Breaking political blogging silence briefly for this local story:

"I hate them," Mr. Olsen, 40, said of the row of [solar] panels attached to electrical poles across the street. "It's just an eyesore."

The solar installations, the first and most extensive of their kind in the country, are part of a $515 million investment in solar projects by PSE&G under a state mandate that by 2021 power providers get 23 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. If they were laid out like quilt pieces, the 5-by-2.5-foot panels would blanket 170 acres.

New Jersey is second only to California in solar power capacity thanks to financial incentives and a public policy commitment to renewable energy industries seeded during Gov. Jon S. Corzine's administration. But what might have been a point of pride in a state better known as the nation's leader in toxic Superfund sites has instead caused suburban aesthetic unrest.

Some residents consider the overhanging panels "ugly" and "hideous" and worry aloud about the effect on property values.

Are these people nuts? These solar panels are marring the beauty of their precious utility poles and wires? Is this a joke?

And look at this poor lady:

"I came back from running errands and there they were," Mrs. Olsen, 37, said. "It's not right. They should have warned us."

The horror! No one expects the solar panels!

I saw this story yesterday and I wondered if the people who were getting electricity were upset about the eyesore of the utility poles and wires.