Siemens Gamesa had warned that a victory for GE would have a “profound” impact on the wind turbine market. While maintaining that it wasn’t using the specific technique covered by the patent, Siemens Gamesa also sought a broad range of exemptions, including repair parts and turbines that had already been ordered but not yet installed.

Legal USA

A federal judge has blocked a power line under construction in Iowa and Wisconsin from crossing the Mississippi River after finding the government’s environmental review was inadequate. Judge William Conley’s ruling throws the fate of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line into question just months after utilities began construction on the $492 million project. ...The utilities announced they had begun work on the Wisconsin portion of the $492 million project despite an injunction temporarily prohibiting work on or near federally-protected waters.

Legal Transmission Wisconsin

A group of New Jersey residents have sued the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to seek the reversal of its March decision to pursue the development of an area of ocean 30 miles off the coast of New Jersey for wind turbines.

Legal Offshore Wind New Jersey

Opponents of the offshore South Fork Wind farm that recently received federal approval are asking a judge to block the land-based portion of construction from starting on the project under arguments that can be heard in a pending related lawsuit.​

Legal Offshore Wind New York

The settlement agreement states, “Enforcement found that Cameron Ridge formulated, documented, and implemented a plan to reduce the output of the resource during periods of negative prices,” thus pocketing unjust profits.  Moreover, Terra-Gen “falsely represented that more than fifty percent of Cameron Ridge was comprised of technology that was physically unable to curtail output” yet did just that to cut output n response to market pricing.

Legal California

It’s time to end the hype about offshore wind and the giveaways to foreign corporations. Let’s hope these lawsuits succeed and they scuttle the offshore wind business once and for all. I’ll end by saying once again that if policymakers are serious about decarbonizing the electric grid, they need to get serious about nuclear energy. 

Legal Offshore Wind USA

The suit is the latest setback for Avangrid, which has run into roadblocks on the transmission corridor it is attempting to build with its subsidiary NECEC Transmission LLC. Work on the project to bring hydroelectric power to Massachusetts has been suspended in the wake of a Nov. 2 referendum approved by voters that blocks its construction. Avangrid is challenging the referendum’s constitutionality in court.

Legal Maine

“Fifteen years ago, Alameda County and the wind companies settled a lawsuit with the Audubon chapters and committed to reduce bird deaths by 50% by 2009. With the approval of this project, the County is putting the Altamont Pass back on pace to kill as many Golden Eagles as it did 15 years ago,” said Glenn Phillips, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society.

Impact on Birds Legal California

Given the absence of information, it was “impossible”, they say, to conduct a proper EIA assessment and there was also no opportunity for the public to make submissions in relation to this element of the build, which is contrary to European Union law, the applicants claim.

Legal Ireland

The supreme court unanimously ruled on Oct. 11 that the construction of the wind farms in the Fosen district had violated the herders' cultural rights set by international conventions designed to protect indigenous minorities. The president of Norway's Sami parliament, an elected, consultative body representing the indigenous minority, said the only way forward was to remove the turbines. "The court decision must have consequences. And the consequence is that the wind farms need to be removed."

Legal Europe

Last March, the Council refused the application due to concerns about an Air Corps flight path as well as ecological and road network issues. The refusal was appealed to An Bord Pleanála which has now upheld the decision.

Legal Zoning/Planning Ireland

Bereaved residents are calling for Sanford Town Supervisor Dewey Decker’s resignation as he almost single handedly paved the way for the contested project that will destroy their homes and quality of life, making ‘back door deals’ with the developer before the public was given notice or an opportunity for meaningful participation early enough in the process. He stoically faced the angry residents at the town hall meetings and ignored the local pleas for his help as the scale and impact of the project went public. 

Legal New York

In what is believed to be the first judgment of its kind in France, Belgians Christel and Luc Fockaert were awarded more than €100,000 in compensation by the judge in Toulouse. ...Alice Terrasse, the couple’s lawyer, told French television: “It’s an unusual case and as far as I know there has been no precedent.” 

Impact on People Legal Europe

For Christel and Luc, this judgment of the Toulouse Court of Appeal is a victory after such a long fight. "We are happy and relieved" they say. At first instance, before the court of Castres they had been dismissed. This time, they feel they have been heard. From the start, they had communicated their problems to the operators of the wind farm, to no avail. The head office of the two companies is located in the Deux-Sèvres department. "They produce green energy far from their own door. As for the concerns of local residents, they don't give a damn , " laments Luc.

Impact on People Noise Legal Europe

The supreme court case centred on whether the construction of turbines at Storheia and Roan in the Fosen region of central Norway, part of a $1.3 billion development that is Europe's largest onshore wind farm, had interfered with Sami herders' cultural rights under international conventions. "A grand chamber of the supreme court unanimously found an interference with this right, and ruled the wind power licence and the expropriation decision invalid," the court said in its ruling. It did not say what should happen next to the facilities, but a lawyer representing the herders said the verdict means the 151 wind turbines should be dismantled.

Impact on People Legal Europe

The case concerned the question of whether the development of Storheia and Roan wind turbines at Fosen violates the reindeer herding Sami's right to cultural practice according to the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights (SP) Article 27. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the rights have been violated, and that the decisions are invalid. For this reason, the discretion to determine compensation for the intervention was refused.

Impact on People Legal Europe

It was not immediately clear what the judgment’s consequences of would be, but lawyers for the herders said the 151 turbines on the Fosen peninsula could be torn down. The turbines, whose construction was completed in 2020, form part of the largest onshore windfarm in Europe.

Impact on People Legal Europe

On September 22, 2021, Justice Peter Lynch of the New York State Supreme Court, Albany County denied the petitioners’ application in Town of Copake v. New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting, No. 905502-21 (Sup. Ct. Albany Cty. Sept. 24, 2021), rejecting a challenge to regulations promulgated by the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES). Justice Lynch’s decision comes following an earlier ruling that denied the petitioners’ application for a temporary restraining order. These rulings have now twice affirmed the validity of the ORES regulations, which will play an important role in helping New York State to achieve its aggressive renewable energy goals.

Impact on People Legal New York

Under the ruling earlier this month, The First Collegiate Court of Administrative and Civil Matters of the Thirteenth Circuit, based in Oaxaca, voted unanimously to grant an injunction requested by the Juchitan de Zaragoza Farming Community blocking the development of energy projects on ancestral lands. ...“The Mexican State has not acted in any way in good faith, since there are already 29 wind farms in the region, none of them having respected the rights of self-determination and autonomy of indigenous peoples,” the body stated.

Legal Mexico

The Gunaa Sicarú wind project of the multinational company Électricité de France (EDF) on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, was stopped. A judge granted an amparo to the Agrarian Community of Juchitán, with this the company cannot continue with the project in the territory while the trial is carried out.

Legal Mexico