearings with him as the witness; 
other legislators will be in the audience.

You can tune in to live coverage of Heinberg's State House talk on 
WGDR, 91.1 FM Plainfield or stream it on line from www.wgdr.org

He's meeting with business leaders in Chittenden County in the 
afternoon, and then will be back in Montpelier in the evening for a 7 
pm talk at Montpelier High School.

I've been talking to Dave Zuckerman, chair of the House Agriculture 
Committee, all term to get a chance to testify on peak oil and its 
implications for agriculture. I was given some time today, and I got 
a good reception. I tried to prep them for Heinberg's talk tomorrow 
and urge them to ask about his essay, "50 Million Farmers" 
(http://www.richardheinberg.com/museletter/175)

2. Vermont Peak Oil Report
The Vermont Peak Oil Report, after having been dormant for some 
months, has been revived. A number of us are working on it now, and 
we're on a schedule to have a draft available for comment in early 
August. We plan to release it just after Labor Day, in time to affect 
the election conversation.

3. Tell your representative to mitigate peak oil, not investigate 
market manipulation
>Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:18:17 -0500
>From: Moshe Braner <mbraner at vtisp.com>
>Subject: tell your rep to mitigate, not investigate?
>
>
>The VT senate voted unanimously to "investigate manipulation of the 
>gasoline and diesel markets."  Ths house is yet to tackle this bill. 
>This is an opportunity to educate the legislators, that this is a 
>global supply and demand issue, and we should use our limited 
>resources (in time and money) to prepare to live with less fuel 
>instead.  I pointed out to my rep that at $120/barrel, oil is now 
>$2.86/gallon, and that's at the mega-wholesale level, pre-tax, and 
>unrefined.  Thus the refineries and distributors are squeezed, 
>making little profit.  If gasoline were to catch up with the 
>traditional price relationship it had with the price of crude (until 
>the last year or so), it would be over $5/gallon now.
>
>- Moshe
>
>---------------------------
>
>http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/NEWS01/804220315/1009
>
>"As fuel prices set records, an oil industry economist is expected 
>to testify today against a Vermont Senate resolution that calls on 
>the attorney general to investigate manipulation of the gasoline and 
>diesel markets.
>
>"Every senator signed that resolution in 20 minutes," said Robert 
>Starr, D-Essex-Orleans, the lead sponsor. "They said, 'You're darn 
>right I'll sign up.' Everyone is fed up with these people."
>
>The resolution, which has yet to be voted on in the Vermont House, 
>calls upon the attorney general to "seek reimbursement for the costs 
>of illegal-price fixing, price-gouging and conspiracy to restrain 
>trade in retail gasoline and diesel fuel."
>
>"The bottom line is: we are getting treated unfairly. ... We are 
>getting manipulated and we are getting cheated," Starr said. The 
>Senate adopted the measure April 3.   ..."

Thomas Weiss reports that John Felmy, chief economist of the American 
Petroleum Institute, testified before the House Committee on Commerce 
on Tuesday, apparently coming here on his own initiative after 
hearing about the Senate resolution. The API was against this 
resolution, too. (Surprise, surprise.)

I'm a bit uncomfortable being on the same side of an argument as the 
API, but Thomas also reported on a number of things Felmy said that 
allowed me to find room to differ:

>Oil discoveries in the United States that have not been placed into 
>production amount to 100,000,000,000 barrels, 75% of which are off 
>limits...
>
>Q&A: Committee chair Kitzmiller used the term peak oil and asked 
>when it will run out. Felmy answered that his economist's answer is 
>that it will never run out. The question is the price. There are 
>1,200,000,000 barrels of known reserves. There is perhaps twice that 
>amount undiscovered. Then there are oil shales and the methane 
>hydrates frozen in deep oceans. There are enough methane hydrates to 
>last for 1,000 years.
>
>Crude oil production peaked in May 2005. Production of all liquids 
>has not peaked, it is still rising.
>
>Difficulties arise regarding access to resources in the United 
>States and Mexico., e.g., inability to drill in certain areas; 
>Mexico's constitutional prohibition on oil companies. These will 
>create an artificial peak.

Cheers,
Carl

-- 
Carl Etnier
Peak Oil Awareness
carl @ etnier.net
225 Sparrow Farm Road
Montpelier, Vermont 05602  USA
Tel +1 802-498-4443
Relocalizing Vermont radio show: http://www.wgdr.org/relocalizingvermont.html
Archived radio segments: http://www.vtpeakoil.net/community/folder.php?id=29
Relocalizing Vermont blog: http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/carl-etnier
Archived Energy Matters columns: 
http://vtpeakoil.net/community/folder.php?id=33