It reads like something out of a Martin Scorsese movie.And in fact, the Osage Nation in northern Oklahoma — subject of the Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon — is engaged in a bitter court battle with an Italian company that will determine the fate of a 150-megawatt wind farm it says was illegally built on its land.In December of last year, a federal judge ordered renewable energy developer Enel Green Power North America to remove 84 wind turbines on Osage land because it lacked the proper permits to build them more than a decade ago..It was the culmination of a 10-year legal battle that is already the longest running battle over wind energy in American history. Observers say it could ultimately make its way back to the Supreme Court, where it was denied to be heard and have implications for renewable energy development across North America.Since 2015, the 128-metre tall (420-foot) turbines have been generating 620 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity or enough to power 53,000 households and offset 300,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.Although the company obtained the 3,400 hectares of surface leases legally, it didn’t have access to the subsurface mineral rights that were granted under federal order in 1906 — the same ones at the heart of Martin Scorsese’s epic drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro..And that’s because each one of those towers required an underground base that penetrated the prairie in some cases as much as 20 metres deep, necessitating a minerals permit for the rock that had to be dug up and crushed to form them.In addition, the band elders say the windmills harm wildlife such as eagles and other birds that get caught up in the turbine blades. The decision by US Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Graves ruled the company illegally mined rock owned by the tribe and continued to do so even after being ordered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to stop. Instead of halting work, the company sped up construction. Enel must now remove all 84 turbines at an estimated cost of $300 million. A separate trial will determine damages for “continuing trespass.”.“In its pursuit of the wind project, Enel displayed a staggering amount of arrogance and greed,”Blogger Robert Bryce.By mining without permission, the company violated the tribe’s sovereignty. Choe-Graves concluded that Enel “failed to acquire a mining lease during or after construction, as well as after issuance of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision holding that a mining lease was required” in 2017. The company’s “past and continued refusal to obtain a lease constitutes interference with the sovereignty of the Osage Nation and is sufficient to constitute irreparable injury.”Robert Bryce, an Austin-based energy blogger and author, said on his Substack page that Enel did it for the same reason others tried to steal the Osage’s oil and gas a century ago — money. And lots of it.“In its pursuit of the wind project, Enel displayed a staggering amount of arrogance and greed,” he wrote.“By ignoring the tribe and attempting to take its minerals, Enel aimed to collect tens of millions of dollars in federal tax credits. And remember, the company has been getting USD$10 million per year before it sells any of the juice from the project.“Enel, which trumpets itself as a “clean energy leader advancing a just transition to 100% renewable energy,” has indicated it will appeal the ruling.It’s just the latest in a growing backlash over renewable energy projects around the globe. Also in December, a French court ordered the removal of a wind farm in Nimes — but that was just seven turbines, not 84..According to Bryce’s ‘Renewable Rejection Database’ there have been 620 rejections of proposed renewable energy projects in the US since 2013 including 123 in 2023 alone.“Indeed, the Osage tribe’s victory shows — yet again — that all across rural America…local people are fighting to preserve their neighbourhoods against the landscape-, viewshed-, and wildlife-destroying impact of massive wind turbines. That is particularly true for members of the Osage tribe, who believe in the sacredness of the place where the Earth meets the sky,” he said.
