Last night was the final meeting of the Oil Independent Oakland by 2020 task force. I can hardly believe it. It’s been a long haul. Amazingly in our last action as officials for the City of Oakland and in less than 30 minutes, we came to consensus on a groundbreaking set of priority recommendations that will position Oakland to become much less oil independent over the next several decades.

Top Recommendations

1. Adopt the Oil Depletion Protocol, thereby committing the City of Oakland to reduce oil consumption in the entire city of Oakland by 3% per annum
2. Reconfigure the city into multiple Urban Villages that co-locate residential, commercial, retail, and possibly light industrial. This involves and number of steps including updating the General Plan, design review guidelines, and zone.
3. Develop and implement a Public Transit Master Plan. This also involves an update to the General Plan and the task force strongly urges Oakland to consider a municipal streetcar system.

Enabling Recommendations

1. Establish and Oil and Gas team charged with management of Oakland’s oil independence activities
2. Develop financing options including a local carbon tax and regional congestion charging
3. Embark on a massive public outreach and education campaign

Preparedness Recomendation

1. Develop Contingency Plans for oil price and availability shocks

While we are not able to predict to what extent Oakland will act upon the recommendations, clearly the work done by the task force will add to the conversation about how cities should begin thinking about preparing for world oil peak in the context of climate change.