NIMBYs Shoot Down Green Projects Next Door While Planet Burns

People love renewable power projects. Just not the one next door.

Tourists look out from a beach at the GE-Alstom Block Island Wind Farm, three miles off the coast of Block Island in Rhode Island.

Photographer: Scott Eisen/Getty Images

While states from New York to Nevada want to get most of their power from solar plants and wind farms, residents are balking at living near green projects. And unlike opposition to fossil fuels due to concerns over pollution and contamination, the hostility toward clean power is largely driven by aesthetics and property values.

Solar panels at First Solar Inc.’s Desert Sunlight Solar Farm in California’s Mojave Desert.

Photographer: Tim Rue/Bloomberg

Rows of solar panels threaten to mar pristine vistas, while fears are rising among local residents that towering wind turbines will ruin the bucolic nature of their rural towns and drive down home ...