Stories tagged with "debbie cook"

Deaf and Dumb in America - No Peak Oil for Us!

Posted by Gail the Actuary on August 21, 2009 - 10:13am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Tags: debbie cook, media, newspapers, peak oil [list all tags]

This is a guest post by Debbie Cook.

The failure of mass media to cover the peak oil story has been well documented and discussed on the pages of The Oil Drum. As recently as May 3, Kurt Cobb presented the challenges in marketing “peak oil” to main stream media. His article and subsequent comments are worth re-reading. Many of us believed that if we could just get the stories published, we’d be on our way to addressing our energy challenges. As a testament to the strength of The Oil Drum and its community, the very next day Peak Oil Entrepreneur responded with a marketing plan for peak oil. Seemingly all that is needed is money and a willingness to “get our hands dirty with unclean business.”

Failing to attract sufficient budgets for such a campaign, many of us have plodded on in our individual ways. We’ve met with editors/reporters/publishers. We’ve had our op-ed pieces rejected. We’ve assembled media panels at conferences. Are we making a difference? If we are, how would we know?

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Desalination - Energy Down the Drain

Posted by Nate Hagens on March 2, 2009 - 10:47am
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: debbie cook, desalination [list all tags]

This is a guest essay by Debbie Cook, former Mayor of Huntington Beach, CA and ASPO-USA Board member. Debbie recently lost the election for the 46th Congressional district in California. It is a testament to our nations current focus that we have few leaders like her in DC aware that energy and natural resources are ultimately what we have to spend. Her essay looks at the energy required to turn ocean water into potable water. The interrelationships of energy and water in our social systems will be paramount going forward--as we need water to procure most energy and energy to procure most water. And we are learning that more money won't magically procure more of either.

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How Will Local Governments Respond to Large Increases in Energy Bills?

Posted by Prof. Goose on May 27, 2008 - 2:00pm in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: city politics, debbie cook, energy, local government, peak oil [list all tags]

This is a guest post by Debbie Cook, Mayor of Huntington Beach, CA, and candidate for California's 46th Congressional District. Debbie has been a peak oil activist for many years; in this post Mayor Cook provides some interesting energy and peak oil-related things to think about from a local government perspective.

Robert Rapier posed an interesting hypothetical yesterday as to how individuals would respond to gasoline at $100/gallon.

However, from my position for the last three years, the question has been “how will local government respond to large increases in energy bills?”

I am the Mayor of Huntington Beach, California, a full service city of 200,000 residents, 27 square miles, 1200 employees and 8.5 miles of beach. We have nearly 200 police vehicles, 3 helicopters, 15 fire engines/trucks, 7 ambulances, 1 HazMat vehicle, and 1 medical decontamination unit. In addition there are hundreds of miscellaneous vehicles and trucks for public works, marine safety, building department, water department, and administration. All said, we consume 495,000 gallons of gasoline/diesel/jet fuel per year. For every $1 fuel goes up, it is a half million dollars out of our general fund budget.

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