George Lucas is the newest victim of the green religion to recognize that there is no reasoning with religious fanatics intent on saving the world (and you), no matter what you want.  The film maker has been trying to build a new movie making facility in Marin County for 25 years, bending over backward to be a good neighbor, dedicating  enormous amounts of money to satisfy every demand.

But the green fanatics would have none of it, and have endlessly stymied the development, which would be invisible from the highway, and would provide many high paying jobs and substantial tax revenue.  Just last week, they convinced the Marin Country Board of Supervisors to delay the project once again for even more studies.

Peter Fimrite of the San Francisco Chronicle writes:

Filmmaker George Lucas withdrew his plans Tuesday to build a giant mission-style movie-making palace in a pristine meadow in Marin County, blaming protesting neighbors for torpedoing what many believed would be an economic and environmental bonanza for the community.

The billionaire movie mogul, whose "Star Wars" films ushered in the digital arts age, was attacked by his Lucas Valley neighbors over his plan for a 263,701-square-foot digital technology production complex - including restored creeks and 2,500 acres of open space - on historic farmland known as Grady Ranch.

Representatives of the Lucas Valley Estates subdivision produced reams of paperwork asserting that the development was out of character...[blah, blah, blah - ed.]

Skywalker Properties' letter was rather scathing in tone:

"The level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners in Lucas Valley has convinced us that, even if we were to spend more time and acquire the necessary approvals, we would not be able to maintain a constructive relationship with our neighbors," said a letter to the community from Lucas' Skywalker Properties. "The residents of Lucas Valley have fought this project for 25 years, and enough is enough. Marin is a bedroom community and is committed to building subdivisions, not business."

The letter said Skywalker Properties - tired of constant delays in getting approval for plans despite bending over backward to meet and often exceed environmental demands - will now sell Grady Ranch and build in a place that is more likely to accommodate the company's need to open up shop in 2013.

Already other cities are lining up to offer incentives for the facility. Here is a picture of the project that was killed in Marin.  You can be certain that wherever it is built, the company will pay for a first class, architecturally impressive structure, and will do everything it can to be a good neighbor.  In the economic development biz, you don't find a better catch than Lucas.

Scathing turned into bitter as the company outlined its plans for the property it wanted to build on:

"The land will revert back to its original use for residential housing. We hope we will be able to find a developer who will be interested in low income housing since it is scarce in Marin."

This figurative single digit salute is not only delicious -- let's see those Marin libs squirm when they try to oppose a politically correct use and then welcome low income neighbors to the hood -- it indicates Mr. Lucas well understands the mindset that has bedeviled him all these years. They have made him an enemy. Oops!

The greenies have been peddling  myths for decades, that the land somehow was "pristine" at one point in time and must never change from that temporary stasis, for instance. That  modern technology is not "natural" and must be strictly subordinated to an ideal state they describe to the rest of us. That the very product of our respiration, CO2, is polluting the environment and destroying the climate.

This could turn out to be one of those moments marking the beginning of the end of an important cultural and political movement.  Ever since the 1960s, environmentalism has been a rising force in (first) American culture, then politics and business.  The warmist scam is falling apart in the public  mind, and marks the start of a new mass mindset that is skeptical of green dogma.  Myths lose their power in the face of widespread skepticism, as the left well knows.

Mr. Lucas's work makes him the premier myth-maker of our time, his Star Wars epic the Iliad of our civilization. I hope that his revulsion  at the treatment he has been afforded  will find expression in his creative endeavors. Hollywood has produced many greenie sales pitches, but nothing about the self-interested underside. The Solyndra story might make a good plot. So would an epic telling of the global warming scam. But perhaps he could start with a story about  a nice guy entrepreneur who tried to appease green fanatics only to discover the system was rigged against him.