Day 3 live blogging from ASPO

09.34 Erik Curren

Q. What are you trying to accomplish by getting politicians on board if you don’t have the rest of the country behind the issue of peak oil?

Jan Mueller: You’re right. We want to work with grassroots ground up groups to recruit local politicians. Though we’d like to have two more Roscoe Bartletts to give speeches on the floor of Congress.

09.33 Lindsay Curren

Changing 300 million American minds isn’t esasy.

Audience member relays a story about a politician who said he’d fight for something but then decided not to push for it because too many Americans wouldn’t be convinced. He didn’t want to waste political capital on it.

She thinks populace has to understand it first, before the Congress or politicians.

09.32 Erik Curren

We’re in the same session together, just sitting separately, because the room’s full…

09.32 Erik Curren

Good morning from ASPO-USA. Today’s sessions are just Q&A. I’m in the one on communications and policy. We started out with Tom Whipple talking about how Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), chair of the Congressional Peak Oil Caucus, managed to get a meeting with George W. Bush while he was in office. He had to promise a vote in exchange. In the meeting, Bush acknowledged the problem, but decided he’d need to kick the can down the road because, though “important,” peak oil wasn’t “urgent.”

09.29 Lindsay Curren

It’s day three and we’re live blogging from the ASPO conference again. Today I’m in a session on peak oil communications, as well as policy. Let’s see what people are saying about A) How to communicate it? and B) What kinds of policy initiatives can prod change.

I saw a sign in the subway last night. It said “Change takes heart.” I see that as both openness, and courage. I wonder if that will be part of this dialogue.

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