Senator Alexander’s latest tirade against wind includes the concept of energy sprawl; see an October 5, 2009 press release from his website and this Wall Street Journal article.

He has taken a Nature Conservancy report out of context and is using it as a reason to continue bashing wind and solar. The original report appears to be more directed at concerns about unlimited biofuel production leading to biological habitat destruction. One of the report’s main authors recently blogged about how the report is being misused and cited Senator Alexander by name.  Also, Matt Wasson of Appalachian Voices has a thoughtful piece in Facing South on the report.

We have blogged several times on Alexander’s poorly-articulated positions and statements on nuclear, renewable energy, and coal.  We do agree with the Nature Conservancy about the importance of thoughtful policies on siting — and most importantly, on the need for aggressive energy efficiency measures. We also agree that poorly designed bioenergy policies can lead to serious habitat impacts, and that we need to put much more effort into ensuring that bioenergy development is done sustainably.

If only the senior Senator from Tennessee would spend his energy focused on supporting aggressive policies for promoting energy efficiency. Instead, he bashes clean, renewable energy and promotes unrealistic and dangerous policies, such as 100 new nuclear plants in the next 20 years, thereby suppressing real movement on energy and climate policy in this country.