The Oil Drum | Got plans for the next few weeks?

Got plans for the next few weeks?

Posted by Stuart Staniford on September 22, 2005 - 2:13pm

Update [2005-9-22 14:13:45 by ianqui]: I'm moving this up to make sure that anyone who can make these conferences, especially the one-day ones, knows about them.

We also have a new meeting to plug: the Petrocollapse conference in New York City on Wednesday, October 5. Peakguy also discusses it on Peak Oil NYC.

(Original post) A quick reminder that the Second US Conference on "Peak Oil" and Community Solutions is happening this weekend. The speaker list is here. Keynote speakers include Richard Heinberg, author of Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World and The Party's Over: Oil, War and The Fate of Industrial Societies and Michael Shuman, author of Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. Also speaking is well known rabble-rouser Jan Lundberg.

This conference is very much out on the sustainability/community end of the peak oil spectrum, rather than the supply/technology or economics ends (can a spectrum have three ends?) You can check out last year's proceedings. Anyway, I'm planning on making the trek over to Yellow Springs, Ohio (assuming my airline stays in business long enough), and will file a report. Let me know if any other ODers are going to be there and we can hook up.

And if you're in the Frederick, MD area, Roscoe Bartlett's Energy Conference is on Monday, September 26. We expect to have reports from both.

Technorati Tags: peak oil, oil, gas prices

Got plans for the next few weeks?

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17 comments

Donal on September 16, 2005 - 8:50am Permalink | Comments top

If I wasn't going to Rep. Bartlett's conference on Monday morning,
http://www.bartlett.house.gov/Events.asp , I probably would attend in Ohio. I'm glad you'll be reporting.

JLA on September 16, 2005 - 9:25am Permalink | Parent | Comments top

I think I'll probably go to the Bartlett conference instead as well.

I'll be curious to find out how much of the Community Solutions conference is pushing intentional communities. I like the idea of intentional communities, but they're not for everyone. It's really a lifestyle choice. Reshaping the landscape will be a big part of the solution to peak oil, but that does not mean that everyone will be moving to an ecovillage.

JLA on September 16, 2005 - 10:19am Permalink | Parent | Comments top

BTW Donal,

I understand from your past comments that you are an architect. Just in case you don't know him, one of the speakers, John Spears, is an architect with exceptional experience in high performance, energy efficient building design. He bid on a green building design project that I managed a few years ago and I had the opportunity to read his resume and speak with him.

Donal on September 16, 2005 - 12:51pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top

Thanks for the heads-up.
He's from my old home town, too:
http://www.sustainabledesign.com/index.htm

See you there.

Donal on September 19, 2005 - 4:05pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top

Doesn't say that Spears is an architect, actually. He's a Certified Energy manager. Another fellow is the RA.

JLA on September 22, 2005 - 5:31pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top

I've seen his full resume, and he is an architect by training. Energy is certainly his niche, though.

Yankee on September 16, 2005 - 10:34am Permalink | Comments top

Those in the New York area should also consider the Petrocollapse conference, featuring Kunstler, Lundberg, Pimentel, and others. See also peakguy's post on PO-NYC for more events in the NY area.

jmengel on September 16, 2005 - 11:21am Permalink | Comments top

Off topic a bit, but did anyone catch Donald Trump on Leno last night? He dribbled out a drooling analysis of the current high oil and gas price situation. Could he have been serious? His position was that our elected leaders are stiffs when it comes to negotiating and that the OPEC leaders are ripping us off. He said he could come up with a list of 25 business people who could go over there and instantly negotiate lower prices on oil. Another bad sign was the applause and cheers he got when talking smack about oil producing countries. And wow, nice comb-over.

-jon

louGrinzo on September 22, 2005 - 5:31pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top

I didn't see The Donald on Leno, but what you said doesn't surprise me in the least. Trump could be the posterboy for the arrogant, ignorant manager who thinks the world is simple and all it takes is his particular brand of cojones to master it.

I've thought for years that Trump's #1 wish was that the American people would clamor for him to run for president. If that happens, I'll drive the 5 miles to Lake Ontario, jump in, and swim for Canada.

fimbulvetr on September 16, 2005 - 11:26am Permalink | Comments top

This is rather by-the-by . .. an article from 2000 where James Howard Kunstler interviews Jane Jacobs . . . city planning, peak oil, and sustainability (in the broad sense) all rolled into one. Interesting where Kunstler brings up the idea of peak oil, and Jacobs (one of my great heroes) flatly states that it will never happen. It was 2000! I wonder what she thinks now . . .

JLA on September 16, 2005 - 11:33am Permalink | Parent | Comments top

I read this a while back. I would have raised an eyebrow at that proposition back then as well. It was interesting how Kunstler seemed somewhat uncertain of the theory back then (as well he should have been) compared to his brash statements today.

knightrd on September 17, 2005 - 12:26am Permalink | Parent | Comments top

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louGrinzo on September 22, 2005 - 5:38pm Permalink | Parent | Comments top

I know nothing of Jacobs, but in general, I think that the peak oil deniers (from this moment forward known as POD People) are sticking with some combination of "it's all market speculation" and "it's a lack of investment, and in a few years things will be peachy keen again once we get the fields and infrastructure back up to speed."

To be completely honest, my view is that the current market tightness is NOT peak oil. I still side with ASPO in their prediction that the peak will hit in 2007. But to say, as many of the POD People do, that just because current prices aren't caused by peak oil that peak oil therefore isn't an immediate concern is like saying that peak oil has never happened before, so why worry?

(I guess I finally have a name for the extreme optimists--POD People--to go with the apocalypticon name for the extreme pessimists.)

ab3 on September 17, 2005 - 4:57pm Permalink | Comments top

Stuart,

I'm going to the Community Solutions conference next weekend, along with my wife and two other people from the Atlanta area. I'll look for you there.

Like you, my background is physics, and I hope to pick your brain next weekend since you know more about this issue than I do.

Allison Bailes

revi on September 19, 2005 - 11:26am Permalink | Comments top

You can also go to the Commonground Fair in Unity, Maine and see John Howe's Ideas for a post peak world. He'll have his solar tractor and his solar transportation system there. He's the keynote speaker and at 11:00 on Saturday he'll talk about the idea of powering down. Any Peak freaks that want to meet afterwards, grab some yummy organic food and meet by the solar tractor at around 12:30 on Saturday the 24th. (depending on how long he speaks) We'll plan on what the heck we're going to do around Maine about peak oil and its ramifications.

We're also meeting at the UU Church in Waterville the first Sunday of every month at 10:45.

corncam on September 22, 2005 - 3:20pm Permalink | Comments top

ASPO-USA is holding their first annual conference in Denver on November 10-11.

A high-level conference to discuss the impacts of a peak in world oil production will be held in Denver, Colorado on November 10-11, 2005. The two-day forum is sponsored by the City and County of Denver and ASPO-USA. Keynote speakers include Matt Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert, a study of Saudi Arabia's petroleum resources, and Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, (R-Md.). Other speakers will include Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper; The Honorable Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), The Honorable Tim Wirth, President, U.N. Foundation; Michael Ashar, Suncor-USA; Peter Dea, Western Gas Resources; Jeremy Gilbert, Chief Petroleum Engineer (ret.) with British Petroleum; oil industry analyst Henry Groppe; Chris Skrebowski, ed. Petroleum Review; and Tom Petrie of Petrie/Parkman.

Donal on September 23, 2005 - 9:59am Permalink | Comments top

I've been so busy that I was feeling bad about taking the half-day for the Bartlett conference, but this morning I heard that my project has been put on hold to reevaluate the costs.

That's always how it starts. Then the bosses get grumpy. Then someone calls you into their office to shake your hand and say there's no work right now, but keep in touch.

We'll see.