The Oil Drum

I am very glad to see people discussing the demand side situation relative to carbon fuels, the application of new urbanist city planning principles.

The biggest challenge is the entropic suburban developments that have sprung up in the age of the automobile and cheap oil. These communities need to be retrofitted, with the major change being the building of community centers for economic and cultural activities. WE need to bring the goods and services to the neighborhoods rather than all this willy nilly wasteful driving around to get the things we need and want.

Such will not occur unless we accept the maxim of a Planned Economy. The trick will be changing the way that resources are allocated to and within communities. We need to look beyond the tyranny of the bottom line in development projects, and allocate resources incorporating environmental (i.e. sustainability and equity) externalities. Even if we as a reactionary economic culture can accept the need for Ecological Socialist Planning (ESP ;-) ), we will still be faced with the huge problem related to the incredibly inflated real estate prices and costs of Capital. We may have to figure some way of writing off these costs.

The following is something that I wrote previously.

Policy Paper #7 – Energy, Agriculture, and Waste Issues
Mike Morin

Are they proceeding with tar sands removal and processing?

Such would be unfortunate in "light" of the gluttony of our times and relative to future needs, and to other concerns of the "natural" environment, public health (such as water and air quality and availability), wildlife (which does not threaten domestic life), and recreation.

Similar concerns have of course been stated for coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, water, and other resources.

Among the many problems associated with the agricultural sector are those regarding runoff from manures, pesticides, herbicides, and of soil. It is my considered opinion that Americans could consume much less meat. Shifting agricultural practices towards less meat and dairy production and consumption would help assuage the non-human animal manure problem. Some may argue that such manure could be a valuable fertilizer source though I would argue that I would not want such a job. Less meat, dairy, and egg consumption would also be healthier for people and would allow more people to realize healthy diets.

Currently blood meal from slaughterhouses is a source of nitrogen fertilizer. Again, such as the other jobs in that sectors would be very unpleasant and should be highly compensated. Evolution to a less meat regimen and more humane treatment of animals would be in order.

We need to put more resources into composting efforts and other practices and technologies associated with ecological food systems.

I have previously addressed in other forums the opportunity costs associated with cropping for tobacco, alcohol, soft drinks, sugar in lieu of food crops, ethanol, and biofuels.

Also, the active encouragement and support of more localized food systems (i.e. going toward self-sufficiency in all regions) would go a long way towards improving the quality of life in our communities. We need to put in place development control policies which stop once and for all the loss of productive farmland (and stop the sprawl that engenders and perpetuates energy intensive lifestyles) and work with growers and other farm workers to develop a production system in which they control the means of production and distribution (In such a scheme, I would consider people who work in distribution and transport a "farm" worker). Packaging should be minimized, advertising (in all sectors) eliminated and concurrently restaurant establishments should be scaled back considerably, if not minimized. Doing these things would greatly help the trash disposal problems that are with us now. Additionally, we need to actively support the reinstitution of source separation of wastes.

To the extent that sewer systems exist, humanure can and is captured. The production of algae for energy production may very well be an endeavor worthy of pursuit. Biosolids are a major problem and perhaps the construction of tankers and barges to haul and dump such to the deep ocean could mitigate this problem and create many high skilled jobs and community economic development and ownership opportunities.

However, like a national highway program (the so-called free freeways of the so-called free market system), the notion that these could be developed as a marketable products strikes me as absurd, but not nearly absurd as the plethora of extraneous and ill-conceived products that currently sit on shelves or the mountains of trash which plague our
hinterlands.

Policy Paper #2 – Equity and Sustainability Mike Morin

>Unfortunately, most Americans led by one certain heinous VP and his non-elected boss, have been inured with the notion that our energy consumption patterns are not negotiable.

This is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges we face and the one that we must work relentlessly to correct.

We must form an equity union to implement community redevelopment and relocalization strategies towards the realization of walkable communities and the significant reduction on the dependence of the automobile and the airplane. Perhaps a desirable goal would be the reduction of automobile use by 80% in the next 20 years. With regards to what would remain of the automobile industry it is necessary to implement strong CAFE standards, which would probably be best done by the capitalization of a retooling effort (imagine something like the Yugo or a quality Aveo as a hybrid). TOD and car sharing are very worthwhile ideas.

Concurrent with the former would be a program of road narrowing which would reclaim the livability of many once desirable and potentially reclaimable properties.

There would be problems associated with peak and non-peak use of automotive vehicles. For example, here in Oregon, many folks would want to use cars in the summer months to get to hiking destinations (assuming there will be any left given the current and projected policies and practices consistent with the rapacious concept of supply side economics). If one does not have a car, the current alternative is to rent one. I did this once, and the insurance costs are prohibitive. If we had an insurance pool, and the "users" owned the vehicles instead of rented, it may be a better arrangement.

I concur that bio-fuels are a limited alternative and only within the context of a much less energy intensive civilization, and much better if we could produce it with byproducts and waste products. And there are opportunity costs associated with liquors and soft drinks. Dealing directly with such issues would also go a long way toward reducing health and waste problems. And there are the opportunity costs associated with food (and byproduct) production relative to the tobacco industry. Converting liquor and soft drinks to ethanol, and tobacco resources to food resources May both be great ideas. Though a more thorough discussion about the use of biofuels May be in order.

But neither is sufficient without radical demand side management and more relocalization of food production and the production and distribution of other (necessary) goods.

Supply side economics has been a disaster and we can no longer rely on "the invisible hand" to DICTATE an anarchist (though the Capitalists prefer the term Libertarian) world headed toward certain disaster.

Sustainability and equity, equity and sustainability need to be our guiding principles.

Imagine the money we could reinvest in our communities and economy if we weren't spending it on the tremendously costly (also in terms of lives, injuries, and other miseries) wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Imagine the money that could be saved by drastically downsizing government: Federal, State, County, and Municipal.

Major savings realized by reducing or eliminating or in some cases reorganizing the current redundant, legalistic, bureaucratic, inefficient, and oppressive "democracies" which represent the interests of the monied elite coupled with an economic reorganization, a transition to an economic democracy, a planned economy, is fundamentally necessary for world peace, sustainability, equity, and survival.

You May want to look at the following also:

www.culturechange.org/Morin.html

Workin' for peace and cooperation,

Mike Morin
katerimarie@netzero.net