This legal dispute could only happen in California, summarised by the LA Times thus:
“When the shade from redwoods casts a shadow over solar panels, what’s an environmentalist to do?”
It’s a beautiful crystal of environmentalist angst. Which is more important? Planting (and conserving and respecting and embracing) the beautiful and mighty redwood? Or avoiding the use of fossil fuel as energy, preferring instead to reduce human dependence on oil by harvesting the natural, renewable, sustainable energy of our beautiful and mighty sun?Next-door neighbours in Sunnyvale, California (emphasis intentional) are fighting in the courts because two 20- to 40-foot redwood trees are casting shade upon next-door’s solar panels. I just love this. As the article says,
“It’s as if California’s traditions of environmentalism, respect for property rights and litigiousness have collided in these two families’ adjacent backyards.”
Fantastic. Read the rest here.