New England Neighbors Shoot (For) the Breeze

It's reassuring to see that some of President Obama's green energy policies are making some headway, and a small source of pride to see two New England states leading the charge.

According to the New York Times, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are neck and neck in the battle to become the first state to host an offshore wind farm to generate electricity.  The rivalry of the two neighbors has meant progress has been reasonably swift for both states.

But I hope Rhode Island's approach to establishing the wind farm is the one that prevails in the long run.

One Step Forward, One Step Back

That's one small step for health care, one giant leap backward for U.S. energy policy.

In the wake of last week's relative victory for health care reform, President Obama decided today to shift the big fast car from fourth gear directly into reverse by ending the ban on drilling for oil along the Atlantic coast.

I see this as the same kind of mistake that the U.S. Mint has made each time it has tried to introduce a $1 coin into general circulation.  Why do you suppose we still use dollar bills far more than dollar coins?  It's because the Mint refuses to actually REPLACE the bills with the coins.  If you want to introduce a new form of currency to supplant an old one, you have to take the old one out of circulation.