The Osage Nation won a massive ruling in Tulsa federal court on Wednesday that requires Enel to dismantle a 150-megawatt wind project it built in Osage County despite the tribe’s repeated objections. The tribe’s fight against Rome-based Enel began in 2011 and is the longest-running legal battle over wind energy in American history.
As reported by Curtis Killman in the Tulsa World on Thursday, the ruling grants the United States, the Osage Nation, and Osage Minerals Council permanent injunctive relief via "ejectment of the wind turbine farm for continuing trespass."
The decision by U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Graves is the culmination of 12 years of litigation that pitted the tribe and federal authorities against Enel. During the construction of the project, the company illegally mined rock owned by the tribe, and it 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 the 84 turbines that it built on 8,400 acres of the Tallgrass Prairie located between Pawhuska and Fairfax. Removing the turbines will cost Enel some $300 million.
Under the Osage Allotment Act of 1906, the tribe owns the rights to the minerals beneath the land it bought from the Cherokee Nation in the late 1800s. Those mineral rights include oil, natural gas, and the rocks that Enel mined and crushed for the wind project. 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. She continued, saying 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."The court victory comes at the same time that the Osage Nation is getting massive media attention due to the October release of Martin Scorsese’s epic film, Killers Of The Flower Moon, which is still being shown in theaters. Last week, Richard Brody, the film critic at the New Yorker, declared that Killers is the best movie of 2023. The movie is also racking up accolades and nominations for numerous awards. For instance, Lily Gladstone, who stars in the film as Mollie Burkhart, has been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress.
Judge Choe-Graves’ decision is a huge win for tribal members like Tommy Daniels, who have long pushed for the removal of the wind turbines. "If I had the power, boom!, they’d be gone," Daniels said in an interview I did with him last year in Fairfax. Daniels is one of the last full-blood Osages. The wind project "kills birds, like eagles, I don’t like that," he added.Daniels and other Osage tribal members opposed the project because of its potential intrusion on sacred burial sites, as well as the 420-foot-high turbines’ deadly impact on eagles. In 2021, I interviewed Joe Conner, a tribal member and publisher of The Fairfax Chief. Conner, who passed away on September 12, 2023, told me, "Many tribal members have objections because of the fear of damaging the environment, sacred birds, particularly eagles, that would be caught up in the turbine blades."
The interviews with Daniels, Conner, and other tribal members are featured in my upcoming docuseries, Juice: Power, Politics, And The Grid. That five-part docuseries, directed by my colleague, Tyson Culver, will be released on YouTube beginning January 31, 2024. (The docuseries includes more than 30 interviews with top thought leaders. Tyson has done an amazing job putting the episodes together. More details to come in early January.)
By thrashing Enel in court, the Osage tribe not only stands to collect millions of dollars in damages and the removal of the loathsome turbines, it also has handed Big Wind the biggest public relations debacle in its history. It’s not just that the wind industry lost; it lost to a Native American tribe. That’s a particularly bad look when it comes to the branding of wind energy as "clean," "green," "sustainable," and, of course, "renewable." The tribe’s victory will be costly for Enel. But it’s also an embarrassing loss for Big Wind and its allies. For years, big business, big banks, big law firms, academics from elite universities, and big NGOs, have been siding with the wind industry as it tried to steamroll rural landowners and governments. Further, while the industry has dealt with scattered instances where a handful of wind turbines have been torn down due to opposition, such as the removal of two turbines last year in Falmouth, Massachusetts, it has never faced a loss of this magnitude.
Getting rid of two wind turbines in Falmouth can be ignored. Removing 84 turbines? That is unprecedented.
The Osage tribe’s victory over Enel provides more proof of the increasing opposition to wind energy from rural residents all over the world. Earlier this month, a French court ordered a wind project in southern France to be dismantled. That project faced years of complaints from residents about noise pollution. (More on that in a future Substack.) Indeed, the Osage tribe’s victory shows — yet again — that all across rural America, local people are fighting to preserve their neighborhoods 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.
The extent of rural resistance to Big Wind and Big Solar is evident in the Renewable Rejection Database. Since 2015, there have been 417 rejections or restrictions of wind energy in the U.S. and those rejections have occurred from Maine to Hawaii. So far this year, there have been 50 rejections or restrictions of wind energy and 68 solar rejections. Actually, come to think of it, Wednesday’s court ruling brings the total to 51 rejections of wind energy in 2023.
The tribe’s court victory shows that Killers Of The Flower Moon is not ancient history. Scorsese’s film, (it’s terrific, by the way), based on the remarkable book of the same name by David Grann, shows, in sometimes-too-graphic detail, how outsiders took advantage of the Osage tribe and its oil wealth by murdering dozens of tribal members. But the effort to exploit the tribe’s minerals didn’t end in the 1920s. It continues to this day.
In its pursuit of the wind project, Enel displayed a staggering amount of arrogance and greed. It repeatedly ignored the federal government’s warnings that it must not violate the tribe’s mineral rights. Why was Enel in a rush? The answer is obvious. Just as Bill Hale (the "King of the Osage Hills"), his nephew, Earnest Burkhart, and many other whites conspired to murder wealthy Osage tribal members during the Reign of Terror a century ago, Enel did it for the money.
By ignoring the tribe and attempting to take its minerals, Enel aimed to collect tens of millions of dollars in federal tax credits. As Conner explained it, Enel "completely dismissed us as anything they needed to take seriously." He continued, saying the Italian company was among "a long line of exploiters, if you will, who decided this is something they can do, and not have to pay much for, and make, you know, lots and lots of money."
In 2011, according to an article by Benny Polacca of the Osage News, the superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Pawhuska wrote a letter to the tribe four days after the Osage County Board of Adjustment approved a variance request for the wind project. The BIA official warned that the project "may have to be removed or relocated" if it interferes with the tribe’s mineral estate. Despite that warning, Enel began building the wind project in 2013. As seen below, on October 9, 2014, the BIA sent a letter to Enel telling it to "refrain from any further excavation of minerals" for the wind project "until such time that you have obtained a Sandy Soil Permit through the Osage Agency. Failure to comply may result in this matter being forwarded to the Office of the Field Solicitor for further action."In 2014, the federal government filed a lawsuit seeking a judgment that Enel had engaged in unauthorized mining. That still didn’t stop the company, which commissioned the wind project in 2015. Since then, Enel, by my calculations, has been collecting about $10 million per year in federal tax credits. And remember, the company has been getting that $10 million per year before it sells any of the juice from the project.
I made two attempts to get a comment from Enel about the ruling, including a phone call and email to their Oklahoma City-based spokesman. Enel did not reply.
Enel has repeatedly trumpeted itself as a "clean energy leader." On its website, Enel North America says it is "advancing a just transition to 100% renewable electricity." In addition, the CEO of Enel Green Power North America, Paolo Romanacci, sits on the board of directors at the American Clean Power Association, the lobby group that spends about $32 million per year promoting the interests of Big Solar and Big Wind.
Wednesday’s court ruling may also prove embarrassing (and costly) to some of Osage County’s most prominent people, including the Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, M. John Kane IV. Property records show that a large portion of the Enel wind project was built on land owned or controlled by Kane’s family. Kane was appointed to the state’s highest court in 2019 by Governor Kevin Stitt, who has been antagonizing Oklahoma’s tribes ever since he took office. Kane became chief justice earlier this year. On Monday, I called Kane’s office to ask about the Osage tribe’s litigation against Enel. His assistant, Kinsey Hicks, told me that Kane would not comment because justices are "not allowed to talk about things involving pending litigation."
After the ruling, the Tulsa World quoted Osage Minerals Council Chairman Everett Waller saying, "This is a win not only for the Osage Minerals Council; this is a win for Indian Country." He continued, "There are a lot of smaller tribes that couldn’t have battled this long, but that’s why we’re Osages...We’re here, and this is our homeland, and we are going to protect it at all costs."
On Friday morning, I talked to Scott Lohah, an Osage tribal member who has been a longtime opponent of the Enel wind project. (Lohah is also featured in our docuseries.) When I asked him about the court ruling, he said, "Everyone in the tribe is ecstatic."
#2
Per Wikipedia - Enel S.p.A. is an Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas, as well as an artificial intelligence company. The Italian state, through the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is the main shareholder, with 23.6% of the share capital as of 1 April 2016.
There's a little bit of irony hidden in the article.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/27/2023 14:38 Comments ||
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#3
Legal commentary on the as yet to be determined ultimate disposition of this case.
[PJ] My wife and I have been considering buying a property on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to escape the chill, rainy Vancouver winters. One can imagine our distress when we learned that someone I regard as among the most contemptible people on the planet, Mark Zuckerberg, is building a 1,500-acre compound on this most beautiful island in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Citing various sources, Stephen Green at PJ Media reports that "a 5,000-square-foot underground lair featuring its own energy and food supplies is under construction." According to Housing.com, also cited by Green, Zuckerberg’s $270 million Koolau Ranch project "is designed to function as a self-sufficient space, ready to withstand global catastrophes...It is packed with security measures, encompassing keypad locks, soundproofing and concealed doors, while an extensive camera network ensures surveillance."
The Guardian informs us that Zuckerberg’s lawyers "filed suit against hundreds of local Hawaiians who may own an interest in small pockets within his estates boundaries... [which is] surrounded by a 6ft stone wall blocking easy access to Pila’a Beach." A local resident described this legal action as "the face of neocolonialism." Zuckerberg eventually backed down, and the disputed parcels of land were sold at auction. How that changed anything is beyond me.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/27/2023 6:59 Comments ||
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#4
...Would it be impolite of me to point out the flaw in this plan: that the people building these things are going to be relying on the loyalty and generosity of the heavily armed people guarding the place for them.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Apple filed an appeal following an import ban on certain smartwatch models that went into effect in the US Tuesday.
The ban came after the Biden administration opted not to veto a ruling on patent infringements.
The federal International Trade Commission decided in October to ban Apple Watch models over a patented technology for detecting blood-oxygen levels.
On Tuesday, Apple filed an emergency motion with the US Appeals Court in an attempt to pause the ban. The company has asked the court to halt the ban until a US Customs decision due on January 12 about whether Apple's redesigned watches avoid Masimo patents.
Apple has included the pulse oximeter feature in its smart watches starting with its Series 6 model in 2020.
The company contends that the ITC finding was in error and should be reversed, but last week paused its US sales of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, although the watches remained available from other retailers including Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart as of Tuesday.
In 1961, United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and most of the crew. With the case still unsolved 50-plus years later, Danish journalist, filmmaker, and provocateur Mads Brügger (The Red Chapel, The Ambassador) leads us down an investigative rabbit hole to unearth the truth. Scores of false starts, dead ends, and elusive interviews later, Brügger and his sidekick, Swedish Göran Björkdahl, begin to sniff out something more monumental than anything they’d initially imagined.
In his signature agitprop style, Brügger becomes both filmmaker and subject, challenging the very nature of truth by “performing” the role of truth seeker. As Brügger uncovers a critical secret that could send shockwaves around the world, we realize that sometimes absurdity and irony are the emboldening ingredients needed to confront what’s truly sinister.
#2
There was extensive interaction between Hammarskjold and Patrice Lamumba, the erstwhile leader of the Congo. After Lamuba's assassination in late 1960, Hammarskjold was determined to investigate the forces behind his elimination.
"In 2013, the U.S. State Department admitted that President Eisenhower discussed plans at a NSC meeting on 18 August 1960 to assassinate Lumumba.[179] However, documents released in 2017 revealed that an American role in Lumumba's murder was only under consideration by the CIA.[180][181] CIA Chief Allan Dulles had allocated $100,000 to accomplish the act, but the plan was not carried out.[182]"
"John Stockwell, a CIA officer in the Congo and later a CIA station chief, wrote in 1978 that the CIA base chief in Elizabethville was in direct contact with Lumumba's killers on the night he was executed.[citation needed] Stockwell also wrote that a CIA agent had a body in the trunk of his car that they were trying dispose of.[172] Stockwell, who knew Devlin well, believed that Devlin knew more than anyone else about the murder.[173]"
[Breitbart] Ethiopia on Tuesday became the third African nation in three years to default on its sovereign debt, following in the unfortunate footsteps of Zambia and Ghana.
Ethiopia’s default was unsurprising, as it has pursued debt relief since 2021. As with many other developing nations, the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic slammed Ethiopia’s finances, followed by the enormous expense and disruption of the brutal civil war against Tigrayan rebels in 2020 and 2021.
Ethiopia has only one international government bond worth about one billion dollars. In early December, S&P Global Ratings downgraded its status to “default” following a missed $33 million payment.
“We view the nonpayment of interest and the statement that the government would not honor its debt service obligations within the stipulated grace period as a default on its external commercial debt,” S&P Global Ratings said at the time.
Ethiopian officials said they could have cobbled together enough funds to make the payment, but they would not do so because they had already requested debt service suspension from other lenders, including China.
The grace period in question elapsed on Tuesday, and as promised, Ethiopia did not make its coupon payment. Due to the Christmas holiday, Friday was technically the last day when payment could have been made, so the default officially occurred at the close of business on that day.
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Ethiopia said it wanted to treat all its creditors equally, no doubt mindful of the crisis that engulfed Zambia when it defaulted in November 2020. Zambia played favorites with some bondholders, which annoyed others into rejecting a crucial debt restructuring deal. Zambia was unable to restructure more than $6 billion in loans until June 2023.
Ethiopia is one of several developing nations caught between servicing Western creditors and massive Chinese loans. Ethiopia is a regional focus of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which loans huge sums from Chinese banks to finance infrastructure improvements, many of which struggle to generate enough income to repay the loans.
Ethiopia joined the China-dominated BRICS economic bloc in August 2023. China has suspended debt payments from Ethiopia until July 2024, putting pressure on other creditors to follow suit.
Ghana defaulted on most of its $29 billion in external debt in 2022 and restructured much of its debt the following year, although it still struggles to meet its financial obligations. Ghana looked like a major African economic success story until its economy was exposed as a debt-fueled illusion, its currency crashed, and civic order disintegrated in the face of 40 percent inflation.
Ethiopia is the second most heavily populated country in Africa, trailing Nigeria. Its debt default is troubling because of its size and because it could expose deep liquidity problems that will not be easily resolved, even with the pandemic and civil war in its rear-view mirror.
[FoxNews] ELN group was responsible for kidnapping parents of soccer star Luis Diaz earlier in the year
The head of Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group said on Monday it would only abide by a recent agreement to suspend the kidnappings of civilians for ransom if the government keeps its promise to finance projects that could provide the rebels with alternate sources of income.
In a column published on Christmas Day, National Liberation Army commander Antonio García argued that Colombian officials and journalists had misinformed the public on Dec. 17, when they announced that the rebels had agreed to stop kidnappings, if a cease-fire with the government is extended next year.
Sultan Recep Tayip Erdogan I (the much beloved) is milking this thing until it bleeds — and his parliament now does as it is told.
[Rudaw] Ottoman Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Tuesday approved Sweden’s NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... accession bid, sending it to the politicians for ratification, reported state media.
Sweden and Finland last year reversed their decades-long tradition of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Helsinki’s bid was approved unanimously by the defence alliance’s members following months of delay due to Ankara’s concerns. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... Stockholm’s bid has remained up in the air due to opposition from Hungary and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... Ottoman Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee in mid-November held its first meeting on Sweden’s bid to join NATO but failed to make any final decisions. After hours of a heated discussion on Tuesday, the committee approved the bid, reported state media.
The committee forwarded the bill to the legislature presidency to be voted on in the future.
President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... ’s governing alliance has enough seats in the legislature to ratify the bill.
Erdogan expects US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body.... to convince American politicians to approve the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in return for Sweden's accession to NATO.
In October, Ottoman Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan submitted a bill to the Ottoman Turkish parliament regarding Sweden’s application, roughly three months after he voiced approval for Stockholm’s bid to join the military alliance.
Unanimous approval by alliance members is required in order for new countries to join the organization and Turkey has used this as leverage to pressure Stockholm and Helsinki to take action against Kurdish groups it considers "terrorists" in exchange for Ankara’s "yes" on the accession.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/27/2023 00:00 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] Turkish police detained at least 96 people suspected of attacking tourists in Istanbul, TELE1 TV channel reported.
In Istanbul, police detained 96 people on suspicion of attacking tourists.
The police carried out an operation to capture the persons involved in the investigation in 13 districts of the city. Law enforcement agencies found that the attackers forced travelers to pay large bills at entertainment venues.
In addition, the suspects took mobile phones and wallets from tourists, and beat them if they refused to provide payment. Some criminal cases have already been brought to court.
As Regnum reported, on June 12 it became known that in the center of Istanbul unknown persons started a fight with Russian tourist Vyacheslav Nechiporchuk with the aim of robbing him. As a result of the attack, a Russian citizen died.
On August 25, information appeared that a Turkish police officer in Istanbul was fatally wounded during an operation to combat drug dealers. In addition, another police officer was injured. Law enforcement officers intended to detain a gang of five people who resisted law enforcement officers.
#1
Any American touring Erdogan’s Turkey is not very intelligent.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/27/2023 11:47 Comments ||
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#2
Turks: Rooskies who acted too berky
Get screwed by crude clip joints in Turkey
And lose all their rubles
To jerks without scruples!
Americans: Midnight is murky.
[WND] COVID-19 apparently escaped from a Chinese lab experimenting on bat viruses and circled the globe, killing millions.
Worse, untold tens of thousands suffered side effects, up to and including death, from the experimental mRNA treatments demanded by many officials in and out of government both.
Now the Central Intelligence Agency is being sued for refusing to release records relating to an investigation of the origins of COVID.
A report from the Daily Caller explains that the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project is suing the federal bureaucracy over those records.
The court case followed a refusal by the CIA to comply with the requirements of the federal Freedom of Information Act, through which the records "connected to its team tasked with investigating the lab leak theory," were sought.
That theory suggests COVID-19 was created in and escaped from a lab — not the scientifically implausible ideology promoted by many government officials at the time that the virus spontaneously moved from animals to humans.
"This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (’FOIA’), 5 U.S.C. § 552, to compel production of CIA records relating to allegations that members of the CIA’s COVID Discovery Team, a group of employees tasked with analyzing the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, received monetary incentives to change their position on the origins of the virus," the complaint states.
#5
With any luck this case may eventually reach the Supreme Court. It is time to decide which is more powerful, the administration or the intelligence agencies.
[Hot Air] The third request for Secret Service protection from the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was turned down. Kennedy said, "It’s another example of weaponization of government against Biden’s political opponents."
He has a good point. Why would Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security deny RFK, Jr. protection, especially given his political family’s history?
#5
If RFK is killed, Biden loses with or without giving him a Secret Service detail.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/27/2023 12:03 Comments ||
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#6
Biden has already lost. That doesn't matter since 2024 presidential votes will be counted pretty much the same way they were in 2020, so the Dems will win no matter what most of us think. Prove me wrong.
[Breitbart] Hundreds of China-made products will continue avoiding United States tariffs thanks to an extension announced by President Joe Biden’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this week.
The Section 301 tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of China-made products were first imposed by former President Trump after a decades-long free trade consensus in Washington, DC, that eliminated nearly four million American jobs from the U.S. economy from 2001 to 2018.
On Tuesday, Biden’s USTR Katherine Tai announced that her office will extend tariff exclusions for more than 350 China-made products and 77 COVID-19-related categories.
The tariff exclusions, a boon to China, have continuously been extended by Biden’s USTR since March 2022, as Breitbart News reported at the time.
The China-made products that will escape U.S. tariffs thanks to Biden include breast pumps, solar water heaters, garage door openers, X-ray tables, and thermostats, as well as food products from China such as crab meat, Dungeness crab, and Alaskan sole.
While Biden keeps such tariff exclusions for China, a growing bipartisan coalition of Republican and Democrat lawmakers is asking the administration to revoke U.S. free trade relations with China.
This month, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued its report which recommends ending China’s permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status that was first approved by Congress in 2001 and backed by then-President George W. Bush.
“We acknowledge that granting the PRC PNTR did not lead to the benefits expected for the United States nor did it lead to the structural reforms in the PRC that Congress expected,” the committee wrote in its findings.
A study from the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), published in September, shows that ending U.S. free trade with China would create some two million American jobs and grow the nation’s economy by nearly two percent.
Another study from 2022 similarly found that imposing U.S. tariffs on all foreign imports would create a whopping ten million American jobs — three million of which would be high-paying manufacturing jobs, while 6.9 million would be jobs in supporting industries.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...46th president of the U.S. Former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body....
[Regnum] Turkish police detained at least 96 people suspected of attacking tourists in Istanbul, TELE1 TV channel reported.
