TWO STATE COURTS WHO RULED AGAINST WIND DEVELOPMENT !
WISCONSIN: You may recall the Town of Forest v. Wisconsin PSC involving the Highland Wind project. In February 2013, Wisconsin's Public Service Commission denied a permit for the project due to noise concerns, but Emerging Energies (the developer) urged the commission to reopen the case, citing new technology that permitted the project owner to control the turbine speeds at night. The PSC agreed and approved the permit on October 25, 2013. In January 2014, the Town filed a petition for judicial review with the St. Croix County Circuit Court. Oral arguments were heard last October, and yesterday the attorneys were informed that Judge Vlack ruled FOR THE TOWN and remanded the case back to the PSC. Our friends at the Forest Voice do not have much detail yet except to say the decision is 115 pages and should be available next week for distribution. Their official statement for now is: "we are very pleased the judge ruled in favor of the Town of Forest." I’ll send out more information as soon as it becomes available. It will be very interesting to see if the findings of infrasound at the Shirley Wind project, also in Wisconsin, played a role.
PENNSYLVANIA: This complex case involving Iberdrola’s South Chestnut Windpower Project in southern Fayette County, PA dates back to 2007 when the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board (ZHB) denied Iberdrola’s application on several grounds. Iberdrola (then PPM Atlantic Renewables) appealed the decision to the County court where the judge reversed the ZHB’s decision and remanded back to the ZHB. Now back before the ZHB, the ZHB approved some of Iberdrola’s permit requests and denied others. Iberdrola went back to court and obtained a reversal again. The project was built. Meanwhile, a nearby landowner who would be negatively impacted by the project appealed to the appellate court. The Appeals court found the county judge made several errors in law and reversed the decision. This week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court AFFIRMED the reversal. The project is now operating without the proper permits and approximately 14-15 of the turbines are out of compliance with the setback restrictions. The three primary court decisions in this case can be read here. Since this case was filed, the county changed its zoning. Iberdrola now insists its project is in compliance (with new zoning) and is refusing to consider moving or removing any turbines.
We may not know the final outcome of these two cases for a while, but the message is powerful and will be impacting around the country. I would like to extend our special thanks to our colleagues who pursued these difficult and costly legal cases. You were up against difficult odds and your persistence made the difference!
--lISA lINOWES.
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Comment
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Comment by Mike DiCenso on August 29, 2015 at 8:59pm
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Every state the wind cabal has changed their name, many times more than once. Did Enron write their playbooks? Time for some nasty emails to Fayette County for kissing the wind butts and easing their zoning.
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Shirley may have been a factor in the initial denial, but Forest's case on appeal was that the nighttime curtailment proposed by the developer in the re-opened case brought the capacity that the state PSC is authorized to regulate (100 MW). Plus I believe the PSC made their decision without granting proper opportunity for the Town and stakeholders to be heard. In Sept. 2014, the developers asked for an extension on their certificate. When has IRS extended the deadline until for operational?
It is distressing that the PA county commissioners changed their setbacks to ease wind development. The courts might be going in the right direction but politicians are not.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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