Recent clipping found via The Oil Drum...

TUE., JAN 23, 2007 - 5:04 PM

A Wisconsin State Journal editorial

Let's hope Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk summon the good sense to take the report they have received from the Peak Oil Task Force and file it under "T."

For twaddle.

The Peak Oil Task Force is part of a national network of groups obsessed with the catastrophe they believe will befall the Earth after oil production passes its peak and hits the skids.

They have made gas-guzzling autos Public Enemy No. 1, and they want us all to prepare for the doomsday that cars will inflict on us.

They are, to the left wing of the political spectrum, what the gun-toters living in bunkers in Idaho are to the right wing.

Except there is no evidence they are dangerous.

Unless somebody in a decision-making position starts buying in to their recommendations.

For example, check out the recommendations in the report sent to Cieslewicz and Falk from the Downtown Isthmus Group of the Peak Oil Task Force. Here are a few of the anti-car proposals:

•Penalize people who drive gas-hog cars. Use fines and prohibitions.

•Ban the sale of private cars on the public airwaves.

•Require that all new apartment buildings and condominiums be built without parking.

Then look at the doomsday fears underlying a few of the other recommendations:

•Ban new buildings taller than 60 feet because power blackouts will disable elevators.

•Plant fruit trees throughout the city to provide calories in case a breakdown in the transportation system means no food shipments reach Madison.

OK, we're all for conservation and alternative energy sources, etc., etc. But fining folks for daring to drive a car? Limiting buildings to five stories? We have a word for that, and the word is loony.

Surely no political leaders would ever encourage this bunch, right?

Wrong.

The city of Portland, Ore., - one of Mayor Dave's favorite models - has succumbed to pressure from Peak Oil activists and appointed an official committee to study how Portland should prepare for the "post- carbon" age.

So far, Madison's Peak Oil Task Force remains strictly an unofficial group spouting unofficial nonsense.

Surely, Madison and Dane County leaders will be smart enough to keep it that way.

Right?

========================================================
Name calling and total absence of rational argument. If it is all nonsense, why are you unable to refute any of the assertions of peak oil?

==================
ETA: More coverage from local TV station http://www.wkowtv.com/News/index.php?ID=8917
Note that on mac, the streaming video would only play under internet exploder.