We noted a few weeks ago the rich irony that the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) tactics that green groups have used for years to block infrastructure projects – from transmission lines to roads, to pipelines – are now being employed in towns across America to stop Big Wind and Big Solar projects.

The story below about midwestern towns across the plains fighting the wind and solar – often successfully – cites a growing grassroots rebellion against green energy:

Energy expert Robert Bryce notes that 94 counties have seen citizen activism against Big Wind and Big Solar. “I’m Ohio alone, 41 townships have rejected or restricted the expansion of wind and/or solar projects in the last year.” At least eight Ohio counties have restricted wind and solar over the past two years. In deep blue Massachusetts, there has been fierce resistance to offshore wind. In rural Linn County, Iowa the county board voted unanimously to implement a moratorium on new solar projects.

Why the backlash? Because everyone but the politicians have figured out that wind and solar are hazardous. They industrialize the landscape, they are ugly, they use massive amounts of land, and they kill birds, turtles, and other forms of wildlife. Worst of all they are by an order of magnitude far more land intensive than a coal plant, a nuclear power plant, or a natural gas facility. How is any of this green?