Here we were, in little old Warren County, IL, looking forward to the federal moneys coming our way for a big wind farm, but it seems Senator John Warner has other ideas.
He attached a little thingy questioning whether our turbines might interfere with military radar... Yeah that's really gonna be a problem out here among the soybeans. They haven't fazed the security systems around Oklahoma's Fort Sill (according to one commenter at Volokh Conspiracy, the base is surrounded by big ol' windmills), but they may be a problem out in the middle of an ocean, miles from any military bases. Hmmm.
What this seems to boil down to is that Warner is doing Ted Kennedy's dirty work, finding an excuse for the NIMBY stand on the Martha's Vineyard windmills, without making it look like a NIMBY stand. (Just a thought -- maybe the reason Teddy's against the things is because he knows that seeing those things rotate would make him even drunker.)
And, it's just sooooo helpful to us out here in the industrially neglected boonies, innit?
What I really want to know is, where the hell were our senators at the time? Did they sit on their hands, did they vote in favor of screwing everybody out of cheap, safe, independent energy sources for political backscratching? What did Durbin do? What was Obama on? Why are we, once again, the red-haired stepchild of the left? Is it because they think farmers around here will always vote Democrat, just because dear old daddy did so? Well, think again, buckos.
It isn't just about doing what we want. It's about doing what's right for the nation. If we can get some of our local industries, our agribusinesses, and our towns producing more than just corn, canola, and soy, we make ourselves and our nation more independent, more secure, and, gee whiz, better partners with other nations, which, according to my sources, makes the world a safer place.
The Senate needs to stop producing all that hot air and spin in D.C., and save it for the windmills we need out here.
HT: Jonathan Adler @ Volokh Conspiracy
update: not that I've read any new items on the subject, I'ce just had a little while to cool off. I'm still annoyed that the more-than-comfortably-well-off senator from Virginia pushed aside the many energy-needy in favor of his compatriots with summer cottages who would not want their view spoiled by anything so tacky as a reminder that we don't have to be dependent upon OPEC. No, I've cooled off enough to realize that there are ways around it.
(1) push for further local & state incentives for development and installation of individual house-sized windmills (I understand one company has even indicated they will have a horizontal-rotating one for rooftops in the near future, for under $4000 -- it would pay for itself on my block in about three weeks, at the rate my neighbor keeps working all night on his house renovation);
(2) get a neighborhood investment group together, build our own mini windfarm, and go around the state-backed power companies;
(3) start sailing lots of coal-burning steamships all around the coastal waters of Nantucket & Martha's Vineyard. See how they like breathing the crap that some of the rest of us (those who don't live near hydroelectric dams or nuclear plants) have to. I might know where we can get a steamboat or two...
(4) convince all my farm & town friends to vote Republican. And then ride the flank of any elected official who skips out on his responsibility to make this country cleaner and safer.
No comments:
Post a Comment