Driving in to work this morning, I saw a new billboard had gone up.  This one, which prominently features a picture of windmills, identifies (and I believe villifies) the Spanish firm Gamesa as the latest threat to the common good.  Gamesa has invested heavily in developing wind farms, and as nearly as I can tell the "Greens," (or a subset thereof) are taking vigorous exception to that here in the Keystone State.

Having grown up in rural Pennsylvania, I do appreciate the perspective that windmills on ridge lines are not "natural."  In fact, they look damned odd.  But there are worse blights on the landscape, such as a huge quarry excavated from a  mountainside not far from Harrisburg that truly defines an environmental nightmare.  There is no way that the firm responsible for that incursion will ever put the mountain back, and I would guess that the effect on the local eco-system is well nigh immeasurable.  Windmills, after all, can always be removed at some point with no one the wiser.

No, windmills are not natural.  They are, however, one way to implement the Renewable Portfolio Standard legislation enacted in Pennsylvania several years ago, and undeniably, the windmills provide relatively "clean" power for the PJM Interconnection.

Unless folks are willing to change their lifestyle and energy consumption behavior in truly extraordinary ways-- and I see no evidence of this-- the production of energy will continue to be a matter of compromise on both the political and regulatory agendas.