This is because on the emonpi /var/log is mounted as a temp RAM partition.
You need to edit ~/emonpi/rc.local_jessieminimal
which is symlinked to /etc/rc.local
to create the folder you need on startup:
Once you get openHAB 2 up and running it would be great if you could update us on OpenHAB development. How soon should we all update to openHAB 2? How can we replicate the OpenEnergyMonitor OpenHAB setup on openHab2?