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)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

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

Nantucket wind farm keeps emitting lawsuits 

Credit:  By KEVIN KOENINGER | Courthouse News Service | January 23, 2014 | www.courthousenews.com ~~

An enormous wind farm planned for Nantucket Sound has generated another lawsuit, with a town and businesses claiming Massachusetts unconstitutionally compelled an energy company to buy high-priced electricity from the wind farm.
The Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, Hyannis Marina, two other businesses and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound Cape Wind Associates LLC, NStar Electric Co. and the four top officers of the Massachusetts Public Utilities and Energy Resources departments, in Federal Court.
The plaintiffs claim the state cut a deal with NStar Electric that required the company to buy electricity from the Cape Wind turbine farm in Nantucket Sound, though cheaper energy could have been purchased from out of state.
The plaintiffs claim the deal is illegal because “the Federal Power Act gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) exclusive jurisdiction to regulate all wholesale sales of electricity. Thus, FERC has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate any wholesale electricity sale made by Cape Wind. Conversely, Massachusetts may not regulate Cape Wind’s wholesale electricity sales; any such regulation by Massachusetts is preempted by the Federal Power Act.”
The pricing system used by the federal government is multistate and market-based, which puts Cape Wind at a disadvantage because the wind farm’s “power is far more expensive than power generated by nonrenewable resources. Moreover, even comparing Cape Wind to other renewable generators, generating electricity with wind turbines in the middle of Nantucket Sound is more expensive than generating electricity with wind turbines (or other renewable resources) on land.” (Parentheses in complaint.)
The plaintiffs, which include two individuals, claim the state used a merger request from NStar to undermine the system and cut a deal for Cape Wind.
“The Commonwealth’s Department of Energy Resources (DOER) threatened to erect various regulatory roadblocks to the merger unless NStar executed a contract to buy electricity from Cape Wind on substantially the same terms and conditions that another of the Commonwealth’s utilities, National Grid, had agreed to several years earlier,” the lawsuit states. “That state action was preempted by the Federal Power Act, which prohibits states from regulating the rates and terms of wholesale electricity sales. Plainly, Massachusetts could not directly order NStar to contract with Cape Wind at a state-ordered price.”
The deal also violated the Commerce Clause, in that “the Commonwealth used its regulatory power over NStar to direct business to a favored in-state entity, Cape Wind, at the expense of competing out-of-state wind generators which could have generated the same electricity for a lower price,” according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs claim the deal will cost them and other consumers nearly $1 billion in increased energy costs over its life span.
They seek declaratory judgment declaring the contract null and void.
They are represented by Joshua Segal of Lawson and Weitzen.
The Nantucket Sound wind farm has been tremendously controversial in New England, splitting environmentalists who might be expected to support a clean, renewable energy source. Many, though, particularly yachters and boaters, say the enormous windmills will ruin the beauty of the Sound-and kill sea birds to boot.
According to the Cape Wind LLC website, it will be the first offshore wind farm in the United States, will produce more than 420 megawatts of power and will “reduce global warming greenhouse gas emissions by 734,000 tons per year.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected a challenge to the wind farm, finding that the turbines will not affect air navigation facilities of the FAA or disrupt local airspace.

Source:  By KEVIN KOENINGER | Courthouse News Service | January 23, 2014 | www.courthousenews.com

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 Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG 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