Irwin Greenstein, writing for Contarian Profits, says look no further than today’s Wall Street Journal if you want to fully understand why alternative energy will take decades to prosper.

A front page story in the Journal discusses the surge of interest in anticipation of President-elect Obama’s aggressive green agenda. But an inside story reveals that some of the very same people who embrace green are fighting it tooth-and-nail in the name of the environment.

How does this make sense?

Because the hype and greed of the green bubble blocks out the more practical issues of the local politics that can stop a renewable energy project dead in its tracks. The lesson here for investors is that alternative energy is highly politicized and regardless of how much due diligence you apply, a company in your portfolio can sink under litigation costs heaped on by communities and special-interest groups around the country.

While the Journal cites in the first article Mr. Obama’s call for the U.S. to double the production of alternative energy in three years, the second article shows how communities are redoubling their efforts to block wind, solar and other renewable-energy projects that pose hazards to animal and landscape alike.

As the Journal reports, a project called Cape Wind has turned into a pitched legal battle between locals the developer, which wants to build 130 windmills across 25 square miles of federal waters off Cape Cod.

Proponents of the endeavor claim that Cape Wind reduce enough greenhouse emissions equivalent of 175,000 cars. Opponents don’t seem to really care, and instead believe that Cape will industrialize Nantucket Sounds and ruin fishing, recreation and property values.

This telling excerpt of the Journal article encapsulates the risks to investors running toward alternative energy…

“The conflict over Cape Wind illustrates a persistent problem for renewable power. Policy makers and environmentalists love the idea of generating clean power from the sun, wind, water and geothermal sources to displace imported oil. But at the local level, there is often opposition to the hardware needed to make renewable power work: big windmills, acres of solar panels and large-scale transmission lines.”

Investors must keep in mind that simply because the incoming president is gung-ho over green this is no free meal ticket to alternative-energy profits. If you insist on putting your money into a company, it’s vital that you somehow check the local dockets and newspapers to find any legal opposition that could stall or stop a big project you find so appetizing in a prospectus.