Federal Judge Sides with Osage Nation, Orders Removal Of 84 Wind Turbines
14 hours ago Guest Blogger 49 Comments
Robert Bryce.
Enel’s trespass on the tribe’s mineral estate echoes themes in Killers Of The Flower Moon
These turbines are part of the Osage Wind project near Fairfax, Oklahoma. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Tulsa ruled that the 84-turbine wind project must be removed. This photo is a still image from the upcoming docuseries, Juice: Power, Politics, And The Grid. Credit: Tyson Culver.
The Osage Nation won a massive ruling in Tulsa federal court on Wednesday that requires Enel to dismantle a 150-megawatt wind project it built in Osage County despite the tribe’s repeated objections. The tribe’s fight against Rome-based Enel began in 2011 and is the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history.
As reported by Curtis Killman in the Tulsa World on Thursday, the ruling grants the United States, the Osage Nation, and Osage Minerals Council permanent injunctive relief via “ejectment of the wind turbine farm for continuing trespass.”
The decision by U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Graves is the culmination of 12 years of litigation that pitted the tribe and federal authorities against Enel. During the construction of the project, the company illegally mined rock owned by the tribe, and it continued to do so even after being ordered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to stop. Instead of halting work, the company sped up construction. Enel must now remove the 84 turbines that it built on 8,400 acres of the Tallgrass Prairie located between Pawhuska and Fairfax. Removing the turbines will cost Enel some $300 million.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/12/23/federal-judge-sides-with-osage-nation-orders-removal-of-84-wind-turbines/
