This is the number 5 Westmount. It's a new trolley bus - one of those buses that's attached to the electrical grid and produces zero street-level emissions. City council is currently debating a report that advises scrapping the entire trolley bus system.

Myles Kitagawa, one of my favorite all-around people and one of Edmonton's green heroes, sent me an email a ways back suggesting that we (the Toxics Watch Society, of which he is the Associate Director and I am the President), should make a submission to city council about the issue. Our angle would probably be a novel one in the debate: Peak Oil.

If you're not turned on to Peak Oil yet, it's time to get going (see this movie, and read this book, for starters). I think that Peak Oil and climate change will be the drivers of the 21st century. I know, I know, I wish that Ipods and flat-screen TVs were going to be the big factors too, but that's just not in the cards.

Edmonton needs to begin thinking about what happens when transportation fuels hit $5/litre. Among the many things that we could do to prepare, having a transit system not totally dependent on diesel fuel would go a long way. Here is most of what Myles and I submitted to city council regarding the electric trolley issue:

Toxics Watch would like to voice its concern about the recent report by Dr. David Checkel recommending that the trolley system be phased out in 2009 and 2010.

Peak Oil and Its Impact on Transportation Fuels

There is widespread agreement among interested parties that the world is at or near its maximum ability to produce oil. Once the world peak of oil production is reached, the amount of oil available to the world will decrease every year thereafter. Although there is disagreement on the exact timing of the peak, evidence of it being sooner rather than later is mounting. Both the recent price of oil and the frantic pace at which the multinational oil companies are rushing to develop the Northern Alberta Oilsands – the world’s most expensive source of oil – are evidence the we are at or near Peak Oil.

Peak Oil has very important implications for transportation, because the fuels that oil produces are very difficult, if not impossible, to replace on a large scale (the current biofuels experiment, even if successful, will only replace a small fraction of the fuels in demand today). In the medium- to long-term, then, diesel fuel will become extremely expensive. In fact, diesel fuel will at some point become impossible to obtain.

Flexibility of Energy Sources

Trolley buses can be run on electricity from a variety of energy sources, including wind, solar, hydropower, biomass, nuclear, coal, and natural gas. Electricity-driven transportation, then, offers Edmonton a hedge against shortages of any one fuel source.

In 75 years, Edmonton will have electricity of some kind. Optimistically, it will be clean wind or solar electricity, but one way or another the lights will still be on. Diesel fuel and gasoline, on the other hand, could be so precious that burning them for mass transportation is simply not viable.

As Edmonton struggles to cope with the Peak Oil-driven world transportation fuels shortage, it will be well-served to have the infrastructure to power some of its transportation network by means other than diesel fuel.

Recommendation

Toxics Watch urges the Transportation and Public Works Committee to reject Dr. Checkel’s recommendation that the trolley system be phased out in favour of hybrid buses. Instead, Toxics Watch would like the Committee to file a motion that City Council investigates the benefits that a healthy and expanded trolley system would provide in a transportation fuels-constrained world.

That's our take, anyway. The extra expense now will be worth a lot when this trainwreck of an industrial economy starts to head south.

Resources:

• Edmonton Trolley Coalition
• Scott McKeen's take on the issue (Edmonton Journal)