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