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Trees Vs. Solar Panels: Trees Win

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Apr 21, 2008 5:23 pm US/Pacific

Trees Vs. Solar Panels: Trees Win

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) ―

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Americans Go Green For Earth Day

In an usual battle of shade trees vs. solar panels, the trees have won a reprieve.

The California state Senate on Monday passed a bill that settles a neighborhood quarrel in the San Francisco Bay area community of Sunnyvale.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge earlier this year ordered Richard Treanor and his wife, Carolyn Bissett, to cut down two of their eight redwood trees.

Their neighbor, Mark Vargas, said the trees were blocking the sunlight he needed for his newly installed solar panels. In siding with Vargas, the judge cited a 1978 state law that protects a person's right to sunlight.

The redwoods, however, had been planted long before the panels were installed.

On the eve of Earth Day, the state Senate voted unanimously to amend the 1978 law. The bill exempts any tree or shrub planted before the installation of a solar collector.

The bill is authored by Sen. Joe Simitian, a Democrat from Palo Alto, and Sen. Tom McClintock, a Republican from Thousand Oaks. It now heads to the Assembly.