Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICES
Non‐routine emergency services are provided by the Monroe County Emergency
Management Agency (MCEMA). As required by State statute, the Agency is charged with
establishing and maintaining “a progressive emergency management program that
promotes the mitigation of, preparation for, the response to and recovery from
emergencies and disasters impacting the public, government, and business of the
communities of Monroe County.” This program is mapped out in the Monroe County
Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. 106
As spelled out in its “Situation and Assumptions” section, the Plan anticipates the following
hazards: floods, winter storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, terrorism, and hazardous materials
releases on transportation corridors or at a facility. 107 These are the hazards anticipated in
emergency planning, which assumes:
• The event will be localized, so that the community can rely on outside
assistance within a relatively short amount of time; and
• That the goal is to minimize damage and maximize recoverability to predisaster
conditions as quickly as possible.
VULNERABILITY
With a decline in cheap oil, there will not be a tidy return to “pre‐disaster” conditions.
Because our reliance on petroleum is systemic, planning for peak oil is planning for a long
emergency. 108 Reliance on fossil fuel for back‐up generators for vital communications and
other functions would be a long‐term vulnerability. The County Emergency Management
Agency should plan for supply interruptions and shortages.
106 Monroe County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, Basic Plan, (2003).
107 Ibid, 4.
108 The term “long emergency” is borrowed from the book by James Kunstler, The Long Emergency: Surviving
the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty­first Century (Grove/Atlantic, 2005). The book explores the effects
of peak oil on society. The book points out that a post‐peak world will force us all to live in more localized,
self‐sufficient communities.
Report of the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force
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