The battle over global warming is escalating and it's being fought all over the cultural map, most recently in a three state struggle for the "right to dry."

The Globe reports today that some environmentalists, specifically a group called Project Laundry List, are pushing for legislation in New Hampshire, Connecticut and Vermont that would guarantee residents are allowed to set up clotheslines. They claim that dryers are a house's second biggest electricity drain (number one being the fridge) but many people are restricted from the alternative because of anti-clothesline regulations.

The legislation has to contend with the prevailing notion that clotheslines are a symbol of backwardness that hurts communities by lowering property values. Laundry List's Alexander Lee told the Globe, "We want Martha and Oprah to make the clothesline into a pennant of eco-chic, instead of a flag of poverty."

The group's website is light and clever. Their "testimonials" page features a famous Benjamin Franklin saying: “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."

Despite the good intentions, it seems unlikely that New England--which is so economically developed--would become a clothesline renewal region. Plus, it's below freezing outside about three fourths of the year, which might be problematic.