European energy company ordered to remove 84 wind turbines from Osage, Oklahoma land – Is Watt upset?

from legal riots

Energy expert Robert Bryce: “This is a huge blow to the wind energy industry, which has received hundreds of millions of dollars from its turbines that it claims destroy the landscape, kill birds and bats, and destroy property values. Billion dollars in federal tax credits are an important part of efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Posted by Leslie Eastman

In early 2024, I reported that a federal judge ordered an Italian energy company to dismantle an 84-turbine wind farm in Osage County. This is a huge win for Native American tribes, but there are still some legal details that need to be worked out with Enel Energy.

A preliminary ruling by a federal judge in Tulsa did not set a timetable for removing the turbines. The judge also did not determine the amount of the tribe's damages.

Now the company has been handed a deadline to remove the wind turbines and damage charges, both of which could prevent wind power from meeting its 2025 financial targets.

December 1, 2025.

She also awarded approximately $4 million in monetary damages, including switching costs, trespass costs and attorney's fees.

“We are grateful to the courts for upholding Indian rights. For more than 150 years, our lands and resources have been appropriated and used by others. “We will always fight to defend our minerals, which our ancestors secured for us and for future generations. retained for the benefit.

“We are open for business and we look forward to working with anyone who negotiates with us in good faith.”

Enel's first mistake was to ignore the Osage's dissatisfaction with the wind farm project. In her report on the preliminary ruling, Hot Air's Beege Welborn noted the green energy mogul's extreme arrogance.

What's getting wind companies into trouble is hubris. How many times have we seen this before?

The Osage may not own all the property, but they do own all the mining rights to wind farms, acreage needed to repair roads, etc. since purchasing the land from the Cherokees in the late 1800s.

Back in 2011, when construction was beginning, the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs wrote to the company warning them not to infringe on the tribe's mining rights when construction began or during expansion.

Ignoring this and other subsequent warnings, as well as subsequent repeated orders to obtain mining leases and cease mineral violations, is a testament to the failure of the national power company. This will cost them a lot.

In order to build the wind turbines, Enel trampled on all of the Osage mineral rights.

In 2010, Enel leased 8,400 acres of surface rights in Osage County to build a wind farm that would include 84 wind turbines. The device required digging deep and using explosives to create a crater 10 feet deep and 60 feet wide.

During construction, large quantities of Osage minerals were removed, processed and reused without authorization, leading to allegations of unauthorized mining.

And, as predicted, this will cost Enel Energy. The estimated cost of removing the turbines is about $300 million, a huge blow to the company. Beyond the removal of the turbines, other details suggested the judge was not moved by the energy companies' arguments.

• The judge found the defendants responsible for the modification, trespass and continued trespass on the Osage mining property.
• The court awarded $242,652.28 for the alteration charge and $66,780 for the trespass charge.
• The defendants must pay more than $36 million in attorney fees to the plaintiffs, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Osage Mining Commission.

Energy expert Robert Bryce noted that this was a historic victory for the green energy tycoons.

Gale has been taking a hard line against rural communities for years. In some cases, wind companies have sued rural governments in an attempt to force them to accept wind energy projects they didn't want.

… Across the United States, only a handful of turbines have been removed due to local opposition. In 2022, two turbines in Falmouth, Massachusetts, were removed after multiple complaints from local homeowners about turbine noise and a years-long legal battle.

But the federal judge's order to dismantle 84 wind turbines is nothing short of jaw-dropping. It's a huge blow to the wind energy industry, which has secured tens of billions of dollars in federal tax credits by claiming that its turbines, which destroy landscapes, kill birds and bats and destroy property values, are an essential component of wind power generation. waived.

It's also a huge victory for Native American tribes and their legal rights.

I suspect this will be the first of many such victories against the green energy tycoons who use “climate crisis” pseudoscience and political connections to rule this country. The climate in Washington, D.C. is made even colder by this nonsense.

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