I wish I could have attended the 6th annual ASPO-USA (Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas-USA) conference in Washington DC this weekend. After all, it was only $695 for non-members (gaak), and featured James Schlesinger, Ralph Nader and Bianca Jagger (for the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation). A lot of the people I read - Tom Whipple, Daniel Lerch, John Michael Greer, Sharon Astyk - were also speaking there.

Conference goals were promoted in The Hill's Congress Blog:

Running on empty: the end of oil as we know it

Peak oil and energy depletion represent a stark challenge to long-held assumptions that underlie the American way of life.  Without affordable energy to drive our economy, we can expect price spikes and economic crises to be the new normal. The Pentagon’s Joint Operating Environment Study uses the bleak language of war and collapse. These are not the ravings of “Chicken Little” alarmists; these are cold sober calculations from the minds of the best scientists and energy analysts on the planet.

While the debate about Peak Oil is over, the work of addressing the enormous challenge of energy depletion has barely begun. Time is not our friend on this issue.  We are watching a race between oil depletion and new technologies, and depletion is winning. It is time for bold and wise action. We must immediately focus government policy and public awareness on mitigation strategies that are guided by the principle of “net energy” and choose the technologies that offer the highest energy return over the energy required to produce it.

Of course, the smartest and most readily available strategy is energy conservation. The greatest single source of “energy return” comes from what some have dubbed “negawatts” – the energy we do not burn and consume.  However, thus far, serious conservation strategies have received only lip service and relatively little government or private sector investment. The immense power of conservation should not be underestimated – such solutions include higher fuel efficiency standards for our cars and trucks; car sharing; more efficient design and construction of our homes, workplaces and urban centers; and innovative recycling and reuse programs. These approaches represent the low-hanging fruit of Peak Oil mitigation.

Some comments were predictably hostile and perplexed.

ASPO often publishes videos or transcripts of the presentations, but until then here's a smattering of what Sharon Astyk, John Bell and Molly Davis were live-blogging on ScienceBlogs:

Day One

John Michael Greer's presentation was entitled "The End of Investments". ... Looking back at history, especially the decline of the Roman Empire, he predicts that the concept of investments will not be one that long survives in the world of long decline. Going beyond the concept that what we call economic growth will not be possible in a post peak world, so that much of we consider wealth will turn out be illusions, there is also possibility that the nice yellowish metal that is so popular right now ($1329.60/oz right now!) may not turn out be as useful as one may think. A pile of loot attracts looters as he put it. A historical example is the stockpiles of Roman gold coins that are found on a regular basis in England. Nearby is almost always the ruin of a post-Roman villa that was certainly sacked in search of those coins. Investment in things that can't be looted or are not so alluring like tools, friendships and ties to one's community might be a better bet.

Leave it to the Archdruid to propose an idea that makes even hard-core Peak Oilers uncomfortable. Later in the day I was speaking to a financial blogger who has done wonderful work on the implications of peak oil. I asked him what he thought of Greer's talk. There was an awkward silence. Then he asked "What do you think...?"

Day Two

Best quote of the day came from the bone dry but very funny former Secretary of Energy and of Defense (at different times, not simultaneously) Dr. James Schlessinger [sic]. "Can we rise to meet the political challenge? I see absolutely no cause for optimism." Best moment was Nicole Foss's sleeper hit - I think the majority of ASPO attendees didn't know what to expect from her. Most useful presentation to me was Art Berman's brilliant assessment of shale gas.

The most useful moment of the conference so far, however, occurred at the congressional briefing when a fellow from some think tank stood up, after listening to a panel of six experts explain, sometimes clearly and succinctly, sometimes with perhaps a bit too much technical detail, over and over again, what energy limits we're actually running up against. The gentleman then asked a question that had already been answered quite clearly by several other presenters - "but what about all these big Deepwater discoveries, isn't their impact enough..."

Here's a guy who came to a policy briefing to learn something, who was at least marginally open, and who was challenging their presentation, but not with hostility. It was a useful and important reminder of how many times people have to hear a story, perhaps told many different ways to have it connect. My take is that the gentleman in question was simply seeking to reconcile what he was being told and what he had been told and that that was going to take multiple repetition.

Day Three

... For to give up things we will, whether it is now willingly, or later unwillingly. One way or another, we will lose our precious, our barrel of power. What did not come out clearly of the sound and fury surrounding the coverage of the Gulf accident was the why of where we were drilling. Yes, I know why and probably you do too. But my day job co-workers don't and I bet yours don't either. Once again, the opportunity to talk about peak oil and what it implies to the public was lost.

Yes, that issue of getting a society to peacefully give things up was addressed in the Media and Message section. But will those messages overcome the message that "It is the government's/poor's/blacks'/gays' fault."? I though that giving things up was unsurprisingly a theme of the conference, especially the last day. From Dr. Schlumberger's delightful talk on The Future of Air Transportation to Sharon's thoughtful "Feeding a Planet after Peak Oil", what we will give up and what we must not was a recurring theme.

At the end of the conference, a number of the panelists returned to the podium and were asked what they are doing in their life to prepare for what they see is going to happen. All had done something. Some had oriented their entire lives towards this (guess who), one had a careful plan to take their family to safety in another country in which they had deep roots. What are your plans?

They also reported that someone hired two kids to wear Chicken Little costumes and stand in the lobby handing out flyers, which is probably where most people stand on the issue - out in the lobby.