Devise plans of action to deal with energy descent

Here are some talking points to get you started.

Land Use & Planning

• People will need to live close to where they work and shop
• Consider implementing business office cubicle hoteling rentals as a new option for telecommuters who can’t work from home but work far away.
• Density will be essential to success – grow up, not out. Density must provide inclusive whole communities, not just lots of houses in a small space. Consider housing estates that incorporate daily-use commercial enterprise within the estates themselves. Bring public transit to every residential cluster. Do not authorize residential or industrial developments to be built without public transportation availability and infrastructure.
• Food supplies must be grown/processed as locally as possible to reduce the energy required for transport and to mitigate shortages. Promote rapid development of community gardens on vacant land and zone so that land areas are strategically located to support urban agriculture.
• Local manufacturing should be encouraged and expanded to supply commonly used goods and commodities. Revise zoning restrictions to facilitate this.
• Promote zoning that reduces the need for long-distance transportation for materials. Encourage localization. Encourage locally owned businesses.
• With higher unemployment and economic stress, tax revenues and user-fees that municipalities depend upon will decline while expenses increase rapidly – be prepared for the revenue declines or find other sources to replace them, soon.

Transportation

• Expect a significant reduction in auto and truck traffic. Individual automobiles for transportation are UNLIKELY to remain the primary mode of human transport at some point in the coming five to ten years – walking, bicycling, and scooters should dramatically increase (think China) -- plan accordingly
• We must redesign and rebuild infrastructure to support significant increases in pedestrian-oriented and public transit systems. Expect a dramatic increase in public mass transportation infrastructure and proximity access throughout the County (consider that some portions/lanes of major North/South and East/West traffic corridors should necessarily need to be converted exclusively to public transit corridors – preferably hybrid- electric, e.g. trolleys/trams)
• Cost and availability of asphalt, and infrastructure maintenance costs will dramatically increase – the longer you wait, the higher the cost.
• We will soon stop the recent rush to pour our food supply into our gas tanks via ethanol and various flavors of biodiesel. Biofuels, in their current production formats are actually adding carbon emissions to our atmosphere rather than reducing them, -- possibly by a factor of nearly 100.
• Exports of locally-made products will decline.

Employment and industry

• Considerable service sector decline is probable (e.g. services that can otherwise be done at home) due to reductions in discretionary spending. Many industries are likely to simply close their doors
• Be prepared for unemployment numbers in the double-digits
• Encourage locally based manufacturers to secure or create their supply resources locally, and to closely evaluate their supply chains for vulnerabilities.
• The “illegal immigrant” issue will likely raise its head further as unemployment numbers increase
• Prepare for a very large "green collar" job market

Health and Human Services

• Significant increase in marginalized populations is probable
• Marginalized populations will be the first to be hit hard by shortages of fuel or food
• Increases in drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence is probable
• Significant increase in HHS clientèle is probable
• Significant increase in HHS issues related to unemployment is probable

Food and Agriculture

• Significant price inflation for food, and reductions in availability are likely; especially so if large quantities of bio-fuel production becomes commonplace
• Energy for use in tilling, planting, harvesting, transport, and processing will become limited, affecting each of these factors in the food chain
• Substitutions for petrochemical fertilizer and pesticide stocks, on a large scale, will be needed by County farmers to maintain crop yields
• There will be an emphasis on local food production – think Victory Gardens from WW-I and II. Establish numerous community gardens for residents to supplement commercial food supplies