News from the home of prohibition, the USA, confirms the view that global warming doesn't rate too highly there.

Very few US citizens buck the system by having backyard clothes lines that dry clothes using wind and solar power.

However, civil disobedience is practised by some US citizens, including Sharon Vocke, who routinely breaches regulations when she hangs her laundry on her line, homemade of course - there is little joy for Hills hoist retailers here.

Mrs Vocke's line is rigged with a pulley system and slung from her porch to the garage in this affluent pocket of sweeping, unfenced gardens and sprawling homes.

"It takes me about six minutes to violate my neighbourhood covenant and it's worth every second to have my clothes smell nice and to know I am not harming the air we breathe," the 46-year-old said recently in a submission to Connecticut's General Assembly Energy and Technology Committee.

The committee was considering a law giving homeowners the right to use clotheslines despite neighbourhood fears that displays of underwear would undermine property values. But as with similar proposals in Vermont and New Hampshire, the reformers failed and bans stay in place.

The town of Poughkeepsie in New York State has a "laundry law" and imposes $US100 ($106) fines on anyone caught drying on front porches.

Bans on clotheslines seem to be based on the opinion they are unsightly and a mark of poverty.