Associated Press wrote from Palm Desert, California on July 27, 2007 that while Palm Desert is an environmental town of excess by having desert golf course resorts where it is not unusal to have temperatures in the day above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for days on end, or that the city gets no more than a trace of rain per year, and that it has lush green fairways, turquoise swimming pools, manmade waterfalls, and an artificial lagoon so big that hotel guests are taken across it in gondolas and to the outside world this looks like decadence in a time when energy is expensive.

But Palm Desert is changing its excessive and profligate energy ways and hopes to become a model for other California cities in dealing with rising utility costs and dwindling water supplies by implementing a program to conserve their resources and reduce greenhouse gases.  A few of the ideas to implement is to have the city is use stingier irrigation systems and requiring homes to have more energy-efficient construction and drought-resistant landscaping.

It has banned drive-through windows at fast-food restaurants to reduce pollution from idling cars and the public buses are going to run on fuel cells, while the residents are encouraged to commute in electric golf carts along designated lanes.

And last the City Council is considering, but more than likely will take advantage of the area's 350 days of sunshine per year by providing rebates and low-interest loans to businesses and homeowners who install solar panels, whereby solar panels have already been installed at the Palm Desert City Hall.