Using the Oil and War Connection to Promote Peace Workshop Recommended Actions

This workshop’s suggestions centered around education and advocacy efforts. There was consensus that groups needed to collaborate on solutions and get messages connecting energy issues and peace into the media.

The suggestions below are specific suggestions from workshop attendees. There are many other ideas for actions which all center around educating the public and lawmakers about the connection and then holding lawmakers accountable for their decisions.

If you’d like to be more involved in working on this issue, please contact the following groups, all of whom have education and/or advocacy programs:

Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, www.oregonpsr.org

Veterans for Peace, Chapter 72, www.dunckleystreet.com/vfpchapter72/

American Friends Service Committee, www.afsc.org/pacificnw/portland/

Code Pink Portland, http://codepinkportland.org/

Oregon PeaceWorks, www.oregonpeaceworks.org/site/index.php

War Resisters League

People of Faith for Peace, www.poffpeace.org

St Luke Lutheran Peace & Justice Group

Vancouver for Peace, http://home.comcast.net/~v4p/

Military Families Speak Out, www.mfso-oregon.org

Gold Star Families Speak Out

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, www.emoregon.org

Corvallis Alternatives to War, www.alt2war.peak.org

1. Incorporate Energy Independence messages into peace work

2. Educate around and understand the oil and war root

3. Think globally, act locally

4. Influence local politics to get out of Iraq

5. Educate and understand investment in military vs. education

6. Find method of interfaith, international communication and conflict resolution

7. Support independent media

8. Demand accountability (in politics, oil excess and so forth)

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Implications of Peak Oil for Portland and Oregon

The workshop focused on what Peak Oil is, the Portland Peak Oil Task Force (5 subgroups, deadline, purpose), Portland Peak Oil, non-solutions, and recommendations.         

If you’d like to be more involved in working on this issue, please contact:

Portland Peak Oil, www.portlandpeakoil.org

Check for the comment period in late December or early January on recommendations by the Portland Peak Oil Task Force at: http://www.portlandonline.com/osd/index.cfm?c=ecije

The suggestions below are specific suggestions from workshop attendees.

1. Develop European city/land use planning

2. Rise in consciousness/mind set

3. Education

4. Localized living/local economy

5. Diversify affordability in downtown housing

6. Look at ownership of food processors and utilities. We need local control (not investor owned) of utilities and food supply.

7. Focus on bringing in industry that is non-polluting

8. Develop worker-owned industry

9. Control the # of people coming into Portland, or develop new models of livability (European Model) in Portland to handle growth

10. Provide for urban “camping.” i.e. living in vans or cars. Change city regulations.

11. Build community showers

12. Public pressure on corporations

13. Alternative housing: fields for farming next to homes

14. National Science Foundation: get their policies changed

15. New housing: very small houses

16. Empower people in ways to have sustainable food supply:

-Food within 100 miles

-Private and community gardens

-Survey existing structures and organizations about food

-Develop neighborhood co-ops for labor and food production

-Develop support for elderly, handicapped, and homeless and avail of what they have to offer

17. Partnership in education for how to install structures in people’s homes, with living wages, energy trust support, for sustainable energy

18. Universal health care so we’re not dependent on employers

19. Education about all this in schools

20. Get really specific about where our food comes from

21. Vulnerability studies on impacts on cities and the average person

     

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Renewable Energy and Efficiency Recommended Actions

The workshop focused on state legislative efforts and renewable energy working group, the current state of Oregon plans, and why nuclear power isn’t the best option for Oregon. Attached are the legislative concepts from the Department of Energy.

If you’d like to be more involved in working on this issue, please contact the following groups, all of whom have education and/or advocacy programs:

Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, http://www.ospirg.org

Oregon Environmental Council, http://www.oeconline.org

Citizen’s Utility Board, http://www.oregoncub.org

Energy Trust of Oregon, http://www.energytrust.org 

Bonneville Environmental Foundation, http://www.b-e-f.org 

AFL-CIO, http://www.oraflcio.org 

Renewable NW Project, http://www.rnp.org

People’s Utility District Association, http://www.opuda.org

3 E Strategies, http://www.3estrategies.org

Look up renewable energy working group

Oregon Department of Energy, http://oregon.gov/ENERGY/

The suggestions below are specific suggestions from workshop attendees.

1. Solar on every roof

2. Gasification and hybrid technologies

3. Decrease pesticide use via Oregon Department of Forestry-gov

4. State legislature support for hemp and other fuel plants

5. Educate public on energy issues in a meaningful and understandable way

6. Fix smart grid:

-educate the public on how to get involved

-consider self-sufficiency for all buildings and communities (work on codes, modification to consistent wx(?) design)

-distributed generators

7. Price health care, environment, etc into final energy costs. Require this as “truth in advertising”

8. Building retrofits

9. Sustainable Schools Project

10. Encourage the public to look into:

Energy Trust of Oregon

Sustainability Board

11. Pension investments should be put into renewable and socially responsible funds

12. Residential power purchase agreements

13. Development of interconnected standards, grid management, ability to sell back- both rural and urban.

14. Nano-solar is under development- silicon based, thin, and durable, which will lower the cost of solar

15. Support of responsible renewable energy from OR energy suppliers (Oregon is looking to buy only green energy)

16. Focus on long-term costs vs. short-term

17. Educate public and convince government officials to focus on the long-term

 

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Economic Opportunities

The workshop focused on renewables, biofuels, efficiency and the need for the state to continue and expand its commitment to these forms of energy to promote an attractive environment for business.

If you’d like to be more involved in working on this issue, please contact the following groups:

Oregon Environmental Council, www.oeconline.org, www.biofuels4oregon.org

Oregon AFL-CIO, www.oraflcio.org

Oregon Department of Energy, http://oregon.gov/ENERGY/

Apollo Alliance, www.apolloalliance.org

The suggestions below are specific suggestions from workshop attendees.

1. Educate people on the available alternative energy sources in Oregon – “the Saudi Arabia of alternative energy”

2. Remain aware of the possible financial disparities that can happen when economies shift.

3. Retrain workforce for emerging technologies and job sources.

4. Create revenue streams to sell surplus power to other regions/businesses.

5. Create a state-sponsored capital venture fund for alternative energy development.

6. Call your state rep and senator to support upcoming legislative energy incentives.

7. Form community cooperatives around biodiesel and waste oil.

8. Tax gasoline to move consumers to diesel and biodiesel.

9. Have larger incentives for residential tax credits.

10. Encourage development of solar roofing material.

11. Improve capacity of existing energy grid to handle surplus energy sales back to the system.

12. Create energy-efficiency programs and incentives for rental property.

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Global Warming in Oregon

The workshop focused on impacts of global warming on Oregon, global warming and human health, as well as educational campaigns and actions in Oregon.

For more information on the Governor's Initiative on Global Warming see: http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/GBLWRM/index.shtml

If you’d like to be more involved in working on this issue, please contact the following groups, all of whom have education and/or advocacy programs:

Oregon Environmental Council, www.oeconline.org

Oregon Global Warming Action Network, www.oregwan.org

Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, www.oregonpsr.org

OSPIRG, www.ospirg.org

Sierra Club of Oregon, www.oregon.sierraclub.org

Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns & Oregon Interfaith Global Warming Campaign, www.emoregon.org

Jobs with Justice Global Warming Committee, www.jwjpdx.org

The suggestions below are specific suggestions from workshop attendees.

1. Tax gas so that it costs $5 a gallon

2. Level the playing field- subsidize clean and penalize dirty

3. Rain harvesting

4. Composting toilet

5. Concentrated housing

6. Mixed neighborhood housing

7. Force corporate responsibility for pollution

8. Subsidize local agriculture

9. Victory gardens

10. Buy local/city gardens

11. Change lawn to garden

12. Solar power for local use

13. Stop having children (or limit)

14. Change tax not to favor dependents

15. Bicycle – subsidize same

16. Walk – pedestrian walkways

17. Work closer to, or at, home

18. Public transportation

19. Tax SUVs and other inefficient vehicles

20. Tax homes that have an area of greater than 300 sq. ft. per person

21. Increase housing density

22. Tie licensing to MPG of vehicle

23. Buy local

24. Zone better

25. Buy insurance and registration as you buy gas (ie based on usage)

26. Building materials that save/store energy

27. Build “smaller” streets

28. Tax coal-fired generation facilities

29. Sign up for wind power

30. Spend with political goals

31. Increase awareness so that we can make better decisions

32. Emphasize energy conservation early at schools and home

33. Work for international controls

34. Be engaged in politics on local and regional levels

     

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Creating a Movement

The workshop discussed the various aspects related to creating a movement in Oregon and nationally, including the connections between peace, business and the environment.

If you’d like to be more involved in working on this issue, please contact the following groups, all of whom have education and/or advocacy programs:

Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, www.oregonpsr.org

Oregon State Public Interest Research Group, www.ospirg.org

Oregon Business Association, www.oba-online.org

Sierra Club, www.oregon.sierraclub.org

Oregon Environmental Council, www.oeconline.org

Oregon League of Conservation Voters, www.olcv.org

Oregon Global Warming Action Network, www.oregwan.org

The suggestions below are specific suggestions from workshop attendees.

1. Personal investing options

2. What and who you work for

3. Identify media as second tier of all actions

4. Demand education in global warming

5. Offer rewards for sustainability efforts

6. Create alliance between faith and ecology

7. Communicate crisis timelines- build coalition

8. Support international agreements and the UN

9. Link oil and climate change issues

10. Hold politicians and corporations to responsible single standard

11. Get governors to gang up on feds

12. More peace songs

13. Combat disinformation

14. Military: wages war on ourselves

15. Channel tremendous energy of youth

16. Grants to young (college students) for solutions

17. Link people with ideas with people with energy

18. Provide market/business advantages for small businesses with sustainable approaches

19. Develop strategy to convert short term profit to longer term sustainability

20. Hubbert: change the way $ works- laws

21. Discourage heavy energy use

22. Create political will – mass movement

23. Demand reliable and trustworthy electoral system