Guest Essay by Leslie Eastman from Legal Insurrection
Editor’s Note: Expanding wind energy is critical to climate alarmists claims that we can have a modern economy and cut greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously – other environmental goals like species and wildlife habitat preservation be damned. Of course, they rarely count the lifecycle carbon dioxide footprint of wind, from the mining, the shipping an transportation, the construction, the concrete for the base of each turbine, etc, in their calculations, and completely ignore the intermittency complications for reliable power.
Regardless, wind only works if suitable locations can be found to site large industrial wind facilities. Many of the best sites, sites where the wind blows steadily within the ideal range without obstruction, have been taken already. In addition, in the United States, because property rights are still fairly robust, being constitutionally protected, finding a suitable location usually means wind facility developers have to find willing hosts for their turbines. As energy analyst Robert Bryce details an increasing number of locations — towns, communities, and counties (nearly 800 nationwide to date) – are rejecting new wind developments, citing impacts on health, property values, and property rights.
Then there are the Osage of Oklahoma. Their rights to determine the use of their reservation and any energy development on it was recently vindicated in federal court. As detailed in numerous news articles, here and here, for example, a federal court recently ruled that Enel Kansas, Enel Green Power North America and Osage Wind had to remove 84 wind turbines, spanning 84,000 acres of tribal land, that the Osage had leased to the companies. It seems that the companies had not been honest with the tribe concerning the environmental disruption the construction and operation of the turbines would cause, including the destruction of subsurface rights retained by the tribe. The guest post below discusses the Osage’s recent victory over politically favored, “big wind.”
Counties blocking wind development and tribes ripping turbines out of the ground show that climate change is not, for many, the most important problem they think they and the planet face.
Energy Expert Robert Bryce: “It is a colossal black eye for the wind industry, which has collected tens of billions of dollars in federal tax credits by claiming its landscape-blighting, bird-and-bat-killing, property-value-destroying turbines are an essential part of the effort to avert catastrophic climate change.”
Early in 2024, I reported that a federal judge ordered an Italian energy firm had to remove an 84-turbine wind farm in Osage County. This was a big win for the Native American tribe, but there was still some legal details to be worked out with the company, Enel Energy.
The initial ruling from the federal judge in Tulsa did not establish a timeline for the removal or the turbines. Nor did the judge establish the amount of of damages due to the tribe.
Now the firm has been given both a deadline from wind turbine removal and the cost of damages, both of which are likely to knock the wind out of its 2025 fiscal goals.
December 1, 2025. That is the deadline Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves of the U.S. Court of International Trade gave to Enel and its subsidiaries to remove 84 wind turbines west of Pawhuska and return the land to its pre-windfarm state.
She also awarded about $4 million in monetary damages for both conversion, trespass and attorney fees.
“We are thankful that the Court stood up for Indian rights. Our lands and resources have been taken and used by others for more than 150 years,” said the Osage Minerals Council in a statement. “We will always fight to defend our Mineral Estate that our ancestors reserved for our benefit and the benefit of generations to come.
“We are open for business and we look forward to working with anyone who negotiates with us in good faith.”
Enel’s first mistake was ignoring how unhappy the Osage were about plans for the wind farm to begin with. Hot Air’s Beege Welborn noted the utter arrogance of the Green Energy Barons in her report on the initial ruling.
What tripped the wind company up was arrogance. How many times have we seen that before?
The Osage Nation might not have owned all the property, but they did hold title to all the mineral rights under the windfarm and the area required for maintenance roads, etc., ever since buying the land from the Cherokees in the late 1800’s.
As far back as 2011, at the very beginning of the project, the superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs wrote a letter to the company warning them not to violate the tribe’s mineral rights when construction started or during any part of the build-out.
Ignoring that warning, others which came later, and disregarding repeated subsequent orders to acquire a mining lease and stop the mineral violations were to prove Enel’s undoing. And it is going to cost them big time.
Enel stomped all over the Osage mineral rights in its quest to build its wind turbines.
In 2010, Enel leased 8,400 acres of surface rights in Osage County to construct a wind farm, which included 84 wind turbines. The installation required deep excavation, using explosives to create craters over 10 feet deep and 60 feet wide.
During construction, significant amounts of Osage minerals were removed, processed, and repurposed without authorization, leading to allegations of unauthorized mining.
And, as predicted, it is going to cost Enel Energy. The estimated cost for removing the turbines is approximately $300 million, which is a huge hit for the company. Besides the dismantling of the turbines, additional details demonstrate that the judge was not moved by the energy firm’s arguments.
- The judge found the defendants liable for conversion, trespass, and continuing trespass on the Osage Mineral Estate.
- The court awarded $242,652.28 for conversion and $66,780 for trespass.
- The defendants must pay over $36 million in attorney’s fees to the plaintiffs, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Osage Minerals Council.
Energy expert Robert Bryce notes that this is a historic victory against green energy barons.
For years, Big Wind has played hardball with rural communities. In some cases, Big Wind has sued rural governments to try to force them to accept wind projects they don’t want.
…Across the US, only a handful of turbines have ever been taken down due to local opposition. In 2022, two turbines in Falmouth, Massachusetts, were dismantled after numerous complaints from local homeowners about the noise from the turbines and a years-long legal battle.
But an order to remove 84 wind turbines— by a federal judge, no less— is nothing short of gobsmacking. It is a colossal black eye for the wind industry, which has collected tens of billions of dollars in federal tax credits by claiming its landscape-blighting, bird-and-bat-killing, property-value-destroying turbines are an essential part of the effort to avert catastrophic climate change.
It is also a massive, massive win for Native American tribes and their legal rights.
I suspect that this will be the first of many such victories against green energy barons, who have lorded over this nation using “climate crisis” pseudoscience and political connections. The climate in Washington, DC, has gotten chillier for this nonsense.
