The Tennessee Liberal

I feel sure that Senators Kennedy and Kerry would love to hear from one of their constituents.

Today's TFP has a wonderful piece from the AP about the fact that Sen. Lamar! Alexander has some personal motive in opposing wind farms as an energy source. Tunrs out he has some land for a summer home on the Cape in Massachushetts. How very Yankee of him - I'm sure he spends a lot of time with other Tennesseans at their summer homes. Anyway, it looks like the reason he doesn't like the wind farms is there's one right by his place on the Cape.

The legislative director for the wind power folks has it right:

Alexander has never hidden the Massachusetts property, listing it on required disclosure forms since he bought it in 2001. But its appearance on disclosure forms released Tuesday surprised wind supporters and raised questions about whether a contentious proposal to erect 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound factors into Alexander'’s recent opposition to windmills. "It raises a question," said Jaime Steve, legislative director for the American Wind Energy Association. "This is high-level '‘not in my backyard.'"’

To say the least.

Now is the time for Lamar! to admit he is woefully out of touch. His untenable stance against apologizing for lynching aside, he fails to grasp the urgent need for a shift to new forms of power as soon as possible. The Smokies are becoming clogged and the environmental progress of cities like Chattanooga is being set back due to TVA's coal-fired monstrosities. His self-protectionism only shows that he is out of touch with the feelings of everyday Tenesseeans who are nature-loving hunters, fishermen and conservationists.