Governor Jennifer Granholm’s perverse obsession with the “green jobs” boondoggle as a supposed way out of Michigan’s one-party, statist-created economic debacle — the same boondoggle that has mired the economies of Spain and others — has been such a belly-flop that even the Washington Post has heckled her.

Now consider this excerpt, from a recent Detroit Free Press article otherwise focusing on the downside of having windmills in one’s own backyard, which exposes a classic tale of thoughtless governance:

Energy board’s 1 public advocate now works for wind firm
Those who live closest to Michigan’s existing wind turbines say their concerns are often ignored because officials of local government either have leased their land to wind farms or live in areas that won’t get wind development.
Huron County Zoning and Planning Director Russ Lundberg, a wind power advocate, lives on Sand Point, a tiny finger of land on the county’s northern tip too skinny to fit turbines — unless they end up offshore, he noted.
A state board, the Michigan Wind Energy Resource Zone board, which is examining where the best areas of the state are for wind, has 11 members. No members, however, are from Huron County, the only place in the state so far with sizable wind farms.
Five board members represent the wind industry: utilities planning wind farms, wind developers, electricity transmission firms and alternative energy companies.
The other members represent environmental groups, the attorney general, townships and cities.
The lone member chosen to represent the public, Mary Templeton, didn’t work for a wind firm when appointed in 2008, but she does now.
Templeton is listed as vice president of sales for Wind Energy Consulting & Contracting, a Florida firm, in various news releases since August.
In e-mails to the Free Press, Templeton said her company focuses on smaller wind projects rather than large commercial-size ones, so she doesn’t see a problem. “I see no reason why there would be any conflict of interest, however, I will respectfully abstain from any vote that . . . represents a conflict of interest,” she said.
The home page for Templeton’s company says: “We deliver the total package for wind energy projects large and small. … Small to utility scale. We do it all.”
Carolyn Weed lives in Centerville Township in Leelanau County, which the state wind board has targeted for wind development. She was stunned to hear about Templeton’s new job. “Are you kidding me?” she said. “Then there’s nobody representing the public.”

That’s cute: the “public advocate,” the lone voice not supposed to be tied to any other potential interest, sees no conflict in having joined a windmill company but promises to recuse herself if she sees a conflict — which, she has already proved, she will never see.

Seems the din from these contraptions isn’t the only thing stopping Michiganders from having their voices heard.