Tilting At Windmills.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Energy: Sen. John Kerry has been accused of taking positions based on which way the wind blows. Nowhere is his vacillating any clearer than his position on generating power from wind.

At a campaign appearance in Vinton, Iowa, last January, Kerry pledged: "By the year 2020, 20% of our electricity is going to be produced by alternative and renewable fuels."

The month before in New Hampshire, when specifically asked about wind power, Kerry said:

"I am in favor of wind power, and I think we ought to find a place that is appropriate off the coast of New England to build some wind power."

A company named Energy Management Inc. thought it had found the appropriate place to help achieve the energy independence Kerry says he seeks, a place that satisfied the three criteria for an offshore wind farm.

Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound was outside established ferry routes, shipping lanes and flight paths. The problem is that this body of water sits between the Kerry home on Nantucket Island and the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, on Massachusetts' Cape Cod.

The plan was to erect 130 wind turbines that would generate electricity equivalent to about 75% of Cape Cod's energy needs at average output. And according to theory, that wind farm would reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make it less likely American troops would be put in harm's way to protect those sources.