For the confused, Florida is a town in Western Massachusetts

Joan Vennochi nails it in today’s Boston Globe – “Cape Wind: too ‘ugly’ for the rich?”

Ugliness can be good for you -- especially if you are not rich, powerful, or politically connected.

After a massive draft environmental analysis, the controversial proposal to construct a wind farm in Nantucket Sound is coming down to aesthetics. Governor Romney -- a supposedly pro-business, anti-government regulation, cold-blooded venture capitalist -- made that clear during recent testimony before the US Army Corps of Engineers. "We cannot trash this extraordinary resource," Romney said, referring to Nantucket Sound. "I've seen wind farms, and they are not pretty."

Two days later, the Romney administration announced support for windmill projects in Florida and Monroe in Western Massachusetts. Residents there also worry about the aesthetics of 20 340-foot-tall turbines and the overall impact on streams, wetlands, and woodland.

Now a group called Green Berkshires is also opposing the wind farm, claiming that Western Massachusetts is just as much a national treasure as Nantucket Sound. Alas, we have few Kennedys out here, so we’re probably going to end up with the turbines.