[ASSURAS] The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says about 45% of renewable projects across America fail to get off the ground because of local opposition and other obstacles. Remember Cape Wind off the Massachusetts coast, the nation's first proposed offshore wind farm? It took nine years for developers to get a permit, over the opposition of locals, including the late Senator Ted Kennedy. They claim it's an eyesore and a navigation hazard, and they're still trying to stop the project in court. "energyNOW!"'s Lee Patrick Sullivan took a closer look at this "not in my backyard" syndrome and discovered how it's preventing people from taking charge of their energy use.

[RAGING GRANNIES, SINGING]
Hmm...
With over 3,000 miles of Great Lake shore
There's lots of wind power right at our door

[SULLIVAN] Meet the Michigan chapter of the Raging Grannies, a national band of senior citizen environmentalists. This group of grannies want to see the completion of a wind farm off the shores of Grosse Pointe, Michigan -- that's right outside Detroit. The proposed farm is being opposed by local residents and sailboat owners. They claim the turbines create dead air, making it harder to sail and the turbines will be unsightly.

[NANCY GOEDERT, RAGING GRANNIES OF MICHIGAN] It's that "not in my backyard," the NIMBY syndrome.

[SULLIVAN] So you think getting a nuclear or coal-fired power plant built is hard? Try getting renewable energy up and running. This was the scene in Massachusetts when the offshore wind project named Cape Wind was being proposed. Off the coast of Virginia, the military's opposed to offshore wind, claiming turbines will interfere with their training. And in the Mojave Desert, a rare tortoise protected by the Endangered Species Act has slowed development of a massive solar farm. And it doesn't have to be large projects. Take Maryland homeowner Robert Bruninga, for example. He's an engineer during the week, inventor on the weekends. His latest project was turning his unused boat dock into a solar field to provide electricity for his home.

[BRUNINGA] I applied to the state to put my solar panels on the pier, and they said no.

[SULLIVAN] They said no because according to Maryland state law, nothing is allowed on a pier unless it's of aquatic nature.

[ROBERT BRUNINGA] If I've got a hundred feet of pier that's just sitting out there in the Sun all day long, why can't I put solar panels on it?

[SULLIVAN] Solar panels were also on the mind of Maryland homeowner Patrick Earle. The high school science and environmental teacher wanted to harness the power of the Sun for his family. The only thing standing in his way was an old silver maple tree, like this one.

[EARLE] When we started looking at the tradeoffs between having an aging tree or investing in renewable clean energy, it was a pretty simple decision for us.

[SULLIVAN] Earle had to first get the permission of the Takoma Park arborist. You know, a guy who takes care of trees. Yeah, I know -- I didn't know cities had arborists, either.

Let's see, an environmental science teacher living in Takoma Park, Maryland -- which just happens to be one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the entire country -- and solar power. Sounds like a slam dunk, right? Well, not so fast.

[TODD BOLTON, ARBORIST, TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND] Takoma Park is a little... is one of a few that have private urban forestry management programs.

[SULLIVAN] Translation? The homeowners in Takoma Park have to ask permission to cut down trees on their own land. Patrick Earle was aware of the rules and knew he would have to replant trees to replace the silver maple, but he was shocked when he was told he would have to replant 23 trees in its place.

[EARLE] I thought that, okay, this is fair. I was completely prepared to plant three or four trees. I had no idea that they'd ask me to essentially plant a small forest.

[SULLIVAN] And given his property is only a sixth of an acre, there wasn't even room to plant all those trees. The other option was for him to pay $4,000 into the city's tree fund.

[EARLE] And it really was putting the project out of reach for me and was going to be a deal breaker.

[SULLIVAN] Bolton, the city arborist, says the law is there because trees are an important resource for Takoma Park, not because he's a tree lover.

[BOLTON] I don't really love trees. I respect them and believe they're worth protecting and caring for, for what they provide us in return.

[SULLIVAN] Benefits like stormwater retention, providing shade for houses during the summer and blocking cold winds in the winter.

So Patrick Earle went to work trying to find a loophole in the law. And he found one. It turns out that the ordinance doesn't say that the trees actually have to be planted on his property. He also was able to get the city to reduce the number of trees to 15 if he planted bigger ones. He then went around town giving out free trees to his neighbors. Total cost -- about $600. And now Earle and his family are proud owners of a rooftop solar array, providing about 75% of his home's electricity needs.

So this is what's left of the famous silver maple.

[EARLE] Yep. This is it.

[SULLIVAN] Despite his solar victory, Earle wasn't successful in getting the city council to take into consideration the benefits of solar power when deciding how many trees should be replanted.

[EARLE] I'm not trying to advocate that we clear the forest here and put panels on every roof. But in places where it makes sense, I think we need to be a little more flexible.

[SULLIVAN] As for Robert Bruninga, he's been appealing to the state of Maryland for a year and a half to make some sort of ordinance for solar panels on boat piers. Until then, he has to set up his panels on the ground in the back of his house, having to move them every month because of the shade from the trees. We need to come up with a set of rules that are tasteful so that everybody agrees -- both the person installing it and the other people that have to live with it.

[SULLIVAN] For now, it looks like renewable energy advocates are going to have to deal with the age-old problem of "not in my backyard." Or, in the case of Bruninga, only in his backyard.

[TEXT ON SCREEN] To hear more songs from the Raging Grannies, go to energyNOW.com.

[SULLIVAN] And back in Michigan, the Grannies say they will keep on raging until they see wind turbines generating electricity on Lake St. Clair.

[RAGING GRANNIES, SINGING]
We just let it blow by, such waste is sin
But Canada's smart, they're gonna harvest that wind

[SULLIVAN] In Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Lee Patrick Sullivan, "energyNOW!"