Wheres the Sierra Club when you need it!?

In an environmental dispute seemingly scripted for eco-friendly California, a man asked prosecutors to file charges against his neighbors because their towering redwoods blocked sunlight to his backyard solar panels.

But the couple next door insisted they should not have to chop down the trees to accommodate Mark Vargas' energy demands because they planted the redwoods before he installed the solar panels in 2001.

After more than six years of legal wrangling, a judge recently ordered Richard Treanor and his wife, Carolyn Bissett, to cut down two of their eight redwoods, citing an obscure state law that protects a homeowner's right to sunlight.

The couple does not plan to appeal the ruling because they can no longer afford the legal expenses, but they plan to lobby state lawmakers to change or scrap the law.

The Solar Shade Control Act means that homeowners can "suddenly become a criminal the day a tree grows big enough to shade a solar panel," Treanor said.

The case marks the first time a homeowner has been convicted of violating the law, which was enacted three decades ago, when few homeowners had solar systems.

Residents can be fined up to $1,000 a day for violations, though the judge did not impose any fines against the Treanors.

Vargas says the law protects his $70,000 investment in solar power, and he believes it should be strengthened.

"I think it's unfair that a neighbor can take away this source of energy from another neighbor," he said.

Treanor and Bissett, who drive a hybrid Toyota Prius, argue that trees absorb carbon dioxide, cool the surrounding air and provide a habitat for wildlife.

Vargas, who recently bought a plug-in electric car, counters it would take two or three acres of trees to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as much as the solar panels that cover his roof and backyard trellis.

Bernadette Del Chiaro, clean energy advocate for Environment California, says the solar shade law might need to be revised to prevent similar disputes.

----So the morons will continue to engage in hypocrisies until we have no power and no trees. That'll make the Sierra Club real happy !!!

Next this guy's gonna buy a house beside an airport and -ya know.

South Lake Tahoe, last summer - residents faced $500 fines for removing any dead undergrowth around their homes because of the "natural" beauty it lent to the area.
A fire started and moved rapidly thru this fuel and destroyed 200 homes.

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What? You mean most homeowners have their own solar systems now? Where do they keep them? How do they visit without a spaceship?

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And how much environmental damage was done by manufacturing his $70,000 setup? Until the day where there's a 100% solar-powered PV panel manufacturing plant, I say solar (PV) panels are bullshit and a detriment to the environment.

Truely unbelieveable. Just when I thought I had heard just about everything....

What a pig-headed SOB.

Here's his house:



From the article, I assumed it was some cabin stuck in the woods. This guy has a crapload of exposed roof with panels away from the trees and he's not even using a big part of it. The cost of moving those panels would have been less than what he paid his attorneys. Says the other couple paid $25,000 in legal expenses. This law makes it potentially illegal to plant a tall tree on any property line, since anything about 20 feet or so will cast a shadow on a neighbor's roof.

I wonder if that little trellis he has is even permitted!

If he couldn't forsee the trees growing higher, he's an idiot.


I can't help but be reminded of this story...

http://splinterinmyace.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html