This should be at Rat's Nest, but you are here...
Energy meeting, film draw big crowd
BY CARA MCDONOUGH : The Herald-Sun
chh@heraldsun.com
Apr 5, 2007 : 10:18 pm ET
CARRBORO, NC -- A large group gathered at the Carrboro Century Center on Thursday night to talk about the future of oil, gas prices and the impact on local communities.
The public meeting began with a new film by local filmmaker Jim McQuaid.
"After the Peak," McQuaid's short, fictional film modeled as a newscast, took a look at how a shortage in oil and high gas prices could affect Orange County.
In the movie, skyrocketing gas prices force gas station owners to employ armed guards to ensure customers don't drive off without paying. School systems would only be able to afford to transport 10 percent of students via school buses.
After the movie, which received loud applause, three panelists gave presentations and fielded questions from the crowd.
Simon Rich, a local businessman who works on the interconnection of energy and agriculture, said he felt the reality of "peak oil" -- the idea that oil production will soon peak and then decline -- could have disastrous consequences.
"I think you're going to see social chaos worse than Jim portrayed in this film," he said.
Eric Henry, who owns a local textile business, and Patrick McDonough, a board member of The Village Project, a program that promotes "walkable" communities, talked about the ways Orange County is combatting the problem.
Henry said he and his partners are working to keep their business, making cotton products, local. They make half of their products in the state.
He applauded Carrboro for being a community that "gets it." Providing locally grown food, thus decreasing the distance the product must travel to get to the buyer, makes all the difference, he said.
"Carrboro Farmers' Market, Weaver Street Market -- they get it," he said. "The product costs more because they care what happens to their community."
McDonough pointed to a UNC study that compared the travel habits of residents in Southern Village, a mixed-use community in Chapel Hill, to residents in Lake Hogan Farms, a residential subdivision in Carrboro.
Because Southern Village is a "walkable community" -- residents can walk to schools, restaurants and shops built into the community -- they drive, on average, 17.4 miles less per household per day than the residents of Lake Hogan Farms, said McDonough.
"We can begin to think about how we design our communities and how that makes a difference," he said.
The number of people who attended the event is a good sign for the future, said Cricket Ellis.
Ellis played one of the characters in McQuaid's film and saw the movie for the first time Thursday night.
"There are a lot more people here than I thought there would be," she said.
Sponsors of Thursday's public meeting included N.C. Cooperative Extension, N.C. Powerdown, SURGE, The Chapel Hill Solar Roofs Committee, The Alliance for Community Economics, The Orange County Economic Development Commission, The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce and The Village Project.
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