With oil prices at an all-time high, it's time to start giving serious consideration to alternative fuel supplies.
"Once the United States has saved half its oil, it can cost-effectively replace an additional 20 percent with advanced biofuels, and the rest with saved natural gas. Biofuels (based on woody, weedy plantsnot corn) will need a $90 billion investment, too, but they'll beat $26 oil, revitalize farming, protect topsoil better and preserve food crops' land and water. Harvesting biofuel crops, carbon credits and wind power all from the same land, much of it now unproductive, can also double or triple net farm and ranch income. Again, details will differ in other countries, but the opportunities are broadly similareven in Japan, which lacks the Great Plains but is 70 percent forested and could substainably harvest both fiber and biofuels there."
Thanks to Brenda Meyer
FULL STORY: How to Live Without Oil

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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research