Politics enter the ski town spotlight
ASPEN – Michelle Obama is thought to be planning a trip to Park City late this month to rustle up spare change for her husband’s presidential campaign next year. In a sense, she’ll be invading the home turf of the two Republicans that Bill Clinton thinks will be the strongest candidates, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr.

Romney, until recently, had a home in Park City, and Huntsman was Utah governor. Both are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, i.e. the Mormons, headquartered in Salt Lake City, and both are sons of billionaires.
Clinton, speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday, said he liked both men. “Romney’s a much better candidate than he was last time, because he’s not apologizing (for signing the health-care bill in Massachusetts when he was governor).”
Still, as the price of getting the Republican nomination, Romney has said he’d work to repeal the national health care bill, Clinton noted.
“Huntsman hasn’t said what he’s for yet, but I just kind of like him,” said Clinton. “He looks so authentic. He looks like a real guy, a real human being. I like his family; I like that he’s kind of got an iconoclastic way. I mean, he was a pretty good governor.”
According to an account in The Aspen Times, Clinton also had nice things to say about Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann. “She’s got a very compelling personal story, and she’s got a lot of juice.”

All these kind words aside, Clinton said he believes Obama will get re-elected. He took big steps to avoid an even worse economy, has a good record on promoting diversity such as gay rights, and has a strong record on national security.
But Clinton said that American economic competitiveness remains imperiled by high costs of health care. “I am telling you folks, if you want to fix the budget and fix America’s competitiveness, we have to seriously deal with (health care), and you cannot do it with slogans. You’ve got to do it with facts,” he said.

Politics was also on the agenda in the Vail area. Charles and David Koch, two billionaires and ardent supporters of right-wing causes, held their annual summer seminar. On the agenda were “threats” to America: nationalization of health care, unions, legislation to reduce carbon emissions, financial regulation and government spending.
Citing a report by the Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog, the Vail Daily reports that Koch Industries, their Kansas-based energy company, has increased its lobbying to $20 million in the last two years.
Among those scheduled to attend the conclave was Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Failed developments dot the West
WHITEFISH, Mont. – With the financial waters still at low tide, what do you do with the various beached development concepts hatched during the last decade?

Consider a project near the base of Whitefish Mountain Resort. There, a 50-lot subdivision called The Glades at Big Mountain was approved by the local government in 2008.

In retrospect, the project looked suspect even during the high tide of financial exuberance. It’s below the snowline on the mountain, and to remedy this inadequacy plans were in place to erect a chairlift. Each lot buyer was expected to throw in $10,000.

But few people have bought lots, and the ski area wants to vacate the subdivision, reports the Whitefish Pilot.

“It’s almost impossible to think anyone would buy these lots,” said Dan Graves, chief executive of Whitefish Mountain Resort. “They have no real estate value. If I could sell them for $50,000, I’d be lucky. I don’t know if it’s good to go into further debt for this phase.”
One person who did buy a lot wants to hold out. “Giving up devalues my property,” said John Constenius. But Graves responded that he didn’t expect to see 50 lots sold anytime soon. “I don’t think it will be in my lifetime.”

The Whitefish City Council has twice extended the deadline for completion of infrastructure improvements but consented to the resort’s desire to scrap what amounted to a bad idea.

In Idaho, the future of the once ebullient Tamarack Resort remains in doubt. The ostensible owner, Jean-Pierre Boespflug, is on the lam after missing a court hearing over commitments to pay Bank of America.
But similar to Whitefish, lot and home owners at Tamarack hold out hope for some kind of revival several years after bankruptcy. The ski area resumed limited operations this winter after a year of suspended activity. To help satisfy debt, two of the Tamarack ski lifts were to have been sold to Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, operator of the Fernie, B.C., ski area. Homeowners at Tamarack sought restrictions on use of helicopters, reports the Idaho Statesman, causing the Canadian company to back off its purchase.
In Colorado, town officials in Mt. Crested Butte – the resort municipality at the base of the ski area, as distinguished from the old mining town nearby – are pressuring a developer to shape up one of his existing developments. Rick Divine, of Colorado Properties Inc., wants an extension of his zoning plan for his project, Solstice.

The Crested Butte News predicts a “white-knuckle ride” in this conversation, based on the tensions evident in a recent public meeting.

Tap beats out the bottle in taste test

ASPEN – There is more evidence that if you’re buying bottled water for anything other than convenience, you’re probably wasting your money.
Aspen city officials conducted a taste test last week. Samples from Dasani, Fiji and ordinary tap water from Aspen were put into unmarked containers. The overwhelming favorite was local water, now being branded as Aspen Tap by city officials.
This is the direct result of a winter vacation by Torre, a member of the Aspen City Council, who goes by the single name. While sailing amid the British Virgin Islands in December, he saw many clusters of floating plastic bottles.
Returning to Aspen, he proposed limiting sales of bottled water within Aspen. Other city officials opted for a soft approach, and that approach has now been unveiled. The city has installed three “filling stations,” where people can fill up their water. The stations are green, of course.
To help induce use, the city has also ordered 4,000 reusable containers, which it will sell for $10 each. The bottles carry the Aspen tap logo along with a message, “Better than Bottled.”

Ashley Cantrell, the city’s environmental health specialist, said the taste-test survey didn’t say anything bad about the imported water.
“We’re trying to promote our water. When people talk about bottled water, they have this image that comes from mountain streams and pristine environments, and they don’t realize that’s exactly where Aspen’s tap water comes from.”

However, bottled water costs more – in several ways. Cantrell points out that he U.S. demand for bottled water requires 17 million barrels of oil, partly to produce the plastic, and only 15 percent of the bottles are recycled.

Zero waste taking off in Steamboat
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – The zero-waste initiative in Steamboat Springs seems to be doing well. Writing in the Steamboat Today, a representative of Yampa Valley Sustainability reports that after three years, the amount of material going to the landfill from special events has been dramatically reduced.
For example, the farmers market is getting a 90 percent diversion rate. The event attracts 2,000 people weekly. The Free Summer Concert Series has gone from one or two Dumpsters per event to just a 10-gallon trash bag.

And the ski area has gone from several Dumpsters of trash per week in 2009 to just two Dumpsters per month.
Instead of being buried at the landfill, the items are recycled or composted. Helping in that regard is reduced cost for forks made from cornstarch, for example, but it still takes vigilance to remind event-goers of the mechanics of recycling and composting.

– Allen Best