Next Wednesday: Energ!ze Monona

Peak Oil and Monona with Justin Bloesch, UW Madison Student; and Bob Stoffs, Madison Gas & Electric.

The first of six free Energ!ze Monona forums is Wednesday, September 21 from 6:30 to 8:00 in the Monona Community Center Main Hall. Justin Bloesch, a UW-Madison student and graduate of Monona Grove High School who has extensively studied and presented on energy and sustainability, will give a short presentation on Peak Oil. Bob Stoffs, Community Services Manager for Madison Gas and Electric Company (MG&E), will share an overview of electric vehicles and MG&E’s charging stations, including two recently installed in Monona. The presentations will be followed by group discussion. Refreshments will be provided.

By learning about energy, and then discussing how Monona can work towards becoming more energy independent, Monona’s citizens can help the city realize its “25x25 Plan,” a blueprint for generating 25 percent of the energy the city uses from renewable resources by 2025. Says Bloesch, “The Energ!ze Monona forums are important because they help us prepare for the future. We must be prepared for a world in which more and more people compete for fewer and fewer resources.”

From his presentation on peak oil, attendees can “learn how the global oil market impacts people's everyday lives,” says Bloesch. “An event halfway across the world can affect even the economy of Monona.”

Stoffs will share information about electric vehicles (EVs), charging stations, and how MG&E is studying the stations. The information gathered from the study will help MG&E plan how to support the future energy needs of EV use in our area. This project is partially funded by a U.S. Department of Energy Stimulus Grant.

Asked about the biggest misconception about peak oil, Bloesch said it “is that the world will run out of oil. Instead, we will be finding expensive, hard to reach, inconvenient, and environmentally destructive forms of oil. The question is not ‘is it there?’ The question becomes ‘is it worth it?’”


Dave Toso, Electrical Engineer at MG&E demonstrates how to use this electric vehicle charging station, one of two just installed at the Monona Community Center.