Oil keeps getting more expensive to pull out of the ground. Talk of peak oil has hit the mainstream and is being taken seriously. A century of burning fossil fuels and released stored carbon into the environment is causing the ice caps to melt. We face a future of energy shortages unless new sources are found or created.
In response to this growing crisis there is tremendous opportunity, especially in the area of renewables. Jerome and others in Kosslandia have done a worthwhile job bringing attention to these opportunities. Many profess to support various renewable energy sources - solar, hydro, wind - except, of course, when it comes time to actually build it.
More hypocrisy on the flip.
From today's
Boston Globe:
A proposed wind farm on a mountain ridgeline in south central Vermont has been put on hold until the Public Service Board clarifies whether such projects will be permitted elsewhere in the state, the developer said Friday.
A board hearing officer's recommended rejection last week of the East Haven Windfarm in the Northeast Kingdom has created serious doubt among developers that any new projects will be approved if one cannot be built on East Mountain in East Haven.
Now, you might be thinking - maybe its a huge wind farm that people are opposing, maybe it close to developed areas, maybe it will result in cutting down lots of trees. Bzzzt: wrong.
But serious doubts have been raised about whether any windmill projects can be approved in Vermont if four windmills cannot be built on a remote ridgeline in East Haven. Public Service Board hearing officer Kurt Janson recommended last week that the Northeast Kingdom project not be permitted because it sits at the edge of the nearly 133,000 acres of former Champion paper company land that the state helped to preserve several years ago.
Janson said the four 329-foot windmills, which would produce 6 megawatts of electricity, were inappropriate because they would not be in character with the surrounding wilderness.
Proponents of wind power argue that the East Haven site is a perfect place to build a wind farm because it is on the site of a former Cold War-era U.S. Air Force radar base.
Yeah, you read that right - four windmills shouldn't be built in a remote area on land that previously was used by a paper mill and as a U.S. Air Force radar base because...it would be out of "character."
I lack the words to describe how monumentally ridiculous that sounds. And this is not an isolated issue. Wind power developers across the country are constantly facing opposition to their projects. One of the largest wind farm projects in the Northeast is proposed for Massachusetts Bay by Cape Wind Associates LLC. It is currently being opposed by folks who claim their views of the Cape will be spoiled. Sadly, several members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation, who should know better, are supporting the NIMBYs.
Its sad - our country (and planet) desperately need new, non-polluting sources of power. Until recently, its been hard to get energy companies and investment capital interested in these project. Its finally starting to get off the ground. But this doesn't stop the NIMBYs from failing to recongize that there are no perfect projects, no perfect solutions, no costless solutions. Its not a choice we ever have available to us in an imperfect world. Its time to grow up and recognize it.