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Workshop to Assess Resources in P.G.

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By ANDRE BRISCOE
Herald Staff Writer

Spiking energy costs and shrinking oil supplies may take a toll on America's suburbs, but at least in Pacific Grove, residents will have a chance to advise the city on how to meet a future energy crunch.

The result could be improved mass transit, a self-contained water supply and a smarter use of the city's resources.

A May 30 workshop is meant to assess the city's current energy resources. Deborah Lindsay, co-founder of Sustainable Monterey County who speaks nationally on energy topics, will lead it.

The goal of her organization, Lindsay said, is to get everyone thinking about life with less fossil fuel.

"Even if prices drop, future oil extraction will soon peak, then begin a gradual decline," she said.

In an effort to get the public thinking about how the city will function when gas supplies diminish, the newly formed Sustainable Pacific Grove sponsored the showing of "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream" twice during the past week. Lindsay called the movie an excellent segue into the workshop.

"We want ideas," she said. "We want everybody from janitors to the mayor to come and give us their ideas. From there, we'll assess our position."

Residents who packed the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History this week to watch the 78-minute documentary said the film was enlightening.

"It's a very-well-done movie," said Kris Lindstrom, a Pacific Grove resident and former member of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District.

"It really gets you thinking how suburbia grew and how we're so car-dependent. We are very dependent on fossil fuels. We've got to start thinking smarter about energy usage."

Lindstrom and his wife, Annette Chaplin, the Sustainable Pacific Grove organizer, recently bought their second hybrid car. He said a change in American's view on energy consumption is inevitable, and the sooner the community realizes it, the better. He suggested putting more money into the city's transit system.

"We don't have to dramatically change, but some changes are needed and you change by example," he said.

Another issue the city will address during the workshop is the ability for Pacific Grove to cope with natural disasters.

As an example of something the city could do for itself locally, Councilman Dan Cort said he is in favor of storing water at a reservoir near Pacific Grove Junior High School.

"We would like our own water supply and our own fuel supply," Cort said. "If you want sustainability, you have to have the little stores. We battle golf course issues and clubhouse issues but at the end of the day, what we need to be thinking about is, can we recycle water?"

The City Council has backed the effort and Pacific Grove is the first city in the county to embrace the objectives of Sustainable Monterey County, according to Lindsay.

"Money right now is being shifted out of the economy to pay for our gas," Lindsay said. "The key is to lower our consumption. People say we're not running out of oil, that we still have enough, but it's the cheap oil that we are running out of. The demand has outstripped the ability to meet it."
Andre Briscoe can be reached at 646-4436 or abriscoe@montereyherald.com.

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