Cape Cod and the wind turbines

There is a painting by Childe Hassam here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art - a painting of a New England coastline - a painting somewhat marred by a sailboat which seems all too close to the rocky shore.  I would have preferred the painting without the sailbout.  I sat across from it listening to Henryk Górecki - and after a few minutes was no longer distracted by the sailboat.

The opponents of the distant "wind farm" make no complaint when a modern sailboat traverses their seascape. But these sailboats often have a history intertwined with turbines.

The sail of the modern wind-powered vessel benefited greatly from the Wright Bros and others developing powered flight with the resultant advances in the design of air foils.  Closely related developments have greatly benefited the techniques and theories for the hulls of those same vessels.

But a modern sailboat tacking across a bay is not an eye-sore.  This eastern coast is not the pristine coast of the Pacific Northwest along Vancouver Island's western shore.

Not-in-our-backyard here means "not at the limit of our horizon".  That we might be trying to reduce the needless haze along a horizon does not enter into their thinking: they want to see ocean.  Ocean uninterrupted, vanishing into the distance.

Let these turbines lie along a prairie horizon.  Who could be offended?  Place them along a major ridge or fault.  Who could take exception?  But where is there a good place to lay down a haze from exhaust gases?

Perhaps it is too much to applaud Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's announcement today.  Perhaps a sense of relief is enough: selfish, short-sighted and noisy indignation did not get in the way.

Likely we will soon learn that efficient wind-driven generators do not require these towers and these high winds - and can be placed in less optimal locations.  That we will be able to applaud when that technology is dicreetly placed in the field - of someone's vision.