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|  Segment# |

| 9 |

| Location |

|  |

|  Date |

| 5/12/2007 |

| |

|  Story Name |

| GOING GREEN FANNING THE DEBATE |

| |

|  Notes |

|  |

| |

|STARKS, JOYCE MANLEY |

|18:48:40 |

|Prepared by The Transcription Company, , (818) 848-6500 |

|Which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription |

|18:48:40 DAVID MUIR |

|(OC) Tonight, in our series 'Going Green," fanning the debate over a |

|fast-growing form of renewable energy, wind power. When you hear the word |

|windmill, you probably imagine something quaint, something picturesque. |

|But some say today's windmills are anything but a pretty picture. ABC's |

|Bill Redeker reports now from Palm Springs. |

|18:48:58 BILL REDEKER, ABC NEWS |

|(VO) Palm Springs, the legendary California oasis, home to celebrities, |

|terrific weather, abundant golf. It's also one of the windiest places on |

|Earth. The perfect place for power-producing windmills, 3,000 of them, |

|generating enough of electricity to light up a city the size of San |

|Francisco. |

|18:49:18 JOHN WHITE, DIRECTOR |

|We have the potential for 20% of our nation's energy to be produced from |

|wind. |

|18:49:24 BILL REDEKER |

|(VO) In fact, there are already windmills, or turbines, as they're |

|called, in 40 states. But this rapidly growing source of energy is |

|leaving a controversial footprint. |

|18:49:34 LES STARKS, HOMEOWNER |

|They wanna go into neighborhoods where people live and say, 'Oh, gee, |

|we're making clean energy, what's your problem with that?" Well, that |

|really doesn't wash. |

|18:49:45 BILL REDEKER |

|(VO) It doesn't wash for homeowner, Les Starks, because he lives at the |

|foot of a mountain, where about 50 400-foot windmills may soon radically |

|alter the landscape. |

|18:49:56 BILL REDEKER |

|(OC) That brings to mind the old saying, 'Not in my backyard." |

|18:49:59 LES STARKS |

|Yeah. This isn't just my backyard, this is the national monument. |

|18:50:03 BILL REDEKER |

|(VO) It's a problem communities are facing across the country, a choice |

|between renewable energy and natural surroundings. Massachusetts |

|residents, including Senator Ted Kennedy, just suffered a setback in their |

|battle to block off-shore windmills like these near Cape Cod. |

|18:50:20 JOYCE MANLEY, HOMEOWNER |

|They're gonna start down there and come all the way along the road. |

|18:50:25 BILL REDEKER |

|(VO) Joyce Manley has been tilting at Palm Springs windmills for years, |

|but she hasn't always won. A wind farm was built just across the street |

|from her home, a particular nuisance at night. |

|18:50:36 JOYCE MANLEY |

|Seeing the lights, and they don't stop. They're going all the time, |

|daytime white, nighttime red. And then the sound, any time the windmills |

|are turning, if the wind is blowing, you've got a hum or a drone, or a |

|whooshing sound, depending on the speed of the wind. |

|18:50:54 BILL REDEKER |

|(OC) Windmills are not always that productive. For example, although |

|the wind is now gusting up to 50 miles per hour, some of these giant |

|turbines have been shut down and are not generating electricity. Because |

|if they spin too fast, they'll simply burn out. |

|18:51:09 BILL REDEKER |

|(VO) Critics say wind energy is unreliable. There are days when there's |

|no wind at all, no electricity, and that supporters of WIND FARMS are just |

|blowing hot air. |

|18:51:19 LES STARKS |

|We're gonna have to decide if we wanna put, protect the American |

|landscape or not, or just turn it to an - industrial zone. |

|18:51:26 BILL REDEKER |

|(VO) A decision on whether windmills should be built on top of these |

|mountains is expected later this year. Until then, these turbines will |

|continue to fan the debate. Bill Redeker, ABC News, Palm Springs. |

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