Pelosi helps launch green DNC
By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published April 7, 2008 at 5:33 p.m.
Updated April 7, 2008 at 5:50 p.m.
Photo by Barry Gutierrez © The Rocky
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker and DNC convention chair Nancy Pelosi, left, stands with DNCC, CEO, Leah Daughtery as talks about the DNC convention being the most environmentally conscious convention in history.
Photo by Barry Gutierrez © The Rocky
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker and DNC convention chair Nancy Pelosi stands with other politicians to announce that the DNC convention will be the most environmentally conscious convention in history.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Denver this afternoon to help launch a green Democratic National Convention this summer, calling the effort a "moral responsibility."
"We believe this planet is God's creation," she said. "We have a moral responsibility to protect it and this initiative does just that."
The initiative is the Democratic National Convention Committee's Green Delegate Challenge.
DNCC Chief Executive Officer Leah Daughtry said they set up a contest for all of the states sending delegates to the convention Aug. 25-28 to buy offsets for the carbon footprint they'll leave by traveling and staying in the metro area.
Delegates can purchase an offset from Native Energy for about $7.50. Offsets are a way for a person to figure how much carbon they would put in the air and, by purchasing it from a company, that company promises to eliminate the equivalent amount emitted somewhere down the line.
Native Energy is a firm based in Oregon and Colorado that calculates carbon footprints.
The state with the highest participation by percentage of delegates will win a variety of prizes, including being recognized in their seating on the floor of the convention in the Pepsi Center.
With 100 percent participation, California would have the highest offset bill — in excess of $3,500. Any offsets purchased beyond the delegates — family traveling with delegates, for example — would be voluntary.
Gov. Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper praised the efforts of the DNCC — with the mayor saying, "They chose a city with a green heart."
Ritter said the announcement wasn't a political statement.
"It's a statement of great substance that's about the future of this country," he said. "It's a statement of substance where Colorado and Denver can demonstrate what we have been able to do which is not just make it about being green, make it about climate change over the earth, but make it about the economy — a green economy."
Unimpressed by the announcement, Republican National Convention spokesman Matt Burns said his party has also made an effort to be environmentally friendly — using the example that they announced the reservation of 16,000 rooms at Minneapolis-St. Paul hotels was done without using any paper.
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April 7, 2008
7:19 p.m.
Suggest removal
Charles__B writes:
Is political hot air a greenhouse gas?
April 7, 2008
7:41 p.m.
Suggest removal
greenleaf writes:
Charles, GWM,
Me three!
April 7, 2008
11:12 p.m.
Suggest removal
clyde writes:
Are riots, burning and looting considered "green"?
April 7, 2008
11:15 p.m.
Suggest removal
clyde writes:
Carbon Offsets. "that company promises to eliminate the equivalent amount emitted somewhere down the line." Somewhere down the line??? You're buying three pounds of horse hockey in a two pound bag. Is anyone that has two functioning brain cells not able to see through this fraud???
April 7, 2008
11:20 p.m.
Suggest removal
clyde writes:
http://www.nativeenergy.com/pages/hom...
Tell me again how they are based in Colorado? Tell me again what you are buying?
May 16, 2008
6:02 p.m.
Suggest removal
freethinker07 writes:
They hold an unnecessary meeting at a direct cost of well over $100,000,000. Some 25,000 people will be flying in bringing the airfare bill alone to probably another $10,000,000. The hotel and restaurant costs will be huge. Traffic in downtown Denver will be a nightmare. It is billed as a huge party. This is a green event?