Delegates can go green with carbon offsets

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 8, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Denver Monday 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."

Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Leah Daughtry said the committee set up a contest, called the Green Delegate Challenge, in which states can buy offsets for the carbon footprint their delegates will leave traveling to and from the convention and during their stay here.

Delegates can buy offsets for about $7.50 from Native Energy, a firm based in Oregon and Colorado that calculates carbon footprints. The company promises to then eliminate the equivalent amount of carbon from emissions elsewhere.

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 at the Pepsi Center.

Gov. Bill Ritter and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper praised the efforts of the DNCC - with the mayor noting, "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.

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