by paul schwennesen

Driving through Colorado in June is always a pleasure.  Especially when you start the trip in Arizona... 

Green rolling plains, wide open ranchland as far as the eye can see, largely untrammeled landscape from horizon to horizon. 
Now, thanks to a prosperity founded no doubt upon gross domestic PolarFleece production, Colorado is now able to afford a generous coat of greenwashing, staking claim as a "progressive" state like its more socially conscious kin on the coasts. 
Yes, now interspersed among the billboards along I-25 is a new crop of more far-sighted sign-boards announcing that Colorado is about to be blessed with exciting new vistas of solar farms and sweeping fields of wind turbines spinning nobly in carbon-free zephyrs.  It lifted my spirits to know that somebody was in charge, diligently looking after my environment for me.  I positively glowed green (in the new, appropriate way) to think of it.

Perspective, unfortunately, waltzed in and ruined the view.

A typical 500 Megawatt coal-fired power plant stands on 10-30 acres.  It takes a 3,288 acre array of solar panels to produce it's equivalent power.   It takes 3,840 acres of windmills to do the same, or a line of windmills 110 miles long.

It takes me two minutes to pass a coal-fired power plant before I can enjoy the scenery again.  In the future, I'll have the privilege of driving through windmills from Pueblo to Colorado Springs, snatching glimpses of green through slashing blades.  

Sure, coal doesn't just appear, and strip mining isn't exactly an aesthetic poster child.  But acre for acre, the cumulative damage to a landscape is several times larger when dealing with solar and wind technology that is so terribly power undense. 

Maybe I'm just cranky and need to get on board.  I thought the environmental movement was concerned with unaltered pristine landscapes and wide-open vistas, but I recognize that sacrifices must be made if we are to save our fragile planet from approaching doom.  It's probably easier to swallow if you engage in self-delusion, viewing these projects through emerald lenses.  Where do you get a pair?