2011 was a big year for environmental news from Solyndra, to Climategate II, and the fight over the Keystone XL pipeline. Locally, we saw Seattle ban plastic bags, the state ban BPA even as a study from the EPA said there was almost no risk, the fight over coal terminals in Western Washington, more ethics questions about how the Puget Sound Partnership spends money, among other issues.

One photo, however, stands out as the photo of the year, demonstrating the promise and pitfalls of our current environmental policy.

Earlier this year, the CenturyLink exhibition hall added solar panels to great fanfare. The installation of the panels, it was promised, would help the Seahawks become a leader among "green" sports teams. One report noted "There is a friendly competition underway in the sports world to find the greenest, most efficient and cheapest way to power professional stadiums -- and the Seahawks just became a major contender."

Here is the photo that accompanied the announcement of the installation on the web page for the Green Sports Alliance. We should note that this photo has since been removed from the page. Note the name on the green jersey.

On the bright side, at least we got back some of the taxpayer money wasted trying to prop Solyndra up.

Happy New Year!