Is John Kerry willing to increase the odds that U.S. troops will have to fight another Middle Eastern war just to preserve the pristine view from the millionaires' mansions along Nantucket Sound?

If you were to apply Kerry's alarmist campaign rhetoric about energy policy to his own actions in regard to energy production, the conclusion would be: Yes, he is.

But Kerry's not a warmonger; he's just a windbag. And never was this more apparent than when his environmentally correct energy policy ran aground on Horseshoe Shoal -- where a company specializing in clean energy production would like to build a windmill farm in the very body of water that sits between Kerry's home on Nantucket and the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport.

Here lies a dilemma that tries Kerry's soul.

In stump speeches, Kerry argues that unless America weans itself from foreign petroleum and develops renewable energy sources, American troops may have to die in the Middle East to protect our oil supply.

Last March, he said: "(I)n decades to come, we should not have to send young people into battle to defend and die for America's gluttony for fossil fuel."

In October, he vowed: "I bring to this fight the clear and absolute concept that our party needs to stand up and make it clear, on behalf of future generations, on behalf of common sense, that no young American in uniform, man or woman, ought to ever, ever be held hostage to America's dependency on fossil fuel oil from the Middle East."

Kerry, accordingly, has proposed "a new Manhattan Project to make America independent of Middle East oil."

In January, he explained part of the plan in Vinton, Iowa. "I'm setting a goal for America," he said. "By the year 2020, 20 percent of our electricity is going to be produced by alternative and renewable fuels. And a lot of that is going to come out of Iowa."

Listing ways to improve the "quality of life of the rural community," Kerry said: "Wind farms, obviously, is one other thing."

But, it turns out, not for Nantucket.

Energy Management Inc., a Massachusetts company, has been working since 2001 on its plan for an offshore wind farm in New England, a plan being reviewed by 17 government agencies. "We weren't interested in some token, feel-good project that didn't make a difference," said Mark Rodgers, communications director for EMI's Cape Wind project. "We wanted to try to bring on utility-scale renewable power."

The company needed a site that had strong winds, shallow water and low waves. One place had all three: Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. As a bonus, said Rodgers, the site also was "outside the ferry routes, outside the shipping lanes, and outside the flight paths." Continued...