LITIGATION & LAWSUITS

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LAWSUIT FILED BY RESIDENTS OF TOWN TARGETED BY WIND DEVELOPER

SOURCE: Forest Voice, March 24, 2011

A controversial western Wisconsin wind energy project has come under fire and may be stopped by a federal lawsuit which was filed by a citizens group on February 9, 2011, and by decisive action by a new town board that was elected through a successful recall election of the former town board members who had approved the proposed wind energy project last summer.

After taking office following a recall election on February 15, 2011, the newly elected town board members for the Town of Forest, in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, voted to rescind a controversial wind energy development agreement and other approvals that had been granted to a wind developer, in a decisive vote on March 17, 2011. As a result, the project, which was proposed by a private wind energy developer named Emerging Energies, LLC, is now under fire and may be stopped.

Click here to read full article.

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Regulatory flux blamed for canceled wind farm
By Thomas Content of the Journal Sentinel
March 22, 2011

Energy writer Thomas Content keeps you current as you adapt to changes in the world of energy, climate change and efforts to build a greener economy.

Supporters of renewable energy say a We Energies wind farm now under construction might be the last big wind project built in the state in the near future after a Chicago developer canceled a big project near Green Bay.

We Energies is building the $367 million Glacier Hills Wind Park in Columbia County, northeast of Madison.

On Monday, Invenergy LLC canceled its plan to build a wind farm that would have had 100 turbines, 10 more than We Energies is building at Glacier Hills.

The Ledge Wind Energy Center project south of Green Bay would have generated 150 megawatts of electricity, but was the most controversial wind project proposed in the state, as local residents concerned about noise and shadow flicker from wind turbines mobilized in opposition to the project.



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Contracting Legal Issues:
Erin C. Herbold, Staff Attorney, ISU Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation, Ames IA.  Member of the IA Bar

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Group asks AG to probe official of First Wind
5/7/10
By Naomi Schalit
Senior Reporter
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting

AUGUSTA, Maine — A citizens' group has asked Maine's Attorney General to investigate former Public Utilities Commission Chairman Kurt Adams after revelations that he accepted a grant of "equity units" in a wind power company while still on the state's payroll.
 
Adams left the commission in May 2008 to go to work as senior vice president for First Wind and said the equity units “had no value at all” and thus should not trigger state conflict of interest or improper gift laws.
 
The two co-chairs of the Citizens Task Force on Wind Power, Steve Thurston, a part-time resident of Roxbury, and Monique Aniel of Mexico, wrote the letter to Mills requesting the investigation. When the grant of equity shares to Adams was revealed, Thurston said he felt he had to act. “This is troubling to me,” he said. “Somebody needs to get to the bottom of this, these issues need to be investigated.”
 
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Janet Mills was noncommittal when asked whether the AG’s office is investigating Adams.
 
Kate Simmons at first said her office does not comment on current investigations.
 
Asked, “There is no investigation yet?” Simmons replied, “How do you know?”
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting learned this week that the revelations about Adams have prompted First Wind to review its hiring of Adams.
 
A spokesman for the energy company, John Lamontagne, said, “We are confident the review will conclude that the company and Mr. Adams acted properly.”
 
A message left for Adams on Thursday was not returned. An e-mail to First Wind requesting comment from Adams drew a response from the company’s spokesman. “Kurt is unavailable for comment,” responded Lamontagne.
 
An earlier story by the Center reported that Adams received 1.2 million units of equity while still at the commission. First Wind has not put a value on the equity units in its Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company said the units of equity are not the same as stock options.
 
A recent First Wind filing with the federal SEC for 2009 shows Adams’ $1.3 million compensation included $315,000 in salary, $658,000 in stock awards, $29,000 of “other” compensation and $315,000 in “nonequity incentives.”
 
First Wind constructs, operates and owns wind turbines across the country, including farms at Mars Hill and at Stetson Mountain. Two other projects are in the works for Maine in Oakfield and Rollins Mountain in Lincoln.
 
Adams said in a previous interview that at the time they were awarded to him, the equity units — which he called “stock” in an interview with the Center — had “no value at all” and therefore shouldn’t fall under any state laws that bar improper gifts to public officials.
 
Under state law it is a criminal violation if a “public servant ... solicits, accepts or agrees to accept any pecuniary benefit from a person if the public servant knows or reasonably should know that the purpose of the donor in making the gift is to influence the public servant in the performance of the public servant’s official duties or vote, or is intended as a reward for action on the part of the public servant.”
 
Another development in the case came to light when the Center filed a Freedom of Access Act request for PUC records related to Adams’ dealings with wind power companies.
 
Those records appear to contradict Adams’ earlier statements about when he recused himself from matters concerning First Wind.
 
In an April interview, Adams told the Center that he had only negotiated with First Wind for a short time before he signed a contract with them in 2008. Adams told the Center that to ensure no conflicts occurred, “when I was at the PUC, I recused myself from anything related to First Wind from when I accepted employment to when I left.”
 
But there’s confusion about when Adams signed that contract: Despite the fact that a First Wind filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission declared he had signed the contract in May 2008, both Adams and First Wind attorney Paul Wilson say that he signed the contract in April 2008. Wilson attributed the confusion to a “clerical error.”
 
The confusion continues: According to the documents recently obtained by the Center, Adams actually began recusing himself from First Wind-related issues in December 2007. During Adams’ tenure as PUC chairman, the agency took what veteran Washington, D.C., utilities attorney Greg Williams called an “unusual” intervention with federal regulators to help out First Wind’s Stetson Mountain wind farm.
 
Stetson had been excluded by the regional transmission authority from a potentially lucrative power auction because of problems with transmission of its power, and the commission ultimately lodged a protest of that exclusion.
 
The PUC records obtained under the Center’s request regarding that intervention show that staff and commissioners were discussing the issue in December 2007, more than four months before Adams said he signed a contract with First Wind and first recused himself.
 
In an e-mail dated Dec. 12, 2007, from Kurt Adams to staff attorney Lisa Fink — cc’d to commissioners Sharon Reishus and Vendean Vafiades — whose subject line is “RE: Stetson Wind — FCM letter from ISO” Adams wrote:
 
“I am aware of a potential conflict that I have with this matter. It just popped up.
 
Can you take me out of the loop on this for now? Thanks, K”
During a Dec. 17, 2007, commission meeting, Adams recused himself from discussion about item number 14 on the agenda, which was a discussion of the Stetson Wind case — and left the room. The audio recording of the meeting was provided to the Center.
 
“Now the record can reflect I’m leaving the bench,” Adams said in the recording. An unidentified female voice in the background of the digital recording said, “He says he’s got some kind of potential conflict.”
 
In neither of the two instances did Adams refer specifically to the nature of the conflict.
 
PUC attorney Joanne Steneck said there is no written record of why Adams recused himself in the First Wind-related matters in December 2007.
 
The task force, whose leaders filed the request for an investigation, is an informal coalition of local groups, many of which are fighting wind power developments. Co-chair Thurston’s great-grandfather built a camp on Roxbury Pond in 1925 that’s still owned by his family and he and others around the pond are battling a proposal from a company led by former Gov. Angus King to put turbines on the ridge surrounding the pond.
 
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism organization based in Hallowell. It may be reached at mainecenter@gmail.com. The website is pinetreewatchdog.org.
 
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/142846.html
 
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Wind Power: Generating Electricity and Lawsuits
Energy Law Journal, Volume 28, No. 2 (2007)
by Brit T. Brown, Benjamin A. Escobar Jr.
November, 2007

View Website 

Whether imagined or real, fears over the declining reserves of traditional hydrocarbon fuels and worsening emission-induced global warming have increased both the economic and social costs associated with the world’s traditional fuel supplies to the point where alternative energy, including wind energy, is becoming increasingly attractive. The apparent benefits of wind energy, including the fact that it is clean, renewable, and socially acceptable, have spurred political endorsement and subsidy, just as advancing technology has increased cost competitiveness. These combined trends are freeing up capital and opening up markets for significant increases in wind power generation.

The relatively explosive growth of wind energy is, however, increasingly facing opposition in the courts, legislatures, and controlling state and federal agencies, thereby tempering political and investor enthusiasm. As wind developments continue to consume real estate, much of which lies in close proximity to communities or pristine lands, opposition is certain to increase. Thus far, however, favorable factors are propelling wind energy developments forward despite the opposition.

Read the full PDF

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Environmental Litigation and Toxic Torts Committee Newsletter
March 2009


Lawsuit ensures wind farm won’t be a breeze
By Stuart R. Wahlin

Alliance for Rhode Island Clean Energy


Using Eminent Domain to Take Wind Rights
Is there a loophole that could allow someone to take your wind rights?