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Portfolio Detail: Charting a New Energy Future

REPORT: "Charting a Path for a New Energy Future for Sebastopol," April 3, 2007. Report of the City of Sebastopol Citizens Advisory Group on Energy Vulnerability (CAGE), which explored how the City could maintain municipal services in the face of upcoming peak oil (energy supply) issues. ROLE: Executive Editor & Report Coordinator. Led in creating the 62-page report, with the CAGE Report Editorial Committee. Presented report to the City Council. CONTENTS: * Exective Summary * Chapter I. A distilled description of current energy supply challenges (peak oil), their implications, the current alternative energy sources, and the responses of other communities. Includes key models that make it easier to approach this issue constructively &endash; not from despair or wishful thinking, but by understanding the notable risks before us, and choosing a positive solution &endash; to proactively transition to our new energy future. * Chapter II. Analysis of the ways that Sebastopol's City operations are vulnerable to these energy supply problems. Includes helpful City actions to date, such as installing solar panels and increasing energy efficiency. Encourages the City to even more proactively prepare in two key ways: by transitioning away from a dependency on petroleum energy sources, and by reducing its net energy needs. Offers many specific recommendations for accomplishing this, including passing an Energy Transition Resolution, modifying internal operations, and interacting with the broader community. * Appendices View article about report Download CAGE report (PDF) Note: If you need a (free) PDF reader, click here www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. City Council Response "I wanted to encourage the Council and members of the public to read this document very carefully because I think it has some very important information for us and some very valuable recommendations.... I think it's a very important step that we've taken and I really appreciate the work of the committee over this time." Councilmember Larry Robinson "I'd like to second those comments. I'm particularly proud of the fact that this will be on our website and people who look to Sebastopol for solutions will have yet another document to download and read. And it actually is an excellent read. I'm an engineer, I'm sorry, but it's pretty fascinating." Mayor Sam Pierce "This is an incredible document. I really appreciate you all for doing the hard work to make this happen, to bring this forward." Councilmember Craig Litwin "You have provided us with a most valuable document. I'm sure in our future discussions, we will find many ways to implement it, and we will all keep it foremost in our mind, because this is our future. So I want to thank all you authors who have contributed for many many months .... I want to let everybody know that there is a value to this report beyond the City's use. The report provides to each of us a lot of information and education as to what we might do individually, and that really is how we're going to change the world." Councilmember Sarah Gurney "I want to thank the [Advisory Group] and the wealth of editorial and writing skills of Patricia Dines. We were very lucky to have you, to be able to put this through, in this format and this detail. Councilmember Linda Kelley   Response by Others "The CAGE report is quite an amazing piece of work and certainly a model for other communities who will want to follow in your footsteps. Our group, Transition Town Asheville, cited the report and some of its conclusions in a panel presentation we made to the larger community last month.So your work is helping inform us out here in the east." Joan Engelhardt, Transition Town Asheville ("a group of local residents dedicated to helping people and communities in the WNC bioregion transition to a sustainable economy based on renewable energy and local production") More information about this project is available upon request.

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