NORWAY -- The Sámi herders from Nordland county are accusing the Øyfjellet windfarm constructors of breaking licensing agreements which stipulated that construction would not interfere with reindeer migration paths. This is not the first such lawsuit in Norway. In the past five years Sámi communities have begun legal actions against the country’s largest onshore windfarms and have appealed to the UN, arguing that the farms violate their territorial and cultural rights.

Legal Europe

The Republic's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it is considering legal action against those responsible for a landslide at the construction site of a new wind farm that damaged a river in Northern Ireland.

Erosion Legal Ireland UK

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it is considering legal action against those responsible for a landslide at the construction site of a new wind farm. Last November’s slide at Meenbog in Co Donegal brought thousands of tonnes of peat and trees down the hillside and into the River Finn. ...Invis Energy, owners of the turbines which are being built to supply energy to Amazon data centres, declined to comment. 

Erosion Legal Ireland UK

Judge Karen Owens last week approved a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization by Tonopah Solar Energy, which operated the Crescent Dunes solar plant in Nevada that received $737 million in guaranteed loans from the federal government. ...DOE expected Crescent Dunes to produce up to 482,000 megawatt hours every year, but the plant hasn’t produced that much energy in its lifetime.

Legal USA Nevada

District Judge Kathy Seeley ruled the commission underpaid Caithness Beaver Creek for electricity it was scheduled to sell to the state’s largest monopoly utility NorthWestern Energy as part of a proposed $500 million wind and battery storage project, the Billings Gazette reported Wednesday.

Legal Montana

Gary Abraham, attorney for the Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCC), and Zoghlin Group of Rochester, representing the Town of Farmersville, both filed lawsuits against the Siting Board and Alle-Catt Wind Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Invenergy, with the Fourth Department of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Rochester.

Legal New York

Just two weeks after overcoming a major state regulatory hurdle, a federal judge in the District of Columbia levied yet another setback for a plan by the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. (LEEDCo) to build the region's first offshore wind farm on Lake Erie.

Legal Offshore Wind USA Ohio

The Farmersville Town Board voted 3-2 Monday to appeal the New York Siting Commission’s approval of the Alle-Catt Wind Farm application. ...Board members also voted 3-2 to revoke a permit for a meteorological tower and to revoke a 2019 road use agreement the town negotiated with the Chicago-based Invenergy, the parent company of Alle-Catt Wind LLC.

Legal New York

A lawsuit opposing development of an industrial wind complex in northwest DeWitt County has been filed on behalf of 69 constituents against the DeWitt County Board and Enel Energy, owner of Alta Farms II. “This was something we wanted to avoid, but at this point, we have no choice,” said Olivia Klemm, one of the opponents of the wind farm. “We are not done fighting.”

Legal Illinois

During a virtual meeting that involved a level of discussion and debate unusual for the Power Siting Board, board members unanimously voted to rescind part of an order they issued last May that approved construction of the wind turbines only if the turbine blades didn’t move at night between March 1 and Nov. 1, on the grounds that they would harm bats and birds.

Legal Offshore Wind Ohio

The Ohio Power Siting Board is preparing to rule that it will not revisit its decision to allow the construction of Icebreaker Wind, the nation’s first freshwater offshore wind farm, in Lake Erie, with restrictions that backers say would doom the project.

Legal Ohio

Pretty Prairie Wind LLC, a subsidiary formed by NextEra Energy to develop an 82-turbine wind farm in the southeast quadrant of the county, filed the suit in July 2019 after it failed to obtain a conditional use permit to build the project.

Legal Kansas

Dr Smith’s conclusion was: It is clear from the investigation that noise from the wind farm is audible within residences although there are noise monitoring reports stating that there is compliance by the wind farm with permit conditions and the New Zealand Standard 1998, and with a noise mitigation strategy in place at the wind farm. The noise was clearly audible in Mr Zakula’s dwelling at night time twice and in the Jelbart residence at night time twice and this is held to be unreasonable in both cases. 

Legal Australia

A group of Lewis crofters are calling for a change to a law it claims is crippling the potential of communities wishing to use land for development. It follows the group losing an appeal in a long-running battle to build community-owned wind turbines on common grazings.

Legal UK

The Fourth Department Appellate Division unanimously ruled on Thursday that state Supreme Court Judge James Dillon’s 2019 decision halting the 29 wind mills was incorrect. Dillon’s decision has been reversed and the residents’ petition dismissed in its entirety.

Legal New York

“Skipjack’s duty to reach out to stakeholders was not contingent on the stakeholders’ enthusiasm for the project,” according to the ruling. “Ocean City is an important stakeholder whose economy is vital to the state. Nor should Ocean City be punished for its lawful advocacy of a bill that would have required offshore wind turbines to be located at least 26 miles from shore.” As a result, the Public Service Commission ordered Ørsted to engage with its stakeholders more, including Ocean City, and provide updates every six months on the company's efforts. 

Impact on Landscape Legal Offshore Wind Maryland

Land owner says the noise from the turbines near his property has caused sleep deprivation for residents.

Legal Australia

A recent complaint filed with the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York by Trireme Energy Holdings alleges that Innogy, former parent company of Cassadaga Wind, LLC, intentionally delayed construction on the project, which was scheduled to be operational by Dec. 31, 2020, in order to avoid making a milestone payment in the amount of $69.7 million.

Legal New York

“The opinion freezes the MBTA in time as a hunting-regulation statute, preventing it from addressing modern threats to migrating bird populations,” she wrote in a decision vacating the opinion, calling it “an unpersuasive interpretation of the MBTA’s unambiguous prohibition on killing protected birds.”

Impact on Birds Legal USA

The lawsuit against Reno County by Pretty Prairie Wind will continue in the local district court after Judge Tim Chambers on Wednesday issued an order denying a motion by the developer for an immediate appeal on an earlier ruling in the case.

Legal Kansas