The annual arts festival in honor of Fort Pierce’s favorite son, A.E. Backus, concludes today at Veterans Park.

The late artist was noted for his landscape paintings — brilliant colors of sunrise and sunset along the beaches, waterways and savannahs of the Treasure Coast; native birds as they flew, perched or posed in the water and across shorelines; the gentle splash of waves; the soft breezes rustling through palm fronds and pine needles; white and pastel clouds hanging like guardian angels over what is so close to nature’s paradise.

I wonder what Beanie would think today.

I don’t recall in any of his Florida landscape paintings spider webs of electrical transmission lines, the tall, metal trees towering over the natural skyline or concrete silos rising from the beach that generate nuclear power.

Therefore, I wonder what Beanie would think of Florida Power and Light Co.’s plan to build nine 40-story windmills — six on its nuclear power plant property on Hutchinson Island and three on nearby state-owned land managed by St. Lucie County at Blind Creek Park, an environmental conservation area.

Maybe the artist would have the same two questions that have been rumbling around in my mind.

First, what’s in it for FPL? Secondly, what’s in it for St. Lucie County.

The first is the most confounding. FPL officials say they want to demonstrate they embrace alternative energy, at state direction, and, therefore, are developing solar projects and the St. Lucie wind project to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.

How very noble and forward-thinking.

But, FPL is the same company that just a few years ago, while pitching an unsuccessful proposal to build a coal-burning power plant in St. Lucie, adamantly claimed that studies had shown that alternative projects — solar energy and wind energy — are not feasible in Florida.

Solar energy may work, but nothing I’ve seen indicates that windmills — even with the latest technology — are feasible here. In middle America, where there are vast amounts of open land and strong, steady winds, windmills have been effective. But, Florida doesn’t have vast amounts of open land for windmills and has one of the lowest rankings in the nation for wind that would be needed to make any windmill project efficient.

And, such a project would require hundreds to thousands of windmills on each site. In St. Lucie, the company wants nine? FPL says they would produce 20 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve about 3,300 homes. There are no plans — and virtually no likelihood — to build more at the site.

From a practical, technical standpoint, the project makes no sense. So, why would the company be willing to spend nearly $61 million to build a windmill project that won’t work?

By demonstrating failure, FPL might get concessions from the state to relax demands for a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Beyond that, there are grants and tax incentives that could bring huge profits to the company, even if the project doesn’t work.

In my prejudiced opinion, it seems the goal of FPL is not to demonstrate that wind power will work, but to show that wind power will not work and, as an added benefit, potentially reduce its federal tax burden to zero. Who wouldn’t jump at an offer like that?

So, what would St. Lucie County get out of the deal? The investment in the project could add significantly to the county’s tax base — at least initially. But, how much are $61 million in windmills worth if they sit idle, creating no or little revenue, or are dismantled in part or wholly as a result of failure?

Will the windmill project reduce the energy costs for FPL customers in St. Lucie County? FPL admits the answer is no.

But, the windmills along the beach would show that St. Lucie County is an environmentally-conscious, “green” county, helping to reduce oil dependence and saving the country from global warming.

How impressive will the windmills be, though, if the project fails, which seems likely? Will the county look foolish, allowing the landscape to be marred by skyscraping windmills, which serve no purpose?

What would Beanie think? If the county allows his landscape — the landscape he loved and that made him famous — to become ugly as part of industrial commerce, he might turn to the bottle of numbing tonic he kept under the sink in his kitchen.

Beanie Backus knew that there are parts of life out of our control. He would turn to that bottle sometimes when those parts seemed unfair and overwhelming.

But, there are also parts of our lives that we do control, like making a conscious decision to deliberately damage the landscape — and very possibly part of the natural environment — by placing on our beach some very tall intruders for no good reason.

This is not a case of saying we want alternative energy to combat global warming, but Not In My Back Yard. It’s a case of wanting a far better potential outcome or Not In My Front Yard.

Gov. Charlie Crist has suggested that if St. Lucie County residents don’t want the windmill project, the company should look elsewhere.

This weekend, as we honor Beanie’s name, work and memory, add your name to the growing chorus telling FPL it’s time to push this boondoggle on someone else.