Speaking the truth can be painful. I had heard about Maryland's proposed redistricting before, but hadn't put two and two together until I read Outsider Bartlett faces political challenge of career.
 

During a nearly two-decade career on Capitol Hill, the Western Maryland Republican has remained the consummate political outsider, eschewing Washington to drive home each night to his farm south of Frederick, bucking his own party on energy and climate change and claiming ownership of issues — such as stink bug control — that few others have readily embraced.

But at 85, the second-oldest member of the House now faces what may be the greatest political challenge of his tenure: A new congressional district drafted by Democrats in Annapolis would prove far less friendly if he decides to seek an 11th term next year. The proposed district, which the Maryland General Assembly will consider this month, instantly makes the 6th District race a tossup.

Why should I care about a self-described Tea Party conservative that might lose his seat? Only because he has been one of the few members of Congress to address the problem of energy depletion, holding a Peak Oil conference in 2005. I posted my impressions then on The Oil Drum, and reposted them for dagsters at the end of my World in Collision article.

Rep Bartlett is still an outsider probably because he believes what he said while introducing that conference: I am a conservative Christian, but I am also a scientist with a brain. He accepted the science behind Climate Change as well as Peak Oil, and while he fought hard for his district, he never became a leader in a party that tried to define its own reality.

So while I probably disagree with Rep Bartlett on a host of issues, I am grateful to him for hosting that conference and applaud him for being his own man. I wish more in Congress would be their own true selves.

In a related note, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) is holding their 2011 Truth In Energy conference  at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill in Washington DC from Wednesday November 2nd through Saturday the 5th. As we discussed in the Paradigm chat room, it isn't ASPOG because the gas is silent (but deadly).

Truth In Energy is the theme of this year's conference -- focusing on the importance of reliable, transparent energy information, and the need to educate influential leaders and the public on the peak oil energy challenges facing our nation.

Thanks to legislators like Roscoe Bartlett, I think our leaders are well aware of peak oil, though I think we're seeing less and less truth in the energy information released to the public. This year, speakers will include a lot of folk whose blog posts and comments I've been reading for years - Richard Heinberg, Jean Laherrère, Robert Rapier, Chris Skrebowski, Jeffrey Brown, Nicole Foss, John Michael Greer, Robert Hirsch, Dmitry Orlov, Gail Tverberg, Tom Whipple, and Sharon Astyk - many of whom I've quoted or reposted on TPM and dag. Also, Dr. William R Catton, Jr., author of Overshoot: The Ecological Basis for Revolutionary Change will be speaking, as will many others whose names are less familiar to me.