Friday, July 24, 2009
Politics / News Green Villain of the Week: The North Carolina State Senate
Posted by Mark Asch on Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Word comes that they're considering a bill that would ban the construction of wind turbines on ridgelines, because wind turbines are ugly. (At the Vine, Brad Plumer pithily posts a picture of ripped-up Appalachian coal mining country. Much prettier.)
It is nice, it really is, to see state and local politicians stand up to private development and preserve wild areas. (A generation ago, the state's legislature passed a so-called "Ridge Law" to restrict development in scenic mountain areas.) But this is, obviously, preemptive and short-sighted and exactly the kind of niggling complaint by which progress is undermined and held up.
A solution that would please everyone, doubtless, was if each new wind turbine was painted in pretty colors and designs by a different local artist, much like those streetcorner statues of Peanuts characters in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
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