This should be time to party at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. After all, the agency’s underused marine terminal in New Bedford is finally profitable, and a big tenant is on its way. The saga of the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal took an unfavorable turn against the state on Monday when a jury in Suffolk Superior Court ruled that contractors that built the port are owed at least $20 million for unpaid work.

Legal Massachusetts

The Department of Planning & Development recently issued a cease-and-desist order to an unauthorized solar installation off Carr’s Trail. The June 4 notice issued to 394 Carr’s Realty LLC and WED Coventry Seven LLC — a subsidiary of North Kingstown-based Green Development LLC, formerly Wind Energy Development LLC, founded by Mark DePasquale — claims a recent site inspection by two members of the Department of Planning & Development found “hundreds of piles had been driven into the ground commencing construction of a proposed solar generating facility that had been denied development plan approval by the Coventry Planning Commission” two years ago.

Legal Zoning/Planning Rhode Island

This was a very large project, covering some 23,000 acres with 76 wind turbines, and both the North Dakota Game & Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were critical of it for its potential impacts on wildlife. Birds, in particular. The three-member, all-Republican commission rejected the permit for the project because they didn’t feel NextEra had demonstrated that they’d do enough to mitigate wildlife impacts.

Impact on Wildlife Legal North Dakota

Regulatory filings showed federal and state agencies charged with protecting wildlife have long been concerned with the proposed wind farm's location. A North Dakota Game and Fish Department official said upon first hearing about the project in 2016, agency staff indicated the developer "could not have picked a worse spot in the state."

Impact on Wildlife Legal North Dakota

Harold Youngblut filed an appeal Thursday challenging District Court Judge Kellyann Lekar’s April 29 ruling in favor of Washburn Wind Energy’s 35-turbine wind farm. The notice filed by Youngblut’s attorney, John Holmes, claims the district court erred when it failed to allow Youngblut and others to testify the turbine locations are currently used for agricultural purposes as defined in the county zoning ordinance.

Legal Iowa

A petition was iled Thursday in district court by Overland Park lawyers Robert Harken and Robert Titus on behalf of 15 wind farm opponents. The petition seeks a judge’s review, declaratory relief, and a temporary restraining order. It also claims the state open records act was violated.

Legal Kansas

County commissioners balked Monday at paying a bill from Wichita attorney Pat Hughes that includes consultations regarding a proposed wind farm in the south portion of the county.

Legal Zoning/Planning Kansas

A stalemate on a number of issues after the early wrap-up of this week’s “evidentiary hearing” for Invenergy’s Number 3 Wind Farm resulted in a closed-door “settlement conference” to try to search for middle ground.

Legal New York

Commissioner Kristie Fiegen said the fact that Prevailing Wind violated one of many conditions in their permits so early in their construction was a major concern -- especially for a project of its size. ...in order to avoid a costly civil lawsuit. Prevailing Wind will pay the maximum fine of $10,000 per day of the violation, totaling $30,000. The money will go to the permanent school fund.

Legal South Dakota

The Iowa Judicial Building.

Legal Iowa

Woman angrily walks out of county meeting Opponents of a proposed wind farm that would span from Florence to Aulne to north of Peabody have hired two lawyers in an effort to stop potential development. 

Legal Zoning/Planning Kansas

WATERLOO — A local farmer has lost his legal challenge against a planned wind energy project in southern Black Hawk County.

Legal Iowa

In a six-page filing obtained by The Blade and expected to be entered soon in the OPSB online docket, three lawyers for Utah-based sPower’s subsidiary, Seneca Wind LLC, notified the state siting board that the developer wants to “suspend the procedural schedule and stay discovery” until further notice.

Legal Ohio

“(Potential buyers) are unwilling to enter into an agreement … until the legal proceedings are resolved,” Law said. “In addition, it is unreasonable and unwise for Washburn to commence construction of the project unless or until it has a purchase agreement in place and the legal proceedings have been completed.”

Legal Iowa

Oldenburg ruled that both sides could face potential harm, for plaintiffs if the wind farm is built, and for the defendants, if the wind farm isn’t build. “Until the ultimate issues are decided by a trier of fact, the balance of equities does not fall in favor of one side or the other,” Oldenburg wrote in his decision.

Legal Montana

As all construction efforts have been suspended, impact assistance funds issued by the Industrial Siting Council to relieve burdens caused by an influx of workers have also stopped. As no workers will be entering either Carbon or Albany counties until the dispute concludes, the payments have been made unnecessary for most communities.

Legal Wyoming

Judge Rollex held off ruling on the validity of leases for now, but said he was denying sPower’s request for the preliminary injunction — in other words, denying the company’s request to go on private property to do its work whether landowners agreed or not.

Legal Ohio

According to court documents, Kohmetscher lives on an 11-acre plot that is surrounded on three sides by wind turbines from NextEra's Cottonwood Wind Energy Center, a 40-turbine, 89-megawatt farm that began operation in the fall of 2017. Kohmetscher says in the lawsuit that the closest turbine is 1,300 feet from his property line.

Legal Nebraska

In the appeal, Debra A. Shulski and Edward J. Greene, attorneys for Atlantic Wind, call the zoning board’s denial of its second application “arbitrary and capricious,” saying that the zoning hearing board “improperly discriminated against Atlantic Wind and held Atlantic Wind to a stricter standard than mandated or permitted by the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, the Zoning Ordinance or Pennsylvania case law.”

Legal Pennsylvania

Filed on Friday in West Palm Beach federal court, the lawsuit is seeking damages to be determined at trial for hundreds of residents nationwide who live within three miles of a NextEra wind turbine.

Legal USA Colorado Nebraska