Windmills at the Cheshire prison complex? Now they're just being silly. Reps. Mary Fritz, D-Wallingford, (usually a deeper thinker than this) and Arthur O'Neill, R-Southbury, and five other lawmakers have proposed installing power- generating turbines at a state prison to reduce electricity costs, even though wind power is inefficient and unreliable (turbines produce electricity only about 30 percent of the time) and is three times more expensive than conventional electricity. Still, the House unanimously has passed a bill commissioning a state study, and the Senate is expected to do likewise before the session ends next month.

And why not? This is the perfect feel-good legislation for lawmakers, and they get double green stamps for this one because it also seems to gin up their environmental credentials. But as a practical matter, no state prisons are in Litchfield County where the U.S. Department of Energy says Connecticut's best breezes blow. To be sure, the wind is fierce at times in Cheshire, but conditions can be deathly still in the dog days of summer, when turbines would be reduced to gigantic lawn ornaments and expensive lightning rods.

A few other things to consider:

Could windmills threaten the health of the Cheshire inmates and employees, or the students at nearby Chapman School? A recent study in Canada was the latest to find that people living near windmills suffer headaches, heart palpitations, hearing problems, and stress, anxiety and depression, which were blamed primarily on the low frequency noise and vibration from rotating blades. If state officials choose to tee it up this high, they can be sure the trial lawyers and American Civil Liberties will drive it.

What about neighbors? They would have no say in the siting of the turbines because projects on state land are exempt from local zoning laws designed to protect people's health, safety and property values. Though many may fancy themselves as greener than the green, green grass of home, they instantly would morph into NIMBYs if windmills are proposed within view or earshot of their homes.

Windmills have a well-deserved reputation as "Cuisinarts of the air." (Could this be the final solution for Cheshire parks' geese infestation?) Moreover, scientists increasingly are concerned about the effects of turbines' electromagnetic fields on wildlife. By the same token, inmates and employees also might find themselves inside those fields.

So if this idea makes no ecological or fiscal sense, and threatens man and beast, why would the state waste precious resources on it? A "wind-win proposition," Rep. Fritz? Not by a long shot.