OK folks, it's time for me to admit that I've totally lost the plot here at the Carbon Neutral Journal. With a total of just eight posts for the year, how can I even call myself a blogger?

After a year of daily posts, driven by a weekly schedule of topics, I thought I could just dial things back a bit, yet continue to blog about all things Carbon Neutral in a relevant and somewhat timely fashion.

Instead, I find myself up to my eyeballs in two new carbon neutral related ventures. I hope you'll find them of interest, and will allow me the time and space to fully develop these new ventures at the expense of this journal. That's not to say that I'm completely giving up on the Carbon Neutral Journal, just redistributing the workload a bit to do justice to a couple of new and exciting projects.

The first is a partnership with a longtime friend and colleague, Lee Barrett. It's called Eco-Logistics.biz, and is an outgrowth of an opportunity I first wrote about in the Journal back in August in a post titled greening Las  Vegas. As I said:

two old friends from the running world produce an annual conference for race directors–they've asked me to help them come up with an agenda for a one-day conference on "greening" running races.

That conference, titled How Green is Your Event? is scheduled for April 5th in Arlington, Virginia.

Since that first post linking participant sporting events with environmental responsibility, I've written a number of related posts. From at least we carpooled to prioritizing play to carbon free surfing to sports and the environment, I've considered the impacts of a variety of sporting events on the environment and the rise in greenhouse gases.

My conclusion: the status quo for today's participant sporting events is shockingly wasteful. Duh!

So Lee and I are going to try and do something about that by offering our expertise (mine in sports marketing, event management and public relations, and Lee's in event management and solid waste management) to event directors who want to make a difference. Stay tuned to our progress by subscribing to the RSS feed at Eco-Logistics.biz.

The second effort that's been taking a lot of my time is called the Teton Area 10 x 10 project. It's inspired by the Town of Jackson's and Teton County's 10 x 10 effort, which I've written about on numerous occasions. The goal of the Teton Area 10 x 10 effort is have participating households and businesses commit to reduce their energy use by at least 10 % by 2010. We've got a Web site in the works and plans to roll out this initiative later in the spring. Until the Teton Area 10 x 10 Web site is up and running, I'll be posting updates here in the journal.

So, you see, I haven't just been slacking off the past few months. I'm just as excited about both of these new ventures  as I was when I committed to blogging about carbon neutrality every day in 2007.

Good things are in the works. I hope you'll stay tuned.

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An article in today's New York Times, titled In Many Communities, It's Not Easy Going Green, reminded me that I meant to blog about the first-ever all-employee meeting the Town of Jackson and Teton County held on Tuesday. (Once I fell out of the daily habit of blogging, I seem to need reminders like this to do what came naturally and automatically every day last year.)

Anyway, the occasion for the all-employee meeting was twofold: celebration and education. Teton County and the Town of Jackson now have an approved Energy Efficiency Action Plan (aka 10 x 10), and it was time to rally the troops. The event itself was well organized, took advantage of the Theater at the Center For The Arts as a perfect space for both an educational session and an after-party, and featured presentations by employee leaders of the various action teams.

The message was clear: our local governments have committed to reduce energy and fuel use by 10% by the end of 2010 (compared to 2006 baseline data). Why? Because it is prudent fiscal policy. Period.

I can't/won't argue with the point of view that the 10 x 10 initiative will save taxpayers' money. And I fully realize that the only way Town Council and the Board of County Commissioners could muster unanimous approval for 10 x 10 was to avoid any shade of green. But I do think it's disingenuous to advance such a politically correct rationale.

After all, for many folks in this community, money is no object. In a valley full of 8-10,000 square foot homes with heated driveways, it's going to take more than an economic argument to get the citizenry to follow our governments' lead.

I feel strongly that every household and business in Teton County should embrace the spirit of 10 x10 and set out on a measurable path of energy reduction. Why? Because we're energy pigs! Period.

Sorry folks. There's no way I can beat around the bush on that simple fact.

Had today's NYT article mentioned Jackson Hole in its summary of community efforts, it would have had another obstacle to going green to talk about — the one where folks are afraid to admit that's what they are really trying to do.

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A year ago, I wrote a post titled State of Denial, which took advantage of a nifty New York Times feature that allowed one to search the State Of The Union speech to see what terms or phrases were used by our feckless leader. In today's recap of last night's speech, the NYT ran a sidebar called The Words That Were Used, but there was no search capability to enable further analysis.

Left to my own devices, I quickly turned to Gristmill and Reuters for perspective on what Bush had said about climate change and related efforts to stem the warming.

As you would expect, David Roberts is on top of things at Gristmill with a post titled Robust SOTU Debunkery.

Reuters, on the other hand, saw the glass as half full, covering Bush's commitment to promoting clean energy technologies and fight climate change through a $2 billion investment over the next three years to a new international fund.

Let us create a new international clean technology fund, which will help developing nations like India and China make greater use of clean energy sources.

Of course, even the Reuters piece couldn't avoid the conclusion that:

Unlike last year's State of the Union message, there was little in Bush's speech this year calling for a major overhaul of U.S. energy policy.

Some would say that's because Congress just passed major energy legislation — I'd say it's because the lame duck is still convinced that "aspirational targets" are the way to go.

Too bad the NYT word finder didn't have search capability this year. I would have loved to really compare this year's speech to last year's speech.

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So said the headline in yesterday's Jackson Hole News & Guide. Here's a link to the story. Too bad the N&G didn't post the five complementary stories it ran in the print edition, but kudos nevertheless to the paper for taking a broad look at the issues we face, and some of the initiatives underway to reduce energy demands in our mountain valley.

If I can ever find my way back to the path of regular blogging, Carbon Neutral Journal readers will hear a lot more about a couple of those initiatives — particularly the effort to launch a community wide 10 x 10 effort to reduce energy use and trash generation by 10% by the year 2010.

In the meantime, read the N&G Story about us energy pigs, visit ZeroJH to calculate your localized carbon footprint and see how you rate compared to the per capita estimate of 37 metric tons of CO2 emissions per Jackson Hole resident. And, while you're visiting ZeroJH, consider the impact of what the calculator tells you, identify areas where you can conserve, then buy offsets for what you cannot conserve.

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I couldn't help but notice the story in today's New York Times titled F.T.C. Asks if Carbon-Offset Money is Well Spent.

The essential question: Where exactly is the $54 million American corporations and consumers spent on carbon offsets last year going?

Apparently the Federal Trade Commission is asking the question as it examines green marketing in the US.

It's an important question to ask.

According to Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the F.T.C.

With the rapid growth of green programs like carbon offsets, “there’s a heightened potential for deception."

Indeed, the article goes on to present the green claims of a number of brand name manufacturers. Give it a read, then let me know what you think about the threat of greenwashing.

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I'm as interested in what folks around the world think of our presidential candidates as I am in how they fare throughout the primaries. It's as important to me to know how our candidates' platforms are perceived in London, Sydney and Tokyo as it is how they're received in a civic center in Des Moines.

My global perspective is a result of many things: as an Army brat, I lived in Okinawa and France in the 50s and 60s; my wife and I lived and worked in The Netherlands for two years in the late 90s; and, for 17 years, I worked for a very global company — Nike. But it took two months in a cabin here in Jackson Hole in late 2000 for it all to sink in.

I didn't have access to mainstream media coverage of the Bush/Gore cliffhanger — no TV or daily newspaper. Instead, I took my news from the World Wide Web, and I took full advantage of the access to worldwide coverage. I found the BBC to be as informed and informative of what was going on as the New York Times.

So as this election year unfolds, I'm going to be looking for foreign points of view about our American political machinations. Today's perspective is offered by a Belgian journalist, Willy De Backer, who says in his blog:

The victory of Barack Obama in last week’s Iowa elections came as a big surprise for the EU elites who had already put all their money on a new Clinton Presidency. If Obama continues his winning streak on Tuesday on New Hampshire, European policymakers and lobbyists will have to learn more about the positions of the Illinois Senator.

Interesting, isn't it, that Obama's success in Iowa was a bit of a surprise to European policymakers and lobbyists? Even more interesting is the fact that De Backer focused on Obama's position on climate and energy issues as the topics EU elites should look at.

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Wyoming Republicans held their caucus yesterday in Casper (Wyoming Democrats will hold their caucus on March 8). All in all, it was pretty much a non-event as only Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter garnered any support, with Romney capturing eight of 12 delegates.

What about Huckabee, Giuliani, Paul and McCain? None but Ron Paul even campaigned in Wyoming during the past year.

So what does the caucus outcome tell us about Wyoming Republican priorities? Not much at all, though it's safe to assume that Romney's support for domestic drilling didn't escape notice in this resource rich state.

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