Barnstable Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty had deemed the turbines at the town's wastewater treatment facility a nuisance and ordered that they be permanently shut down in June 2017. The selectmen voted not to appeal the decision. ...The Green Center then appealed Moriarty’s ruling to the Massachusetts Appeals Court but again failed to gain any traction, with a panel of three judges upholding Moriarty’s decision.

Legal Massachusetts

In truth, it is hard to imagine a worse factual record, a worse example of wasting ratepayer money and imposing ratepayer risk.  For $300 million or more the company will receive only 12 megawatts of power and with the assumed operational efficiency of the turbines that will work out to 78 cents per kilowatt hour.  Then a hurricane may wreck it.

Legal Offshore Wind Virginia

Testimony concluded Tuesday night in the battle for Atlantic Wind to gain a permit to erect 28 wind turbines on land owned by Bethlehem Water Authority in Penn Forest Township Written briefs are due to the zoning board by Dec. 7. The zoning hearing board will meet on Dec. 17 to deliberate and announce its decision in the matter.

Legal Pennsylvania

A deadline for a mitigation plan for a proposed wind farm near Hinton has been extended a third time.

Legal Safety Oklahoma

Holmes contends the hearing and vote was moot because the correct way to handle the request would have been through a rezoning application to the elected Board of Supervisors. “(The Board of Adjustment) have no power to grant a special exemption on land that is exempt from zoning,” he said. “They should have just gone home.”

Legal Iowa

“The application of the Atlantic Wind should be denied as filed as it does not comply with the not-to-exceed sound standard under the Penn Forest Zoning Ordinance; would establish a second principal use of the land in contravention of the (ordinance); and that no hardship was shown for a service building in the R-2 District." ...Schwab also wrote that the turbines would create a second, illegal use on the property. The ordinance states that a lot in the residential district can only have one principal use.

Legal Pennsylvania

Neighbors of a planned wind farm in southwestern Montana are suing to block the project. ...They allege the wind project will threaten wetlands, migratory birds, bald eagles, historic trails, businesses and the health of people living in the vicinity.

Legal Montana

A petition to suspend, adjourn or dismiss the Article 10 review of the Galloo Island Wind project has been filed with the state Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment. Cara and Anthony Dibnah, who in 2000 purchased the former U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on the island, are seeking relief from the board because of an ongoing easement dispute with the owner of the largest part of the island, Galloo Island Corp.

Legal New York

Bauercamper found the wind companies in contempt of court earlier this year and ordered the turbines to cease energy production by July 2 and be removed at the turbine developers’ cost by Dec. 9. The turbines have stopped spinning.

Legal Iowa

The proximity of the men’s grant areas means their oysters, which total about 3,250,000, could be smothered by sand and silt that’s stirred up when Vineyard Wind lays the cable, the letter contends. Although Vineyard Wind officials have met with the shellfishermen multiple times and proposed solutions that include installing silt curtains while work is conducted, there’s no evidence those solutions will work, according to the letter.

Legal Offshore Wind Massachusetts

A resident filed an enforcement action request (June 2018) alleging Wind 2 violates Chapter 240 Section 3B of the Falmouth Zoning Bylaw (the local provision copied from M.G.L. c. 40A, s. 7).

Legal Zoning/Planning Massachusetts

In his response, Mr. Palmer said this regulation does not apply to Wind 2 because of when it was installed. The letter indicates Wind 2 was issued a permit and became operational in February 2012. “The building permit and the date of initial operation are both beyond the six year enforcement provision of G.L. c. 40A, s. 7 for structures erected in reliance upon a building permit,” Mr. Palmer wrote.

Legal Massachusetts

NextEra is building more than 160 turbines, and many neighbors say they are do it illegally. “The law is very clear,” said attorney Kim Spady, who represents some neighbors from Hinton.

Legal Safety Oklahoma

Pending litigation over the property tax obligations of Rock Falls Wind Project in Grant and Kay counties could set dramatic new precedents and fundamentally change the way wind-energy projects are incentivized in Oklahoma.  

Legal Taxes & Subsidies Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY - State leaders have formally notified Florida-based NextEra Energy that the company's recent construction of nearly two dozen wind turbines in Canadian County violates a new state law.

Legal Oklahoma

The actions of a Florida-based energy company are proving to be a test case for a new law intended to protect what many believe is Oklahoma's most valuable military asset -- air space. A News 9 investigation reveals the company, NextEra Energy, is putting up new wind turbines without the needed federal approval, in violation of a recently approved state law.

Legal Safety Oklahoma

Shawn Dooling, 52, of Excelsior founded Renewable Energy SD, LLC in 2009. He marketed the company as one that sells, installs and maintains wind turbines to help local farmers save on their energy expenses, but he stole millions from customers in a scheme between 2010 and 2013.

Legal Minnesota

On Aug. 16, West Fork and the Consumer Counselor office jointly asked the IURC to delay the hearing again, until April 30, 2019. West Fork said it will not have all of the requested data until after the end of this year.

Legal Indiana

Ordinances governing wind energy systems, which are to be developed within a county, have a wide ranging effect on the local geography and economy.  Local participation in ordinance drafting is a great advantage of county lawmaking.  This leaves an opportunity for county commissioners to make the public, its local residents, “partners” in this lawmaking.  There should be little uncertainty in ordinance language, it should be transparent, and the end product should favor open public participation in wind farm applications.

Legal Zoning/Planning South Dakota

Judge Brian Van Couyghen reversed the board’s approval of a special-use permit for the 2.9-megawatt solar photovoltaic farm on 8 acres finding that it represented a manufacturing use that is not allowed in residential zones. Van Couyghen cited a previous case in which the state Supreme Court found that wind turbines represented a manufacturer because they are used for the sole purpose of transforming raw materials, “namely wind — into a finished product — namely electricity.”

Legal Rhode Island