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All About Marin: Supervisors get grim forecast about oil supply, economy
[June 21, 2008]

All About Marin: Supervisors get grim forecast about oil supply, economy


(The Marin Independent Journal Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 21--AT THE COUNTY Civic Center, the Board of Supervisors' weekly agenda is set by the board's president.

Often, it's a more bureaucratic exercise than political one.

But board president Charles McGlashan has his colleagues muttering after he had them sit through "a primer" on "peak oil" and a consultant's warning that we are five years away from a steep decline in global oil supply, depression and "public panic."



Tuesday's presentation was a business item on the board's agenda.

Andre Angelantoni, a consultant and founder of Inspiring Green Leadership and Post Carbon Marin, was introduced by Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, an activist and major McGlashan donor.


It is unlikely the same on-agenda air time is going to be given to other activists with causes, such as letting Marin family-law critics give a presentation on court reform or Novato's Rick Oltman give a talk on illegal immigration.

But McGlashan gave "peak oil" center stage.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey, a prime proponent of the county's agenda on sustainability, was polite, but skeptical of the consultant's doom-and-gloom warning that the world oil supply and economy are going to "fall off a cliff."

Kinsey said that when the board hosts such presentations, it should do a better job of trying to "fill the room with several points of view."

Kinsey said he doesn't doubt the need to reduce oil dependency, but he noted that he has survived other warnings, such as "Y2K" and fears that the spread of AIDS could

not be halted.

Supervisor Hal Brown didn't even stick around for the afternoon presentation.

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It's hard to feel sorry for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

Politically, the company has the finances and clout to hold its own in most arenas.

But when PG&E gives a presentation challenging Marin's proposed clean-energy public power plan, it will be at a disadvantage.

On Monday night, at a forum whose sponsors include the city of Mill Valley and the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, PG&E's representative will be out-numbered at least four to one.

PG&E spokesman David Rubin will get a chance to speak. So will backers of the county plan: Mill Valley Mayor Shawn Marshall; county staffer Dawn Weisz, one of the plan's authors; and political husband-wife duo, Supervisor McGlashan and his wife, Carol Misseldine, Mill Valley's city "sustainability director."

Toss into the mix Peter Coyote, a veteran voice of progressive politics.

At least they made room for PG&E in the lineup.

The forum will start at 7 at the Mill Valley Community Center.

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Opponents of the county's plan to build a $60 million to $80 million emergency services building across the street from the Civic Center have collected more than 10,000 signatures in their bid to force a ballot measure on protecting parkland around the Marin Center complex.

They have a July 15 deadline to qualify their initiative for the ballot. The initiative needs 10,600 valid signatures.

Their measure would require the county to get voter approval before constructing any large new buildings on the Civic Center campus.

"We are well over 10,000," said the group's spokesman, Ron Ford. "We are going to have about 13,000. We think we might be able to get more than that."

Ford said that most people are endorsing the initiative because they want to preserve open land around the Civic Center.

"There will be nothing to stop the county from building all the way up to the lagoon, if it chooses," he said.

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An effort to bring a SMART-like train to show off at the Marin County Fair was one of SMART's public relations goals.

But the agency couldn't get its hands on one to show Marin voters what they could be riding.

SMART spokesman Chris Coursey said it hoped to borrow a train from The Sprinter, a new San Diego County service that runs between Escondido and Oceanside, but it didn't have a train to loan SMART.

After its sales tax measure lost in 2006, SMART officials decided that they needed to do a better job of showing local voters what the train would look like. They wanted to bring the train to the county fair.

It was going to cost an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 to pull off, but it never got that far because they couldn't get their hands on a train.

Instead, SMART will bring a small model of the train to the fair.

To see more of The Marin Independent Journal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.marinij.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Marin Independent Journal, Novato, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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