Ted Kennedy blocks clean, green wind power

The business of energy is dirty and dangerous: oil, coal, and nuclear require the digging through the earth and processing ore. The push for renewable energy is based, in part, on breaking the stranglehold of fossil fuels on our energy security. But all forms of energy – even wind, solar, and hydroelectric – have tradeoffs. For Senator Ted Kennedy, his long opposition to a wind farm off his Nantucket home is, simply put, a selfish effort to preserve his pristine ocean view, energy independence be damned. From today's Boston Globe, here's "An Ahab for Cape Wind":

Senator Edward Kennedy's Ahab-like efforts to kill the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound have taken a new twist. Having failed three years ago to get Congress to give veto power over the project to then-Governor Mitt Romney, an opponent of the wind turbines, the senator is now pursuing a delaying tactic. An aide to Kennedy conferred with staff of the House committee chairman with responsibility for the Coast Guard, who got that service to put off release of a recommendation on the project that is expected be favorable to the wind developers. Representative William Delahunt also worked to postpone the Coast Guard action.

The Cape Wind turbine farm could power three-quarters of the Cape while providing over 600 jobs during its two-year construction. Ted Kennedy's legislative sabotage lays bare the limits of his environmental beliefs.