TALKING POINTS: Oil - Good to the Last Drop?

Oil Shale Development

• The federal government is encouraging new oil shale and tar sands development for oil in some our most wild areas, specifically eastern Utah, western Colorado and southern Wyoming.

• Oil shale development requires bulldozing natural areas. Traditional methods included strip mines and pollution of ground water.

• In the 1980’s, oil shale development failed. After deciding oil shale was not profitable, a large oil corporation abruptly pulled out and caused economic calamity for Colorado’s West Slope residents, what many remember as “Black Sunday”.

• Attempts at oil shale development 25 years ago left lasting scars on the landscape because of bulldozing and strip mining.

Earthjustice

Federal Lands Management

• Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers over 261 million acres of public lands, mostly in the West and Alaska. BLM manages the most acreage out of all federal agencies, yet BLM lands contain the smallest amount of designated wilderness of any federal agency – less than 7 million acres.

The Wilderness Society

• There are already about 36 million acres of onshore public lands that are leased for oil and gas drilling.

• There are more than 63,000 oil and gas producing wells on public lands already, with another 118,000 new wells planned for Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico.

• Oil drilling fragments habitat and causes noise, water, air and light pollution in our wild areas. Drilling requires roads, extensive pipelines, airstrips and bulldozing natural areas.

• Public Lands are supposed to be guarded in the public’s interest. The BLM’s increased oil and gas permitting has weakened environmental protection for the Wild West.

Too Wild to Drill: The Wilderness Society

• BLM estimates that a million more acres will be bulldozed, graded, drilled and built upon for new oil development.

• In the past six years, oil and gas development has become the predominant use for BLM public lands, with wildlife, fishing, recreational and cultural uses taking a back seat.

Ann Morgan's Op-Ed in the Salt Lake Tribune

• The number of applications for permits to drill gas and oil on public lands has increased from about 2,500 in 2001 to a projected 10,000 by 2008 because of rising prices for oil and gas.

• The Healthy Lands Initiative calls for energy companies to work together on site plans to drill, so they can have coordinated infrastructure and protect large areas of wild lands, instead of fragmented pieces. The Bush Administration funded $22 million for the initiative in the 2008 budget and $15 million would go to the BLM to partner with other groups on habitat protection and restoration. Is this too little, too late?

Billings Gazette story

Price Gouging?

• In May 2007, the average price of a gallon of gas has breached the $3.00 mark, contributing to record high profits of the major oil companies.

• The average American household is expected to pay $2,600 for gas this year, up from $1,600 in 2002.

• Because of large mergers of oil companies in the 1990’s, 10 companies now control over 81% of the nation’s oil refineries. When one refinery is out of operation, gas prices are affected on a nationwide scale. A refinery in Texas caught fire earlier this year (this refinery alone supplies the US with 15% of its gasoline) and contributed to the rise in gas prices. However, such concentrated ownership of refineries also allows ample opportunity to control gas prices.

• On May 4, gross profit margins on gasoline refining rose 57% from the start of April to $31.22/barrel, the second widest profit margin in recorded history. These profits were double the profits from one year ago.

• Over the past six years, the top five oil companies have taken in a staggering $440 billion in profits.

• From 2000 to 2005, average expenditures on gas and oil rose 56% to $2,013 in 2005. Retail sales nationwide have declined by 0.2% in April, the first decline in seven months.

Counter Currents by Mark Rainer

Alternatives

• Many groups believe ethanol mixed with gasoline will be the future of biofuels. However, Ethanol is currently only made from the corn kernel. There are many concerns about using land for producing fuel instead of food.

• A new type of ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, is being developed. The process for making cellulosic ethanol could be achieved by using waste from urban, agricultural and forestry activities.

• BioDiesel is made from virgin or waste oil and can be used in diesel cars and trucks. However, this supplants only a small part of the entire diesel market.

• Carbon neutral fuels are being researched as we look for ways to cut down on global warming. Public transportation systems and bicycle commuting are two ways our societies and lifestyles can change to limit our dependency on oil.

• Most biofuels are biodegradable and much less harmful to the environment if spilled than oil or gasoline.

WIKI Biofuels

The American culture needs a “transportation diet”, where we use many means of transportation and limit our reliance on the car as our sole means of transport.

There are many efforts to develop electric, solar-electric and hybrid-electric cars.

WIKI Solar Powered Cars

http://www.formulasun.org/education/seles9.html

http://www.evworld.com/

http://www.electriccars.com/main.cfm

TALKING POINTS: Does Peace Have a Chance?

What is Peacebuilding?

• Peacebuilding is a whole system approach to making, keeping and sustaining peace. It includes building governance structures that protect peace through justice and human rights protections. Peacebuilding requires careful and participatory planning by various groups, within government and the community. It is a long-term commitment to a process through which peace can be sustained.

Iraq Peacebuilding Links

The Alliance for Peacebuilding's Definition

Budget Priorities

The Unified Security Budget prepared by Foreign Policy in Focus details some of the spending priorities that are affecting peacebuilding:

• An increase of $600 million for the F-22, a fighter jet of questionable capability, could allow the U.S. to triple the amount it plans to spend on canceling the debt that is crippling development in the world’s poorest countries. The U.S. could also increase by 50% U.S. contributions to international peacekeeping operations.

• Instead of funding the development of offensive space weapons, which threatens to create a whole new arms race, the U.S. could provide the $800 million needed to double the originally requested annual budget for the State Department’s Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization. This corps of civilian experts in post-conflict rebuilding, envisioned for Iraq and other locations such as Haiti and Sudan, has been unfunded since 2003, when it was proposed.

• The President's proposed budget would devote 90% of our foreign and security policy resources to military force build-up instead of nonviolent conflict resolution. Only 4% would go to measures designed to prevent conflict.

• The President's FY2008 budget would reduce spending on Cooperative Threat Reduction, vital to securing and dismantling international stockpiles of nuclear material and delivery sytems to keep them away from terrorists.

• The FY2008 budget would triple spending on new designs for nuclear weapons, calling into question the U.S. commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

• The State Department was reduced to accepting a five million dollar donation of private money to pay for the removal of two bombs-worth of highly enriched uranium from Serbia.

How can we reform these policy priorities from offensive conflict to peacebuilding and non-violence?

Who is working on peacebuilding, and what are they doing?

The UN Peacebuilding Commission works to bring resources together that are at the disposal of the international community to advise and propose integrated strategies for post-conflict recovery, focusing attention on reconstruction, institution-building and sustainable development, in countries emerging from conflict.

Peacebuilders have been working in conflict zones through the Alliance for Peacebuilding, including one who is preparing young Army officers for peace and stability operations, working with Muslims and Hindus in a New Jersey neighborhood towards "Winning the Peace".

A group called LAONF in Iraq publishes an internet campaign and works in the Universities in Baghdad and Najaf for all Iraqis to commit to nonviolence. They commit to nonviolence as the best way to create an independent, democratic, peaceful, strong and wealthy Iraq.

The Peace Alliance is working on a campaign to establish a U.S. Department of Peace. The campaign seeks to establish a body at the federal level that will seek out practical, nonviolent solutions to the problems of domestic and international conflict. The Department of Peace would work domestically to teach school children about conflict resolution, work on rehabilitating our prison population, bridge cultural divides in our communities and support the work of local, county and state governments in this regard. The Department would also support the military with complimentary approaches to peacebuilding and create a U.S. Peace Academy. The Deparment would also build on peace-making capabilities internationally.

The American Friends Service Committee is working on a Wage Peace Campaign to end the war in Iraq. The AFSC support grassroots movements and organizing to end violence and seek a peaceful and just resolution to conflict.