| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Judge tosses two of three lawsuits filed against Osage County wind farm
Credit: By LOUISE RED CORN World Correspondent | Tulsa World | August 29, 2014 | www.tulsaworld.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
PAWHUSKA – A judge on Thursday threw out two of three lawsuits involving proposed wind farms in Osage County, dealing a blow to the Osage Nation’s efforts to stop a forest of industrial turbines from rising over the tallgrass prairie west of Pawhuska.
Ottawa County District Court Judge Robert G. Haney, sitting by special assignment, dismissed both cases in which the Osage Nation and the Osage Minerals Council were plaintiffs.
The Osages had challenged the authority of the Osage County Board of Adjustment to issue a conditional use permit for a 94-turbine project called Osage Wind in 2011, arguing that county boards of adjustment do not have that power under state law and that the permit should be ruled void.
The other case was an appeal of the Board of Adjustment’s denial of a tribal petition to stop construction of Osage Wind, which has begun bulldozing the prairie as it prepares to erect turbines.
A third case remains active in Osage County District Court, though Haney appeared anxious to make quick work of it. In that case, a second wind farm, Mustang Run, is appealing the Board of Adjustment’s May 8 decision to deny it a permit to build a wind farm consisting of about 68 turbines next to Osage Wind.
The Osage County Commissioners and Board of Adjustment are the defendants in all three cases.
Mustang Run and Osage Wind started out as separately owned wind farms, but they are now both owned by Enel SpA, the Italian utility giant. In court pleadings, the company says it has irrevocably committed $225 million to the projects.
Objections to the wind projects are mostly environmental, centering on the area being one of the last shreds of tallgrass prairie that has never been plowed or fragmented.
Haney said the Osage case demanding that the 2011 wind farm permit be declared void should have been brought earlier as part of a federal lawsuit the tribe filed that year in which it claimed the wind farms would interfere with oil extraction. The Osage Nation owns all mineral rights in Osage.
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 |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=66324 ]
