As we bring this conference to a close, I will speak briefly about what we have accomplished, how we have been challenged and what we must do next. But first I'd like to congratulate all of you for dedicating your time and your attention to these issues, and for your endurance over this intensive three-day conference.

I also want to thank the speakers, who have enlightened us with their vision, ideas, and proposals. This was quite an impressive group of speakers. I encourage you to re-visit the Powerpoints and audio files on our website. We hope they will be of use to you for your own research and to share the ideas presented at this conference with others.

I also want to thank, one final time, our conference sponsors. We are honored that several sponsors could attend the conference. I would again like to recognize the contributions of the Wallace Global Fund and Mr. Randall and Jackie Wallace, who had the vision to see the importance of this conference. Also, the University of Maryland's Program on Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology which organized this year's Sustainable Energy Forum under the peak oil topic. I also want to thank The Sustainable Scale Project, the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRG Systems and the contributions of Vince and Beth Lima. I would like to thank my organization, The Community Solution. Without the financial and organizational support of all of these individuals and groups, this conference would not have been possible.

And finally I want to congratulate and to honor the organizers of this conference – three gentlemen who have worked tirelessly over the last months to put together this excellent program with such renowned speakers. I would like to thank, on behalf of everyone here – Max Christian, Nate Hagens and Jack Santa-Barbara.

I first heard about this conference nine months ago, when it was just a twinkle in the eyes of these gentlemen. Above all they wanted to educate people about our energy situation, but they also wanted to further the discussion. To further it by exploring how peak oil, the environment, global climate change, social inequity, geopolitics and economics intersect and influence one another. And to further it by not just giving you ready answers and the often suggested solutions to peak oil, and instead giving you a framework to consider how to determine and meet the world's future energy needs.

They also wanted to go beyond those who typically seek out peak oil events and information, and to include in this conversation people who may be deeply engaged in other compelling issues, whether they be environmental protection, climate change or social justice, and who have not necessarily been exposed to the complexities of peak oil. And they specifically wanted to bring these ideas to Washington D.C., to spark interest and concern amongst policy-makers, the media, and non-governmental organizations, and the public, here in our nation's capital.

Above all, this conference's greatest contribution was in challenging how we think about peak oil in particular and energy in general.

It has challenged the thinking that we need to try to substitute fully for declining oil. Perhaps we shouldn't try to "fill the gap" as Representative Roscoe Bartlett puts it and instead reduce our energy use, thereby saving some resources for future generations.

It has challenged the argument that we can fully replace oil with alternatives like bio-fuels, hydrogen, tar sands, oil shale, coal-to-liquids, nuclear, renewables and the like. All of these alternative energy sources will take a lot more time, money, materials, and indeed, energy itself to produce, distribute, and maintain than today's oil-based energy infrastructure. This will have a profound effect on our relationship with energy.

It has challenged the idea that the market through higher prices will create the incentives to develop alternative energy sources in sufficient quantity and in enough time to prevent economic collapse. These price signals may come too late to mitigate collapse and alternatives may only further accelerate global warming and environmental decline.

It has challenged the thinking that we do not have to reform dramatically our economy and our society in response to peak oil, that we can continue with business-as-usual. Perhaps we need to modify our economic system to reflect the natural limits of the Earth – a finite planet – and develop more enlightened social goals than ever increasing consumption and material abundance.

And it has challenged that we need ever increasing amounts of energy for human well-being. Perhaps we can live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives consuming less, perhaps even because we consume less.

I have certainly been challenged and I am sure you have too.

But perhaps the greatest challenge is to see the opportunity before us. While similar conferences have focused on the peak oil crisis, the peak oil problem, this conference has also equally stressed the peak oil opportunity, which may not be immediately apparent, but which is critical to any effective analysis and response.

Over these last few days, we looked at the opportunity that peak oil provides us to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions to try to avoid the most serious effects of climate change. We saw the peak oil opportunity to increase development of renewable energy sources like wind and solar, and the peak oil opportunity to make available these small-scale energy technologies to those without access to sufficient electricity. We explored the peak oil opportunity to re-assess the role of energy use on our economy, society, and individual well-being and transition to a more sustainable society, one far less dependent upon non-renewable fossil fuels, and therefore less vulnerable to supply disruptions.

We saw that peak oil can be an opportunity, but only when we decide, as individuals in our communities, to make different lifestyle choices, and only when we decide as a society to change our path through appropriate policies at the international, national and local levels. One thing has become clearer: We cannot wait for a crisis to trigger the optimal responses. We must act now, when we can look more objectively at the issues, weigh and balance the trade-offs of energy, environment and justice, and not later, when we may be in a state of emergency and panic, on the verge of calamity and collapse, and respond hastily and imprudently.

So what are the steps we need to take? At this conference some options were presented: At the international level we heard about the promise of the Oil Depletion Protocol from Richard Heinberg, at the national level the example of Sweden from Mona Sahlin. And we learned about individual responses from Pat Murphy and others. We had quite a sampling of solutions – hybrid cars, bicycles, local food, wind and solar energy. We heard about changes to our economy, our way of life, our values. I think we all know where we need to go.

What we need now, is leadership, starting right here in this room. I would estimate that less than one percent of the American population is aware of the challenge of peak oil. Perhaps even fewer have a grasp of its complexity. Since we are a small group aware of what is before us, we have an obligation to lead.

We have an obligation, first of all, to inform our constituencies, our colleagues, associates, friends and family. And second, we have an obligation to show people that there are other ways. Not everyone can spend thousands of hours researching peak oil on the Internet and reading dozens of books, or can come to a conference like this. Nor is everyone going to analyze objectively the proposed solutions, especially with abundant misleading information which often relies on the Orwellian misuse of words like "green" "sustainable" and "eco-friendly."

So because we can see through the misinformation, because we have come this far in our own education on the subject, we are called to use the knowledge we have, begin assessing the options, and ultimately work to implement those which make sense. We can no longer wait for others to do it, because, as we learned at this conference, time may be our scarcest resource. And while we continue educating others and pushing for changes at the policy level, let us become models ourselves of the kinds of lifestyles needed in a post-peak oil world.

And to my generation – the young adults here and elsewhere – I say we are inheriting a much different world from our parents than they did from theirs. We are inheriting a world on the verge of declining oil production and ecological collapse. So we must accept that we will not lead lives like our parents of material abundance, comfort, luxury, and waste.

So I say we cannot wait for our parents and grandparents to try to solve these problems, for they have been asleep and may not awake in time. We must now become the leaders and help create a world worth handing down to our own children – for we need a new American Dream – indeed, a new Global Dream – one not based upon consuming more and more and more fossil fuels.

How all of us today across all the generations respond to these challenges will affect the fate of not only future generations, but perhaps even the fate of the human species. How we respond will determine both the amounts and the kinds of resources future generations will have. How we respond will determine what kind of environment they will have and what kind of lives they will lead.

I trust you have seen at this conference, that in the face of these tremendous challenges, there is much reason for hope. Amidst dire predictions, forecasts, trends and statistics we must not despair. For despair leads to apathy and inaction. Remember there is always hope, because it is not possible to know what's possible.

But let us stay grounded and focused, and realize that we have a long way to go. When we walk out of this conference center today, we will re-enter a world that consumed more than 200 million barrels of oil since we walked in two and a half days ago. More than 250 species went extinct. More than 1.6 billion people, one-quarter of the earth's population, continued to live without electricity. And nearly 200 million tons of green-house producing carbon dioxide gases were spewed into the skies.

In a conference such as this, where the focus is constantly on the future, it is easy to get transfixed on the scenarios, both the cataclysmic and the utopian. So let's come back to the present, put down our roots, and begin our work.

I was honored to be a part of this community over the last few days. I know important connections were made and ideas exchanged among the individuals, as well as organizations and movements represented here. We saw that we share common interests and goals and learned that the solutions to our crises were often similar. And we now see how we can work at cross purposes – burning more coal to replace oil, for instance, could further accelerate global warming.

So let us continue to work together in the spirit of community, sharing resources, exchanging information and forging a common vision. I firmly believe that only in this way can we do what needs to be done.

Thank you.

Megan Quinn Bachman is the Outreach Director of The Community Solution, a non-profit organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio (www.communitysolution.org ), and has been writing and speaking on Peak Oil and its community-based solutions for more than three years. She helped to organize and served as master of ceremonies for the First and Second U.S. Conferences on Peak Oil and Community Solutions, which brought more than 600 participants to Yellow Springs. Her articles on peak oil have appeared in Communities magazine and Permaculture Activist, and on the Internet at Energy Bulletin and Global Public Media. Megan co-wrote and co-produced her organization's new documentary, "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil." She graduated with a degree in Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs from Miami Unversity in Oxford, Ohio, where she studied Peak Oil and its implications for U.S. Foreign Policy.