The Powerdown Project is no longer active, but the material generated during its existence is still available on this site for reference. New College of California, the hosting institution, closed its doors in early 2008. However, the basic idea of the project--for college students to work with their community to design a transition plan for radical reduction in fossil fuel consumption--is waiting to be taken up by other colleges and universities.

Thanks to the Wallace Global Fund, 4 Powerdown Project students and I traveled to Yellow Springs, Ohio for the Community Solutions Conference recently. The students did a presentation on their Municipal Template and were well received. We gleaned additional information for the template, as well as valuable contacts and new allies.

I urge all of you to go to www.communitysolution.org and read about Plan C-Curtailment and Community. It's a powerdown answer with a concrete plan for Food, Transportation and Housing. Pat Murphy, the author of the plan, states in his summary, "The first steps are personal ones-changing our way of life to use as little energy as possible, keeping in mind the billions of poor people in the world as well as the welfare of our children and generations to come."

I came home inspired by the conference with people like Richard Heinberg detailing his "Oil Depletion Protocol" project, Julian Darley speaking on relocalization, Peter Bane talking about Permaculture strategies, Sharon Astyk detailing her electricity free living model and victory garden project, Jeff Christian with Zero Energy Housing, and Vicki Robin on "Living simply in a peak oil world."

I represented the Powerdown Project recently at the Northern California Post Carbon quarterly meeting. There is a lot of interest in the municipal template, which we intend to complete by the end of the year. It's valuable to hear of the work of other groups, share resources and cultivate ideas together.

With gratitude,

Ellen Bicheler, Powerdown Project Coordinator

Thanks to the Wallace Global Fund, 4 Powerdown Project students and I traveled to Yellow Springs, Ohio for the Community Solutions Conference recently. The students did a presentation on their Municipal Template and were well received. We gleaned additional information for the template, as well as valuable contacts and new allies.

I urge all of you to go to www.communitysolution.org and read about Plan C-Curtailment and Community. It's a powerdown answer with a concrete plan for Food, Transportation and Housing. Pat Murphy, the author of the plan, states in his summary, "The first steps are personal ones-changing our way of life to use as little energy as possible, keeping in mind the billions of poor people in the world as well as the welfare of our children and generations to come."

I came home inspired by the conference with people like Richard Heinberg detailing his "Oil Depletion Protocol" project, Julian Darley speaking on relocalization, Peter Bane talking about Permaculture strategies, Sharon Astyk detailing her electricity free living model and victory garden project, Jeff Christian with Zero Energy Housing, and Vicki Robin on "Living simply in a peak oil world."

I represented the Powerdown Project recently at the Northern California Post Carbon quarterly meeting. There is a lot of interest in the municipal template, which we intend to complete by the end of the year. It's valuable to hear of the work of other groups, share resources and cultivate ideas together.

With gratitude,

Ellen Bicheler, Powerdown Project Coordinator

Welcome to our Powerdown Project Website. The Powerdown Project is a Post Carbon Institute Fiscal Sponsorship and New College Student Project.

We would like you to participate with our website. Please send us your powering down suggestions and participate in our forum.

New College students are currently completing their portion of Part One of our Municipal Template. The Municipal Template will assist communities in identifying their energy vulnerabilites and provide responses to reduction of energy use. Students have spent the last three months consulting with municipal officials, municipal staff, relocalization group leaders, and renewable energy companies.

Scroll to the bottom of our website to view student, Hank Flannery's interview with Sebastopol, California's Police Chief, Jeff Weaver. "Chief Weaver is fully aware of peak oil and Powerdown and the repercussions that they may have for his department and Sebastopol."

How has your community powered down? Please send us your most innovative community or municipal powering down practices.

Please remit any suggestions, feedback, or comments to Ellen Bicheler, Powerdown Project Coordinator.

Cheers,

Ellen