Wealthy progressives love wind power, as long as it is located far away from them. Way back in 2009:
It is hard to overstate [Senator Ted] Kennedy’s role in delaying Cape Wind thus far. Efforts in Congress to torpedo the project, often by stealthy legislative or regulatory means, have always come directly or indirectly from Kennedy’s office, project backers say. They add that Kennedy and his staff behave as if stopping their project is the senator’s top legislative priority.
Kennedy’s staff itself has been quick to insist that the senator’s disapproval stems from environmental and cost-benefit objections, not a personal desire to keep the waters off the Kennedy compound free of turbines. But the MMS report, oddly enough, specifically noted that the project would impede the view from the home of its most high-profile opponent: “Cape Wind will also have an adverse visual impact on 28 historic properties including the Kennedy compound, Nantucket historic district, Nobiska Point lighthouse, Monomoy Point lighthouse and several other light houses and proposed or existing historic districts.”
A dozen giant wind turbines are on track to start spinning roughly 50 miles offshore from some of the country’s ritziest beach towns. That is unless last-ditch efforts by local residents can stop one of the country’s first offshore wind projects.
South Fork Wind will power 70,000 homes around East Hampton, N.Y., when it starts generating electricity next year. Construction began recently after a six-year approval process from federal, state and local governments.
One of the few remaining snags could be a group of residents of the exclusive hamlet of Wainscott who don’t want the cable carrying power from the windmills to be buried under a street that runs to the beach. Even though digging has begun, they are still waging legal battles on several fronts that could delay construction or further complicate the project.
…More than 200 wind and solar projects face local opposition, according to Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, which backs green projects through a pro bono partnership with the law firm Arnold & Porter. That is up from roughly 165 in September. The Sabin Center worked for a group of residents who argued in favor of South Fork.
I was going to write, won’t someone please think of how these wind turbines will ruin the views of some of the richest people in the country? But the irony is that none of these average $3 million-per-home residents will even be able to see the windmills, nor the cable carrying the electricity once the project is done. It sounds like the builders thought of almost every possible objection and tried to pre-empt it: “construction is planned primarily for cooler months, when many houses are unoccupied, and the cable will be undetectable from above ground, the project’s owners say.”
One opposition group, Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott, warns, “foreign-owned Deepwater Wind LLC will land its 138,000-volt electric cable on Wainscott Beach (aka Beach Lane) and then run energized lines throughout Wainscott.” How do these people think electricity gets anyplace now? As for that ominous sounding “foreign-owned,” Deepwater Wind LLC is owned by the notorious and sinister… Danish, an alternative energy company called Ørsted.
Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott declares, “we are very supportive of alternative energy sources (e.g., wind, solar) and conservation.” Just not near them.