Legislative To-do List
Legislators and community leaders should see it as their personal responsibility to familiarize themselves with the short and long-term ramifications and impacts of drastically increasing energy costs and the decline in fossil-fuel availability. Below are some guidelines for action, courtesy of Nancy Lee Wood.
Legislative Action to Inform Colleagues
·Legislators aware of the magnitude of the problem of peak oil should educate colleagues (Richard Heinberg’s 15-minute DVD will soon be produced and available for legislator-education) via film and information sessions. Please email us for other suggestions about film and print resources available.
·Training of colleagues in how to approach communities and constituents they serve.
·Funding to support legislator/community leaders and public educational programs.
·Read daily/weekly information/data to remain abreast of energy-related events and their impacts on relevant communities.
Energy Bulletin
The Oil Drum
ASPO-USA
·Create a weekly summary “Energy Week-in-Review†for legislators and municipal officials.
Legislative Action to Inform Municipal and Town Officials
·State representative and senators holding urgency meetings with city and town governing bodies.
·Initiating emergency management responses with ambulance providers,
fire-fighters, local and state police, civil service emergency crews, volunteer units.
·Initiating local radio, television and newspaper education.
Legislative Action to Inform the Public
·Weekly/daily TV and radio announcements that educate about fossil fuel depletions and behaviors/actions needed to mitigate impacts.
·Public service newspaper ads, advertising papers.
·Ubiquitous bill-board announcements - especially modeling behavioral change.
·State sponsored mailing to all public facilities - public schools - including colleges/universities, public office buildings, court houses, department of motor vehicle offices, social security offices, welfare departments, citizen assistance programs, water departments, waste services, prisons, etc.
·State sponsored mailing to each household and residence including nursing homes, orphanages, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers and municipal and state facilities of incarceration, etc.
·State sponsored mailing to production centers - factories, repair services, garage maintenance services.
·State sponsored mailing to business/retail sectors - supermarkets, insurance agencies, real estate agencies, clothing stores, department stores, hardware and appliance stores, gas stations, nurseries and garden centers, sporting goods stores, craft and supply centers, convenience stores, etc.
·State sponsored mailing to entertainment centers - movie theaters, night clubs, restaurants/snack bars/coffee-donut shops, bowling allies, casinos, malls, etc.)
·State sponsored mailing to other places the public goes - churches, museums, private schools, child day-care facilities, elder-care facilities, exercise centers, hospital and medical facilities, doctor and dental offices, civic and community organizations (e.g. Rotary Club, Masonic Lodge, Portuguese-American Club).
The following websites devote their work to helping communities find ways of mitigating impacts caused by fossil fuel depletions and shortages.
The Relocalization Network
Post Carbon Cities
Transition Towns
The Community Solution
Legislative Action on TRANSPORTATION
·Moratorium on ALL new road construction, parking lot development, airport expansion and/or construction; only maintenance of currently existing road and airport facilities should occur.
·Shift funding from liquid fuel transport to development and/or expansion of freight rail and light rail transport.
·Work with municipalities to develop jitney services; community ride boards.
·Develop and/or expand inter-city seacoast travel.
·Establish and/or enhance bus inter and intra-city transport.
Legislative Action on AGRICULTURE
See Energy Farms and The Community Solution
·State legislation requiring the sale of agricultural land to be sold to and bought by agents who continue to farm that land - not turn it into housing/mall development.
Work with each constituent community - officials, agricultural programs, farmers - to develop local, organic growing and markets within urban areas.
·Promote all public education systems to include education regarding organic and permaculture growing; garden site on each school ground.
·All institutions within the state community college system be required to offer, at minimum, a certificate program in organic/permaculture growing.
·State scholarship incentives to students pursuing such programs.
·Tax incentives to encourage state residents to turn grass-yards into agricultural plots for local production and consumption.
Legislative Action on HEATING/COOLING and ENERGY SOURCES
See this link.
·State sponsored program to educate the population as to the need and urgency of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables in every aspect of living.
·Massive tax incentives to transition communities from oil, natural gas and coal into geothermal, ground pump, solar, wind, wave and tidal sources of energy.
·All institutions within the state community college system be required to offer, at minimum, a certificate program in retrofitting existing structures into sustainable systems.
·State scholarship incentives to students pursuing such programs.
·Municipal buildings retrofitted - both for purposes of sustainability and as models.
·All new building - public and private - required to meet LEEDS standards.
Feedback and suggestions pertaining to this list are strongly encouraged. Please email us at PostCarbon Rhode Island