Environmentalists are always yelling at the populace to clean up its act. Find renewable energy sources, they say. Stop polluting. Reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Make a little sacrifice for the sake of future generations.

Well, it seems that some people are listening to them. There is a proposal on the table for a project called Cape Wind, which calls for a few hundred windmills to be built offshore between Cape Cod and Nantucket. This wind farm will be the energy source for a power plant that will provide 75% of the electricity used by the Cape and the islands (the collective name for Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard). Sounds like a good idea.

And this week, an environmental impact report was released. Despite lots of fears that such a project would adversely harm the biological and geological ecosystems around the windmills, the report said there would be almost no harmful effects whatsoever. Fish populations will be unaffected. Pollution levels from the current coal-based energy sources will be reduced. A few birds might fly into the windmills, but the number is insignificant. It's clean, it's effective, it's renewable. It's even out of the way--three miles offshore. In short, it's perfect.

Now get this: Every politician in Massachusetts is adamantly opposed to Cape Wind. They will stop at nothing to stop this project.

Why?

They don't want to sully up this gorgeous piece of America with cruddy old windmills. They call Nantucket Sound, the stretch of ocean where the turbines will be built, "a national monument, a national treasure." They call it the "Grand Canyon of Massachusetts." Quick quiz, America: Have you even HEARD of Nantucket Sound? I mean, come on. It's a stretch of ocean. How much natural splendor can it have?

On a clear day, the windmills will be visible from some coastal properties on Nantucket. And clearly, we can't stand for that. Heaven forbid some wealthy New Yorker's summer home's vista be tarnished by a sleek, graceful monument to the protection of the Earth's resources.

They even claim the wind farm would affect the region's tourism industry. Imagine the following conversation.

HUSBAND: Honey, let's spend our honeymoon at a romantic bed-and-breakfast in Nantucket this year. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

WIFE: Oh yes, I really need a nice getaway. But in Nantucket, there are those windmills three miles offshore that you can see sometimes. I really don't think I would be able to unwind with all that going on. Let's go somewhere else.

This is NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard), pure and simple. Yes, we want clean, effective, renewable energy resources. We just don't want it here. It makes me shake my head with shame that people who ostensibly care about the Earth would be so hard-headed.