LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME



[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]

Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

Get weekly updates
RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Stripe

Donate via Paypal

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

In the case of David v. Goliath 

Credit:  The Orleans Record, orleanscountyrecord.com 19 November 2011 ~~

The Nelsons, of Lowell Mountain fame, are embroiled in a struggle with Green Mountain Power over their right to use their own land to allow access by supporters against Green Mountain Power. Earlier this month, GMP secured an injunction against the Nelsons assembling with other opponents of the wind farm within 1000 feet of a blasting area on GMP’s property, within which distance the Nelsons’ land sits. The Nelsons then appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court for emergency relief on Lowell Mt. They failed. Judge Martin Maley agreed with GMP that the Nelsons have no right to assemble within the 1,000 foot distance for the admitted purpose of hindering the project. Further, the judge accepted GMP’s claim that to allow the Nelsons to continue their obstructive behavior would cause irreparable financial harm in the amount of $48 million federal tax credits it will lose if GMP doesn’t finish the project on time.

The constitutional questions the Nelsons raise, are good ones with which we can’t help but agree. They claim that Judge Maley’s order has no basis in law and that it violates their constitutional rights to exclusive possession of their land and their rights to free speech and assembly; we agree. They claim that they didn’t cause the nuisance which Judge Maley is using as the occasion for enjoining their use of the property, but that GMP did; they are right, GMP did. They claim that the courts’ cited precedents for the injunction flow from a solid court history of rulings only on public lands, not private; they are right, again.

This is a unique David v. Goliath issue; the Nelsons are David and GMP is Goliath. Our sense is that the laws pertaining to neighbor v. neighbor nuisances were never intended, or even conceived of, to respond equitably to an issue as far beyond “public nuisances” as this. David’s farm is suddenly bordered by Goliath’s score of 490-foot windmills and his construction crews numbering in the dozens, with Goliath complaining that David is a nuisance and finding a judge who agrees and enjoins David from using his own property.

However this collision of interests finally resolves itself, we are certain that it will be precedential in many entirely unexpected ways.

Source:  The Orleans Record, orleanscountyrecord.com 19 November 2011

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Contributions
   Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)
Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI M TG TS G Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook Wind Watch on Linked In

Wind Watch on Mastodon Wind Watch on Truth Social

Wind Watch on Gab Wind Watch on Bluesky