On April 28, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the development of 130 wind turbines off the coast of Massachusetts.
Ironically, the project might not go forward owing to the soon-to-be-filed lawsuits of environmental activist groups—the same groups that have long clamored for such alternative energy sources. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, Three Bays Preservation, Animal Welfare Institute, Industrial Wind Action Group, Californians for Renewable Energy, Oceans Public Trust Initiative, and others claim that they “will not stand by and allow our treasured public lands to be marred forever by a corporate giveaway to private industrial groups.”
It seems that this project’s opponents feel wind power is a good thing, but it should be generated on somebody else’s land. As this post by Edward John Craig so aptly points out, the complaint “is a tale of green hypocrisy and aggrieved NIMBYism. It details the efforts of some of our favorite environmentally holier-than-thou [activists] to prevent a wind farm in Nantucket Sound.”
One wonders why Virginians or New Yorkers should be forced to erect towering white turbines if Bay Staters don’t have to do the same.