Brokeback Bush

When the lights went out over much of the northeastern United States in 2003 and the Big Apple was suddenly plunged into darkness (talk about your huddled masses), the torch on the Statue of Liberty remained lighted thanks to emergency generators.

Now, it seems, Lady Liberty's shining light, along with the entire park service facility on Liberty and Ellis Islands, will be powered by wind. The utility supplying that power, Pepco, announced the news back in February, and it was duly disseminated by bloggers and a few newspapers.

The curious thing is that, try as I might, I couldn't find the news trumpeted anywhere on government websites. Not at nps.gov, not at doe.gov, not at whitehouse.gov ... nowhere. A search on the National Renewable Energy Lab website turns up a sentence about today's wind turbines being "as tall as the Statue of Liberty" and that's it.

I only mention this because it fits a curious pattern with this Administration in which it studiously ignores anything that might give the impression that maybe, just maybe, it sees the benefits of green technology after all.

Consider solar energy: Many people know that Jimmy Carter first put solar panels on the White House during the Oil Embargo and that Nancy Reagan wasted no time in taking them down. But how many know that the White House installed solar panels again in 2002, under President George W. Bush? That's right. Among other things, solar power heats the water in the presidential pool. So, did the White House publicize the return of solar? Nope. A spokesman for the White House told the Washington Post at the time that it was an internal matter it didn't feel the need to publicize.

Then there's the president's ranch in Texas. It's a little-known fact that Bush's Crawford getaway boasts some environmentally sensible technology, including geothermal heat pumps, rainwater collection and wastewater recycling. The ranch house also incorporates daylighting and passive solar heating and cooling. It's true. Just don't expect to hear it from the White House.

So what gives? It's not greenwashing, after all, if you don't publicize it. Could it be that George W. Bush is ... gasp!... a closeted environmentalist? A green cowboy unable to be himself in a fossil-fuel culture hostile to his chosen lifestyle?

Yeah, I doubt it too, but it's fun to think about.