There's no other word to describe the August 4 editorial in the Bennington Banner criticizing the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources' draft policy to forbid large-scale wind facilities on state land.
The writer acknowledges that the policy reflects overwhelming public opinion, that only 1% of state land is feasible for such development anyway, that it would require cutting down the forest and building roads on a wild mountain top, and that the contribution to our electricity would be minuscule.
But, the editorialist argues, the symbolic importance of appearing to support renewable energy trumps any argument against installing expensive, intrusive, destructive, and ineffective industrial-size wind turbines.
Therefore, the state should destroy at least one mountaintop and its neighborhood for the merely symbolic gesture of supporting one industry's dubious claim of a viable alternative energy source.
And they wonder why environmentalists oppose the industrial wind juggernaut. See earlier post for more on this topic.
