The largest on-land wind farm in Europe will soon be built in Scotland. The development will be near Glasgow, and once completed, it will supply Scots with 2 percent of their power needs. At a time of soaring energy costs, every little bit helps.
West of Scotland, in Nantucket Sound off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a similar sized offshore wind farm has been proposed for several years.
And in a classic case of liberal two-faceness, Senator Teddy Kennedy and his protect-the-environment family opposes it.
Here is a passage from Peter Schweizer's Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy:
But from the moment the Kennedy family got wind of these plans (so to speak), they came out in strong opposition. Their complaint: The wind turbines would be built in Nantucket Sound, about six miles off the coast from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis. The problem was not aesthetic; the Kennedys wouldn't be able to actually see the turbines from their home. Instead Robert Kennedy Jr., who had been beating the drum for alternative sources of energy for more than a decade, complained the project would be built in one of the family's favorite sailing and yachting areas. (My note: You can't make this stuff up!) The Kennedys were quickly joined by other affluent environmentalists with homes in the area, including newscaster Walter Cronkite and historian David McCollough, and the media war began.
Cronkite, as Schweizer points out a couple of paragraphs later, switched his position to "neutral." The sting of being called a hypocrite got to the man who was once called "the most trusted man in America."
Kennedy, as the Boston Globe reported today, is apparently losing the battle over his beloved patch of blue yachting water, so he's resorting to back room wheeling-and-dealing with Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens to stop the Nantucket Sound wind farm.
It must be a great place for yachting. If I ever get a yacht, I'm taking it to Nantucket Sound.
But it's also an ideal place for a wind farm, and as Mr. Spock so eloquently phrased it in the second Star Trek movie, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Even if they are Kennedys." Okay, I made up that last sentence, but you get my point, I hope.
Yeah, there's some griping in Scotland about their wind farm, but it's going to be built. Here's what one Scottish official said about the project:
(It) is the largest single onshore wind farm to be consented in Europe and is a significant milestone towards achieving our renewable energy and climate change targets. We are strongly committed to the continued development of a diverse renewable energy portfolio in this country." - Allan Wilson, Deputy Enterprise Minister.
Glenn Reynolds over at Intapundit has more on the Cape Cod wind farm project.
Technorati tags: Scotland Glasgow UK Politics kennedy Massachusetts Cape Cod Energy Environment Wind Farm Ted Stevens
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