As I pointed out in an earlier post, an attack on Iraq will
have many local impacts. But I agree with RT and many of the other
posters that another city council resolution opposing the war will
have little effect. We need to something more meaningful, we need to
take action.
The attack on Iraq is driven by two forces- Dubya's immense
ego and our countries insatiable appetite for petroleum. We're stuck
with the former for another 2 years, but we can act to reduce the
latter.
Our city needs to take action to remove the petroleum
industry's excuse for attacking Iraq or any other country. We need to
make a committment to phase out our cities use of petroleum fuels as
soon as possible, and switch to renewable domesticly produced fuels
such as biodiesel and ethanol. Given trade intervals on city
vehicles, we could accomplish this goal in 5 years with some
retrofitting for ethanol (most diesels can switch over to biodiesel
with no modifications). In a worse case scenario, this conversion
could be completed in 10 years.
This strategy can work- A few years back San Francisco
required that city contractors provide domestic partner benefits, and
a bunch of staid corporations like the makers of Kenworth and
Peterbuilt trucks came around. If Minneapolis says that it's vehicles
must be able to run on renewable fuels, the manufacturers will have
to offer them. GM, Ford, and Daimler Chrysler already make ethanol
burning versions of all their popular models for Brazil and biodiesel
fueled versions for Europe. They can readily build these renewable
fueled models for Minneapolis and all Americans.
So let me propose an ordinance- CM and Mayor, please let us
know how this sounds:
1. The city of Minneapolis shall purchase only new motor
vehicles and equipment powered by renewable fuels.
2. The city of Minneapolis shall to the greatest degree
practical operate existing motor vehicles and equipment on renewable
fuels.
3. The city of Minneapolis shall to the greatest degree
practical convert existing city motor vehicles and equipment to
operate on renewable fuels as needed.
4. The city of Minneapolis shall as soon as practical cease
purchasing petroleum fuels and purchase renewable fuels instead.
from the Green Garage in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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