To build the resilience of communities against coming changes in global oil supply, urban planners and policymakers will need to turn to more systems-informed approaches to community governance and development.

Oil production could peak by 2010. What does that mean for your community? An article by Daniel Lerch, featured in the December 2008 issue of Planning magazine.

This report and recommendation were submitted to the City Council of Hamilton, Ontario on November 18, 2008. It details the steps Hamilton has taken to date on the issue of peak oil, and recommends the creation of a volunteer peak oil task force based on the model of Portland, Oregon. The council approved funding for the task force on December 8, 2008.

2008 saw a flurry of new government responses to peak oil, plus groundbreaking legislation in California. Also, the oil price spike, the intensifying global recession, and the historic US presidential election have all helped create a sea change in our thinking about energy and what it means for the economy.

An interview with David MacLeod of Sustainable Bellingham about the formation and goals of the joint Bellingham / Whatcom County Energy Resource Scarcity / Peak Oil task force.

Rutgers University planning school Dean James W. Hughes recently imparted two essential lessons about planning and the economy in the 21st century. First, resource constraints and reduced consumption are the future. And second, distance matters again.

In this interview with Steve Heimel of Alaska Public Radio Network, Post Carbon Institute's Daniel Lerch says that places like Alaska will be among the first to make the changes needed to face an era of great energy uncertainty. With transcript.

By 1970 it was safe to say that a major shift was underway in our thinking about our relationship with each other and the planet. Then the oil crisis of 1973-1974 hit -- the first big test of this new-found awareness. What was our response, and what can we learn from it?

Electrifying the U.S. freight rail system makes economic and national security sense, and may be more feasible than you think. A new proposal explores just what it would mean --and what it would take-- to shift the bulk of the U.S. freight system from oil to electricity in a relatively short amount of time.

Citizen groups have led efforts to address the issue of peak oil in Santa Fe, where a citizen's energy board is forming, and in Greensboro, N.C., where city government is starting to listen. Both articles quote Daniel Lerch and Post Carbon Cities.