San Francisco Oil Awareness (SFOA) evolved from an online Meetup.com group that met under the leadership of Mike Carrick, originally at the Plough and Stars bar on Clement Street in San Francisco during autumn of 2004. By early 2005, the meeting was being held at the American Friends Service Committee location in San Francisco at 65 9th Street. Beginning January, 2007, we started meeting at "Citizen Space," 425 Second Street, between Harrison and Bryant Streets, in San Francisco. As of summer 2007 we are conducting meetings only as needed rather than in the monthly fashion that happened for the first several years.
San Francisco Oil Awareness grew from several regular members to an average of 15-25 who attended every month. During the course of 2007 our group, as well as other local groups had fewer people attending, which is somewhat interesting as the early effects of real world peak oil events (increasing food prices, market fluctuations, and so forth) have seemingly begun.
SFOA operates on a consensus basis with a rotating facilitatorship. Our librarian is Mike Carrick, so local people may want to contact us if you are looking for any particular media (mostly DVD movies) on peak oil, food security, or related issues.
We often have had outside speakers, occasionally have shown movies, and ultimately had many discussions on any Peak Oil related news or projects that we are working on or interested in.
Speakers who have given presentations at the invitation of SFOA include:
- Cal Broomhead, Department of the Environment of San Francisco, discussion of local energy use and conservation
- Alice Friedemann of East Bay Oil, information on whole grains
- Marc Geller, who drives an electric car and uses solar panels to produce most of his electricity, thus dramatically lowering his ecological footprint
- Gary Lemke of Diablo Valley Post Carbon, discussion on use of a role playing matrix sheet
- Martha Olson Jarocki, who showed a movie she was instrumental in producing and discussed its implications. "Taken for a Ride" was concerned with the destruction of America's efficient light rail system in the 1950s and 1960s by a company funded by General Motors, Standard Oil, Firestone Tire & Rubber, and others
- Pam Peirce, Gardener and Author, regarding growing of food within San Francisco's microclimates
- David Room, information regarding Post Carbon Institute, before SFOA became an official outpost
- J.R. Shetina of the Zuni Tribe of New Mexico, speaking on the more sustainable lifestyle practiced by his tribe
- Stuart Staniford, contributor to The Oil Drum, on his assessment of Peak Oil
- Rolene Walker of the AFSC, who is participating in an ambitious two year walk from Canada to Chile to raise awareness of the environment and involve directly with local residents
- Rory Cox, California Program Director of Pacific Environment, discussed issues surrounding LNG (liquefied natural gas)
- Craig Vassel of the (East Bay) Simplicity Project discussed the philosophy of many people who have spurned modern materialism for a "simpler" lifestyle
- Melissa Capria, Climate Action Coordinator of the Department of the Environment, San Francisco, discussed climate change and San Francisco
- John Siman, peak oil activist, a trained philologist, who is living in the Bay Area right now, discussed our use of Petro-Language and other ideas he is tackling in a book he is writing entitled Disconnectivities.
- Ingrid Severson of Bay Localize gave a presentation on rooftop gardens, part of the Bay Localize plan to make the area more sustainable
- Raines Cohen gave a presentation on global warming based upon training at in Tennessee by Al Gore from his presentation in "An Inconvenient Truth"
For a time we also had local members report on topics of interest or in their field of study. They included:
- David Fridley, on myths of biofuels (see also the notes on this presentation having been made into video format), also a periodic report on "Good News, Bad News" David's science background and knowledge of energy issues has proven invaluable in shaping the local peak oil communities.
- Mike Carrick, gave a presentation on the Canadian tar sands and other projects he has worked on
- Lorin Gillen, a presentation on wind power
- Sharon Kulz, a presentation on tidal power
Early projects of the group included passing out flyers at appropriate events in the bay area (this is still ongoing) and the placement of copies of the movie, "The End of Suburbia" in local video rental outlets.
We had a Peak Oil region-wide picnic on May 7, 2006 in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and a Peak Oil/Climate Change art show at ArtSF on Capp Street in San Francisco on June 17, 2006. SFOA members are affiliated with other Peak Oil SF Bay area groups, and members of these groups have aided us in our projects. Our interactions among local groups has been fairly extensive.
In December 2005, a group of SFOA members formed a "Supervisors' Subcommittee" with the goal of contacting the members of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco to express concerns about peak oil. The subcommittee hoped to present the City with enough information to convince them of the need for the city to work to mitigate the potential future effects of peak oil on our municipality and region, even though any city's limitations regarding these matters was completely understood. Peak oil was presented to the supervisors as a problem that has no actual "solution," but one with risks that possibly could be mitigated. The subcommittee began organizing a strategy in January 2006, met with members of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, attended meetings of the Policy Committee of the Commission on the Environment, as well as the entire Commission on the Environment, began meetings with aides of supervisors and supervisors themselves at City Hall, and on April 11, 2006, were rewarded with the resolution being passed by a unanimous vote of 10-0 by the Board (one supervisor of the 11 in San Francisco was absent on maternity leave). San Francisco thus became the first major city in the U.S. to pass a peak oil resolution, although a similar resolution also had passed in December 2005 in Franklin, New York (population about 2500). Since April 11, Portland, Oregon (in May 2006) and Bloomington, Indiana (in July 2006) have passed similar resolutions. Other cities are also working on their own legislation. A map of the municipalities involved with peak oil resolutions is available on the SFOA resources page, which is linked above and below.
On July 28, the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) conducted an initial Peak Oil hearing, which included a presentation by Richard Heinberg on the basics surrounding the topic. It is likely there will be one or two more hearings on Peak Oil by LAFCo. Another hearing followed in November 2006. As of August 2007 they are in the process of developing a peak oil task force to advise them of possible mitigation strategies.
Please check our resources page for more information on any of these events and projects.
