The NIMBY Poster-Child

My old homeland, Long Island is making the news once again and once again, not in a good way.  In an editorial titled "Farming Sunshine by the Megawatt, the author marvels at the potential of the island's east end to keep re-inventing itself, going from potato and sod farms to vineyards and now possibly to large scale solar power development.  The large flat fields which generations farmed are now being covered in solar panels.  It almost reminds me of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy when the world of Trantor is covered by buildings and all inhabitants live below the surface.  The solar companies which hungrily eye farmland are now being told they may not tamper with the region's agricultural heritage, and that is good, but there is plenty of non-agricultural space available for solar arrays.  However, the local activists are already muttering about "Big Solar" ruining the bucolic splendor of the east end.  Let someone else host green energy projects is the implication.  I believe Long Island is the place where the acronym NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) was coined.  Let's hope this latest manifestation of a profoundly anti-social movement serves to temper, but not halt the spread of green energy.  I am somewhat ambivalent about large scale solar.  If government would make the commitment to cover every residential property with small scale solar, it would go a long way toward a green energy future where everyone has skin in the game.  Industrial solar is just big business as usual.