From A True Test on Energy:
Congress will soon face a test of its professed new interest in energy independence and legislative transparency. It comes in the form of a flawed amendment, hatched in secret, that would prevent the construction of a wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts.
The wind farm is opposed by some but not all Massachusetts politicians and by some extremely wealthy people with homes on Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod for whom the windmills would present an aesthetic annoyance on the distant horizon. It is supported by nearly every major environmental group and by citizens who see it as a source of clean energy at a time of soaring prices for oil and natural gas, as well as an alternative to coal-, oil- and gas-fired power plants that contribute in varying degrees to global warming.
The amendment, never debated in either house, was inserted into the Coast Guard authorization bill at the insistence of two Alaskans, Representative Don Young and Senator Ted Stevens. The sources of their opposition remain a mystery, but it seems unlikely that it is due to any principled concern about wind farms on the other side of the continent.
The source of their opposition might be the decrease in the demand for oil associated with increasing renewable energy supply.
