After findings surfaced that an application for a Galloo Island wind farm failed to include the discovery of a bald eagle’s nest... the state departments of Public Service (DPS) and Environmental Conservation (DEC) withdrew their signatures on executed stipulations, agreements between parties that can pertain to studies that must be included in applications.

Legal New York

Officials say the wind farm was being constructed along a route of airspace used by the United State Air Force for training.  Now, the Federal Aviation Administration will complete an investigation to make sure there will be no hazards to anyone involved.

Legal Safety Oklahoma

After it was revealed that Apex Clean Energy omitted the finding of a bald eagle nest on Galloo Island in spring 2017 from the application for its 109-megawatt project, administrative law judges allowed parties involved in the review to withdraw from the stipulations pertaining to studies of terrestrial ecology, wetlands and other related matters. ...Both the state departments of Public Service and Environmental Conservation said they have withdrawn from the particular stipulations due to Apex’s decision not to divulge the knowledge of the nest and the lack of studies to address it.

Impact on Birds Legal New York

The Massachusetts Appeals Court rejected a motion to intervene in the court order to shut down Falmouth’s two wind turbines as a nuisance, upholding Barnstable Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty II’s decision. “We see no reason to disturb the judge’s ruling,” Associate Justices Peter J. Rubin, Gabrielle R. Wolohojian, and Amy L. Blake wrote in their decision, noting the history of the litigation.

Legal Massachusetts

“I’m thrilled,” Kerns said. “The constant whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sound they make is nonstop … and the shadow effect was like I was back in the ’70s with the disco strobe light. “I couldn’t sit outside in the evening,” she added. “Until you live near one, you don’t know what it’s like.”

Impact on People Legal Iowa

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

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

Erecting a few wind turbines on privatized, once communist farmland doesn't entitle Germany to claw back potentially lucrative power earnings, a top appeal court has ruled. It's voided part of a 2005 land sales contract.

Legal Germany

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

Noise from a wind farm in Victoria's Gippsland is having an adverse impact on the comfort and wellbeing of residents living at surrounding properties, a new report commissioned by a local council has found.

Impact on People Noise Legal Australia