Dispatch From the Renewable Resources Front

As you no doubt know, the use of solar panels is high on the list of things favored  by  folks who want to reduce our petroleum dependency and diminish our carbon dioxide footprint. Basically, that sounds like a good idea. In theory. But if you want to put it in effect you have to contend with the NIMBYs.

A dispatch in today’s New York Times (Minerva Navarro, Solar Panels Rise Pole by Pole, Followed by Gasps of “Eyesore,” April28, 2011, at p. A1) informs us of what happened when New Jersey utilities started installing solar panels on electrical poles to increase generation of clean electrical power. Sounds good to us. But what do we know?

It turns out that the local folks are up in arms about that; they are aghast at the “ugliness” and “hideousness” of it. Mind you, this is not a case of installation of new utility poles. Rather, those solar panels are being mounted on existing ones, so with all due respect to NIMBY sensitivities, their impact cannot be all that great.

But hey man, it’s modern America where everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die.

For the full Times article go to here.