Sierra Club & Las Adelitas Endorse Steve!
I’m gratified to have the endorsements of the Sierra Club Rincon Group and Las Adelitas, two powerful community organizations who are fighting for livability for ALL Tucsonans, and for the envinroment in which we live.
I have worked very closely with the Sierra Club and its members as we fought the City’s sprawl-encouraging, neighborhood-destroying road tax in May 2002, and as we promoted the balanced and forward-thinking Citizens Transportation Initative in 2003. We share a vision of a vibrant urban community with respect for our Sonoran Desert as our foundation.
Las Adelitas and I share the goals of creating a community of opportunity for everyone, regardless of their income or background. They are a powerful and positive organization of progressive individuals united to improve the quality of life for Latinas and their families through political empowerment. The group was founded to support Raul Grijalva in his first run for U.S. Congress.
I’m happy to have Las Adelitas and the Sierra Club Rincon Group join the growing ranks of the Friends o’ Farley.
August 12th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
Steve Farley’s strong value of energy efficiency and implementaion of renewable energy technologies is one of the several very important reason’s I have supported him throughout the past eight years. The energy and economic impacts of a multi-modal transit system in Tucson is probably the best investment we could make. Sensible mobility would ensure a sustainable result for our local economy as we enter the transitional Period of the Global Oil Production Peak. Steve has not only supported sensible energy policy but has already significantly acted on this prioirity.
Recent world price developments are indicators that world oil supply simply hasn’t been able to keep up with growing demand. Today, Friday, August 12, 2005 the price of crude oil hit $67 per barrel. This is up from $60 a few weeks ago and $50 per barrel in April. The price five years ago was $10. Clearly, we are on a geometric price growth tragectory. Experts were quoted this week that we could see $70 per barrel in the fall and $100 per barrel by year’s end.
The challenge of rising oil prices is partly because our single passenger vehicle transportation system is mainly dependent on oil consumption. But perhaps even more importantly, our whole economy is also significantly dependent on the cost of energy. As a community we have not carried out a local strategic assessment on the vulnerabilty of our different sectors and industries are under “global peak oil” conditions.
For decades before 2000, our local economy tended to spend 10 percent of its total income on energy for all uses. However, in recent years the transportation share of energy expenditures has risen dramatically. In 1998, the metro area spent $480 million for transportation fuels. By 2000, spending jumped by $300 million, more than 60 percent, to $780 million annual total. The subsequent rise in gasoline prices is already a serious local economic issue for families, businesses, and governments.
Tucson’s business leadership including the Chamber and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council as well as builders and realtors have long opposed smart growth, increased multi-modal transit, and cost recovery of the public costs of growth. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has not been very interested in those issues either. In particular, neither political party has addressed what is already unfolding in the economy, namely the world oil peak.
Steve, on the other hand, is the only candidate in Ward 6 who will act successfully on our local energy issues as a matter of priority and past experience.