Serving Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and surrounding communities
Interview
Debbie Cook
Orginally published September, 2006
HB City Councilmember Debbie Cook
By John Earl
Editor
Debbie Cook is an environmental attorney serving out her second term as a member of the Huntington Beach City Council. She has served on the Orange County Sanitation District, Orange County Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission and the State Desalination Task Force, in addition to many other regional governing bodies, and is widely recognized as an expert on energy and water issues. In addition to speaking to government officials and holding public seminars, she has established a web site at http://web.mac.com/energyinfo.com in order to "educate the public, policy makers, and elected officials about the world's energy challenges ahead." Besides lecturing others, Cook practices what she preaches by riding an electric bicycle around town instead of a car whenever possible. On August 3rd the Orange Coast Voice interviewed Cook at her home, which has a backyard full of water conserving native plants instead of grass, about the world-wide consequences of indulging in fossil fuel and denying the need to change our self-destructive life style.
Explain your theory of peak oil
Peak oil is not a theory. Oil fields peak, regions peak, countries peak. Eventually the world will meet the maximum amount of oil that it can produce.
When will peak oil occur?
Geologists who realize that this is an issue believe that we are there or it's within the next couple of years. The official agencies, though, put it out to 20, 30 years. It's really irrelevant because it takes so much time to prepare for the eventual decline in oil production because once you hit the peak it's all down hill from there. In fact, conventional oil has already peaked in production.
What is the difference between conventional oil and unconventional oil?
Conventional oil is the typical oil. You drill a well and you pull oil out. Unconventional is tar sands, shale oil and some of those things that were always thought to be uneconomical.
Supposedly there's an eternal supply of shale oil in Canada.
It all goes back to the rate of production. There's gold in the ocean. You could always extract it, but it's going to be difficult to take gold out of the seawater, very expensive. Oil shale and tar sands take s much energy to extract and they can be so difficult to access that you will never use it.
Why should we be worried about peak oil in Huntington Beach or Costa Mesa?
Anywhere in the world? Because our lives are so energy intensive. Everything we touch has oil in it whether it's our food, clothing or transportation. What kind of society do you have once you keep asking for more energy but you don't get more?
The United States has five percent of the world's population but uses 25 percent of the energy resources. It's not just population, it's our lifestyle, isn't it?
Oh, yeah, but this is not an American problem, this is a world problem because oil knows no boundaries. If Iran says "We're not going to sell you oil," we go somewhere else and somebody else buys Iran's oil. This whole notion of being independent or getting off Middle East oil is absurd.
What do we have to do to stop the dependence on energy from oil?
We're going to have to do a lot of conservation and a lot of efficiency.
What are some efficiencies that we could do?
Obviously, vehicles don't have to get 11 miles per gallon. People don't have to drive Hummers. you can make your buildings so energy efficient that they're basically neutral, just like my house. I don't have an electricity bill because my solar panels generate as much as I need for the year. Switching light bulbs off, all of those things.
Mass transit uses up a lot of energy too, doesn't it?
I think most of the cities that are looking into this are looking into electrifying everything...There's going to be a lot of nuclear, whether people like it or not. Obviously, that's not sustainable in the long term either. But at least when you are electrified it gives you the option of using renewable energies, like wind, solar and ocean waves. Electrifying is probably going to be the best solution.
All of our housing is based on the use of the automobile--the invention of the suburbs.
People just have to learn how to live more locally. Back in World War II everybody was growing a lot more foods locally. They had their victory gardens. they were collecting scrap metals. The car companies didn't even manufacture cards during World War II. But there needs to be leadership that explains why the most patriotic ting that anyone can do right now is to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels.
What's going to happen in Huntington Beach in 60 years if we don't change?
I think that in 60 years we will hve worked out a lot of the problems. Hopefully, we will have figured out that we can't keep growing, that there are limits to growth. but the crucial time is not 60 years from now. The crucial time is this next ten years.
But people aren't going to be concerned in the next ten years if they don't--
I believe they will. i don't believe that we have ten years. There are nations right now that re not ble to get the energy that they want. Just two weeks ago there was a report that Taiwan is desperate for liquefied natural gas and they can't find anybody to sell it to them.
What's being done in Huntington Beach to save energy?
We have contracted for an energy audit of all our facilities. As monies become available we can go after those buildings that are most energy inefficient. Our building and safety directors just purchased a number of hybrid vehicles. Will we be prepared? i don't think anyone is going to be perpared adequately for the kinds of energy problems that we're facing.
What can Huntington Beach realistically do in a relatively short time?
We can update our building codes to make it as easy as possible for people to do renewable [energy] projects and require that all new homes are solar ready or actually include solar panels.
There are conflicting numbers with peak oil and global warming. How do you know what's accurate?
You actually have to put in the time to learn it. I can give you one example and that's the oil situation. Whereas the official numbers include reserves that are inflated and they're a lie. They [OPEC countries] just did it [in the 800's] because...the more reserves you had, the more you were allowed to produce.
What can be done to get environmentalists and labor to work together more and see that their interests are linked?
My mom always used to say you have to reach the teachable moment. And these people have not reached the teachable moment. Certainly [not] in the labor side. I'm sorry, but I believe that they are much more ignorant than the environmental side.
The vast majority of people in this world are ignorant of what's going on.
And when you tell them they don't care. People are selfish and self-centered.
Okay.
A lot of them aren't, but...I don't know as an individual what I can do. I don't own a TV station.
Looking not just at the individual.
Obviously, we need stronger leadership in this country to educated the people. But you have to understand the problem before you can solve it and there are not enough people who understand the problems.
How are were going to create a sustainable world>? i don't think we will. I read Collapse. What was the guy thinking when he chopped down the last tree on Easter Island?
What would you be thinking? There's another tree around the other side of the island, technology will save us?
It's like with oil. [People think] it's not our problem; we're not going to have to deal with it my lifetime, that's our kids' problem.
What kind of mentality thinks that way?
It's definitely a genetic defect.
Oil Facts:
*World-wide oil consumption is 80 million barrels per day.
*The U.S.A. consumes 21 million barrels of oil a day, or 26 percent of the world total. The next highest consumer of oil is China at 6.5 million barrels a day.
*The USA imports 12.1 million barrels of oil each day, more than any other country. China is ranked third at 2.9 million barrels of oil a day.
--Energy Information Agency
Natural Gas Facts:
*U.S.A. supply is not likely to grow meaningfully over the remainder of the decade in our view.
*The limited ability to increase drilling activity, lack of attractive drilling prospects and accelerating decline rates highlight the probability of future domestic production declines.
*Canadian imports reversed trend and are now declining, a significant change from the 10% average annual growth experienced during the 1990's.
--Simmons & Company, Energy Industry Research Report, January 18, 2005
