JACKSON - For Ben Ellis, living "off the grid" and running his cars primarily on vegetable oil are just the beginning in his efforts to stem climate change.

The entrepreneur and recently elected Teton County commissioner is also working to reduce county government's energy and fuel use by 10 percent by 2010. And he's part of a broader effort to get all the residents of Teton County to reduce energy consumption by 10 percent in the same time frame.

Andy Blair of Lander, meanwhile, is a little more modest in his efforts to reduce his impact on the planet. He lives two blocks from his office, walking or biking to work. He tries to use incandescent light bulbs in his 734-square-foot home, has an insulated water heater and keeps the tires inflated on his car as small ways to reduce energy consumption.

"I figure it's up to each of us as individuals to work on our carbon emissions," Blair said. "To expect that the government will do it all, or industry will do it all, is unrealistic. Climate change is happening to all of us, and I believe we all need to help."

Ellis and Blair are two of a small but growing number of Wyomingites who've been motivated to change their lives by concerns about climate change.

In April, a group of eight skied Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountains to bring attention to the issue of receding glaciers. At the University of Wyoming, a group rallied in April to press city officials to adopt a "Cool City" designation. Jackson was the first city to adopt that philosophy, meaning the city works to reduce its carbon footprint by switching city autos to biodiesel, using energy-efficient lighting and offsetting its energy use through alternative sources.

In a state whose economy is based on traditional fossil fuel production, the presence of these people illustrates growing national concern about emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Those concerns are driving Wyoming's efforts to develop "clean" coal technologies and are a big factor in the push for production of relatively clean-burning natural gas around the state.

Making changes

Ellis, his wife and young son generate power in their 850-square-foot home through solar energy. The altitude and cold temperatures in Jackson optimize solar electricity, he said.

The family has a back-up generator, which runs for a total of about eight hours a winter. They heat water and cook with propane, a cost that runs about $500 a year.

Ellis also modified his cars to run on vegetable oil, which he gets for free from a local restaurant. The cars start with diesel, and that fuel gets the car to operating temperatures, when the vegetable oil kicks in.

Ellis says his commitment to climate change started in the late 1980s, and has evolved into a hobby as well as a lifestyle commitment. But it's his work with the county, he says, that is the future of progress.

"What we're working on as a county commission is much more broad-based," Ellis says. To reduce consumption by 10 percent in three years is a "significant challenge" as the county is growing, and there are more employees and bigger buildings.

County government is going through an energy audit to determine how much energy is used and how to reduce that, such as through a new pump at the recreation center or a thermal cover for the pool.

His highest hope is the entire county will participate by 2010.

Blair, who works for the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander, acknowledged that his personal lifestyle decisions aren't dramatic, and that he perhaps could do more to help the planet. But those decisions - not the least of which is the fact that he, his wife and his 2-year-old daughter live in such a small house - have at least some impact.

"My father says if we have another child we'll need a bigger house, but I don't think so," Blair said. "It's another one of our failings, I think, or something we've come to perceive as a need in our society, is a need to have a huge house."

Wyo at risk?

Stephen Jackson, a professor at the University of Wyoming in the botany department, said more needs to be done more quickly to get ahead of climate change.

"I would characterize myself as alarmed about the rate at which we're seeing changes on the planet that are driven by climate change," he said. "I'm cautiously optimistic about the future."

Jackson's work has shown the West is at risk for more catastrophic wildfires due to global warming, and other changes to ecosystems will be noted as temperatures creep up and the area becomes drier.

He said the longer it takes to stem greenhouse gas emissions, the more difficult and more expensive it will be.

Wyoming can be a leader is stemming the tide of global warming, Jackson said.

The state can develop and implement technology and engineering to burn cleaner fuels, use other resources including sun, wind and geothermal to generate energy, and use carbon capture and sequestration.

"Economically in this state, there may be a tendency to look at the carbon dioxide problem as all negative, but I think there are some very large positives," Jackson said. "We could wind up with a net gain with jobs, but we have to get ahead of the curve - not just live on the boom that we're living on now and hope that the good times will last forever."

Skeptics

It's true Wyoming thrives on the industry of fossil fuels. A good indication of the state's political climate on climate change was the Legislature's passage of a bill in 1999 prohibiting the state from regulating greenhouse gas emissions as long as Congress refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on such emissions.

Some say rising temperatures and melting glaciers may be part of the larger warming and cooling patterns the planet undergoes - not a result of burning coal and other fossil fuels.

Marion Loomis, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, agreed there is "probably warming of the world," but how much human sources contribute is "still questionable."

Scientists, meanwhile, say it's not just carbon dioxide and fossil fuels that are contributing to global warming.

According to a United Nations report, livestock operations globally have a bigger impact on global warming than the impact of all auto emissions, because levels of methane and nitrous oxide emissions are so much higher from livestock than from engine combustion.

Livestock operations also can involve cutting down trees - trees that consume CO2 for photosynthesis. Burning down forests releases more CO2, as does machinery used by ag operations, according to the report.

Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said he is "not convinced" there is global warming, but is not arguing that there is not.

He said in 1974, Time magazine reported that the planet was entering a "new ice age" and "it could be disastrous for human life on this planet."

Magagna said on a global scale, livestock operations may contribute to "so-called global warming," but said in the United States forests aren't cut down for cattle, and properly managed rangeland can reduce CO2 because plants use the gas for photosynthesis.

Ranchers can receive carbon credits for properly managed rangeland, Magagna said. And "keeping open spaces with sound grazing practices, rather than those areas being developed, put under blacktop or concrete - we're actually helping address the issue of the so-called global warming."

Believers

Even the religious community is getting involved in the fight against global warming.

Plans are under way for this year's annual meeting sponsored by the Wyoming Association of Churches, which will include Wyoming's first ever "Religious-Environmental Summit." It will be held Sept. 27-29 in Lander. The summit will offer an opportunity for people to develop a common agenda for saving the environment, according to the group.

In Rawlins, United Methodist minister Rebekah Simon-Peter works to teach people that to love God means to love His creation, the Earth.

Simon-Peter put her beliefs into action this year by attending a training seminar led by Al Gore in Nashville. Through that seminar, she agreed to give lectures around the region to help bring the issue of global warming out of the "political" realm and into the moral one.

Her talks also include consultations for businesses and churches on how to reduce their carbon footprints.

And, like others, Simon-Peter is trying to "walk the walk."

She bought a hybrid car, unplugs appliances when they're not in use, turns off lights, participates in carbon offsetting through her local power company, and purchased energy-efficient appliances.

She also believes people have to push for legislative changes, and that democratic process will let Congress know people believe in stemming global warming.

UW's Jackson said the state needs to get involved in climate change.

"I can imagine that there would be some resistance, because fossil fuels are a very large component of the state's economy, so there is a great deal at stake economically," he said. "We're really living off of the carbon that is stored underground in our rock reservoirs. So I can certainly appreciate that in Wyoming this could be contentious just because of the economics. I would say that Wyoming can't afford to ignore the greenhouse problem, because certainly at a national level the issue is catching fire, so to speak."

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.

Coming Sunday: On a per-person basis, Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state.]]>