May, 6, 2008
GOVERNMENT
City waits for committee look at oil task force
Bellingham leaders want to plan for expected decline in oil supplies
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SAM TAYLOR
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
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BELLINGHAM — Approval of a task force to study the effects of potentially declining oil supplies and increasing fuel prices on the area hasn’t hit its own peak for City Council members just yet.
Officials decided Monday night to hold off on approving a resolution creating an 18- member peak oil task force because some council members were concerned that the proposal had been introduced the same night.
“I’m an old stickler for procedure,” said City Councilman Gene Knutson. “I guess that’s my age showing.”
Council members generally discuss such resolutions in committee, Knutson pointed out. He got the council to agree to wait until May 19 to vote on the proposed task force.
All council members signaled their willingness to move forward but agreed on the process issue.
Meanwhile, council members and members of the community who formed an initial work group on the peak oil issue painted a fairly dire picture of the future, with loss of oil supplies and increasing gas prices.
Councilman Terry Bornemann even used the opportunity to take a jab at the Bush administration, saying he thought it was an “interesting coincidence” that oil prices for the past six years have skyrocketed during the Iraq War and oil companies’ profits have done the same.
John Rawlins, a retired nuclear physicist who teaches at Whatcom Community College, said the government needs to prepare now for the coming decline in oil supplies.
He said communities will begin to feel the crunch, with lower-income residents feeling it the most.
Officials are concerned that limited supplies and rising prices will force some residents to seek the help of government social services when they can’t afford to pay rent, heating bills, put gas in their cars or buy food.
Councilman Jack Weiss, who proposed the resolution along with Mayor Dan Pike, said the task force would bring forward recommendations for government emergency preparedness as well as ways to educate the public on peak oil issues.
