Cape Cod's Libs Fight Alternative Energy

[Adam's Apple]

A Mighty Wind
By Jonah Goldberg, National Review
August 19, 2005

"The law, in its majestic equality" wrote Anatole France, "forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." But apparently not environmentalism. On that score there's one rule for the rich and one rule for the rest.

Witness the current fight in Cape Cod over an effort to build wind farms just offshore. It features sanctimonious environmentalists, super-rich property owners, and super-rich, property-owning, sanctimonious environmentalists feeding on each other like big hungry sharks in a small tank.

The basic situation is that some environmentalists and a company called Cape Wind want to build 130 windmills way out in the ocean to help offset energy costs in the region — and to satisfy all those demands that we find substitutes for evil fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, other environmentalists and conservationists are eager to stop the wind farm from being built, largely because it will mar the view from their extravagant coastal homes. Leading this charge is Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose famous compound would have a nice view of the turbines. (To be fair, though most people say the turbines would be hard to see except on very clear days, and even then they'd be tiny blips on the horizon.)

But Ted wants no such thing spoiling cocktail hour on the veranda. So he drafted his famously green nephew Robert to join the fight — even though Robert is a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which strongly backs the project.

http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200508190813.asp

 

[dilloduck]

A Mighty Wind
By Jonah Goldberg, National Review
August 19, 2005

"The law, in its majestic equality" wrote Anatole France, "forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." But apparently not environmentalism. On that score there's one rule for the rich and one rule for the rest.

Witness the current fight in Cape Cod over an effort to build wind farms just offshore. It features sanctimonious environmentalists, super-rich property owners, and super-rich, property-owning, sanctimonious environmentalists feeding on each other like big hungry sharks in a small tank.

The basic situation is that some environmentalists and a company called Cape Wind want to build 130 windmills way out in the ocean to help offset energy costs in the region — and to satisfy all those demands that we find substitutes for evil fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, other environmentalists and conservationists are eager to stop the wind farm from being built, largely because it will mar the view from their extravagant coastal homes. Leading this charge is Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose famous compound would have a nice view of the turbines. (To be fair, though most people say the turbines would be hard to see except on very clear days, and even then they'd be tiny blips on the horizon.)

But Ted wants no such thing spoiling cocktail hour on the veranda. So he drafted his famously green nephew Robert to join the fight — even though Robert is a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which strongly backs the project.

http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200508190813.asp

This example of blatant hypocrisy needs to be brought up including mentioning KENNEDY personally every damn time we here anyone bitching about the administrations' energy program. EVERY DAMN TIME.

 

[CSM]

Yep, it seems that everyone screams "SOMEBODY SHOULD DO SOMETHING!" but when it comes time to actually execute the "something" those same people scream "NOT IN MY BACKYARD, YOU DON'T!"

I have seen everything from old gas guzzling cars sporting bumper stickers for environmentalism (with smoke pouring out of the exhaust) to PETA folks wearing leather while complaining about cows having feelings too.

All of that just convinces me that a lot of the protestations aren't about concern for the environment...it is more about control of people's lives....

 

[Adam's Apple]

So true, Dillo. When I read this article, I laughed out loud. The libs love to talk about making sacrifices for the common good, but don't ask THEM to be the ones to make the sacrifices! Goldberg can come up with some good columns, but this was one I really got a kick out of.

 

[Abbey Normal]

But Ted wants no such thing spoiling cocktail hour on the veranda...

LMAO!

 

[no1tovote4]

"NOT IN MY BACKYARD, YOU DON'T!"

We call this the NIMBY crowd here in CO. We get many of them. The rich liberals in Boulder are some of the worst.