The Ugly Colors Of Green Power

"Highlighting the environmental pitfalls of harnessing "green" energy, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's push to import nonpolluting power to Los Angeles could require building power lines and transmission towers through a national forest, two desert wildlife preserves and a rustic hamlet used in countless westerns...The anger over the proposed route underscores challenges nationwide over how to ship wind, sun and steam power from remote rural reaches to booming urban centers."

"Enough wind turbines could be built in North Dakota to power Chicago. One hundred square miles of desert solar panels in California, Nevada or New Mexico could power most of the United States.

George Douglas, spokesman for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Energy.

...said, 'the chances it's going to happen are zero, because nobody's going to build the transmission lines...people don't like them...and when you build them, they definitely disturb the land."