U.S. Court of Appeals upholds FAA’s approval of the Cape Wind project... again
Renewable energy opponents have lost all 12 legal decisions
Court gives Cape Wind another thumbs up.
Cape's clean energy future moves closer
Legal victory for Cape Wind, FAA approval upheld
Several seasonal, trophy homeowners in Osterville, abetted by a decade-long editorial jihad in the local daily, lost yet another lawsuit in their relentless effort to stop America's renewable energy revolution.Cape Wind reported today that the renewable energy company had again defeated the efforts of its opponents to block the country’s first offshore wind farm.
All the opponents argument are rejected by the court
In a significant decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) approval of the Cape Wind project, rejecting every argument that had been advanced by the project’s opponents.
In a news release Cape Wind Communications Director Mark Rodgers said, “The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the Town of Barnstable and their financial backer - coal billionaire Bill Koch - have failed yet again in their continuing campaign to use the courts to delay the financing of Cape Wind.”
“The court’s definitive decision is an important legal victory that brings America that much closer to launching its offshore wind industry, a keystone in America’s renewable energy future,” Rodgers continued.
Opponents have lost all 12 legal decisions
This decision takes on even greater importance because this was the same court that had previously provided project opponents their sole and temporary relief, those opponents have lost all 12 legal decisions in other courts.
On October 28, 2011 this court had remanded the FAA’s third Determination of No Hazard (DNH) back to the FAA to better explain the rationale for its decision.
On February 9, 2012, the FAA issued a Public Notice of its reinstated project review, indicating its conclusion that “none of the turbines would have an adverse effect on the use of air navigation facilities or navigable airspace.”
On August 15, 2012 the FAA issued its 4th DHN which project opponents challenged, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound pronounced confidence their challenge would be successful -- this is the case decided today in favor of the FAA and Cape Wind.
Cape Wind was represented by Geraldine Edens and Christopher Marraro of BakerHostetler.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2014/01/23/23701-us-court-appeals-upholds-faa%E2%80%99s-approval-cape-wind-project-again
New lawsuit seeks to void Cape Wind contract
Yet another frivolous lawsuit by anti wind farm opponents - "A renewable energy wind farm signals the end of the dream of Cape Cod living" for Joe Keller and his anti-wind farm friends
Something seems terribly wrong when the Town of Barnstable spends taxpayer dollars to contest Cape Wind in court.
CAPE WIND FACES NEW FEDERAL LAWSUIT
The suit against Massachusetts regulators, NSTAR, and Cape Wind says the State discriminated against out-of-state power companies - despite their lower costs - by pressuring NSTAR to buy power from an in-state energy company, Cape Wind. Massachusetts regulators also exceeded their authority in setting wholesale rates for this contract, an action reserved for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).The suit, filed in U.S. District Court by the Town of Barnstable, businesses like the Keller Company and Hyannis Marina, and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, alleges commerce clause violations and illegal regulation of wholesale electricity sales under the U.S. Constitution.
The Alliance pays for Barnstable's lawsuits
The suit alleges that state regulators refused to support NSTAR’s merger with Northeast Utilities until NSTAR contracts to buy energy from Cape Wind. “We understand the need for green sources of energy, but it is unfair to be forced to pay three times the cost of other green energy for Cape Wind,” Keller Company President Joe Keller said in a statement relating to the suit against Massachusetts regulators, NSTAR and Cape Wind.
Something seems terribly wrong when the Town of Barnstable spends taxpayer dollars to contest Cape Wind in court. 87% of the Cape's citizens want to see the wind farm built just as it has been proposed, and are frustrated that it isn't already operational.
In April 2012, the Department of Public Utilities announced its approval of the NSTAR-Northeast Utilities merger. Among the merger settlement agreements was a provision requiring NSTAR Electric to purchase 129 megawatts of electricity from Cape Wind.
Yet another frivolous lawsuit by opponents
"This is a frivolous legal complaint with no merit. The opposition group was unsuccessful in challenging a nearly identical power contract between Cape Wind and National Grid and they will fail again here," Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said in a statement.
"After careful review, the Department of Public Utilities found that Cape Wind was ‘cost effective’ by providing unique benefits that exceeded the cost of its power." A spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs declined comment, deferring to the attorney general's office.
While power grid operators in New York and the mid-Atlantic states have recently been struggling to meet demand and asking their customers to conserve energy, New England's grid operator has encountered relatively few problems so far this winter.
Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind, said the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound would be an ideal solution to New England's winter power woes. He notes, correctly, that Cape Wind operating at full capacity could produce the same amount of power as a natural gas plant and at far less cost. The same would also be true in the summer, when demand for electricity peaks.
Another anti-wind farm screed on golf and greed
Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound fund-raiser and real estate broker Joe Keller, is the author of a letter to the editor of Commonwealth magazine which states, "Ten years ago, I told my wife, Devonia, that if Cape Wind gets built, it signals the end of the dream of Cape Cod living which originally brought us here. We feel very strongly that, although alternative energy is hugely important, this is the wrong place for it! When we stand on the tee of hole 15 at Hyannisport or pull out of Osterville Harbor on a beautiful day, the last vision we will want to see and hear are 130 turbine towers..."
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2014/01/22/23688-new-lawsuit-seeks-void-cape-wind-contract
Cape offshore wind energy foes suffer setback
Just as a new lawsuit was filed challenging Cape Wind, another one was beaten back.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday denied a petition by wind-farm opponents appealing the Federal Aviation Administration's approval of the proposed Nantucket Sound project.
The federal court decision came only a day after opponents filed a new lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts challenging a power-purchase agreement between NStar and Cape Wind.
In the latest legal decision, the court found that the circumstances surrounding concerns over the effect of the turbines on aeronautical radar had changed since the same court rejected an earlier "no-hazard" finding by the FAA and that tests of a new radar system had addressed those concerns.
"In January 2012, the FAA upgraded the ASR-8 radar and beacon at Otis Airfield by digitizing the output with a TDX-2000 processor," according to the court finding. "The FAA had concluded in the aeronautical study that the installation of the TDX-2000 would not only address existing radar issues ... but also reduce unwanted returns from the wind turbines."
The court also found that the FAA was not required to perform or participate in an assessment of the environmental impacts of its no-hazard determination.
"The Alliance to Protect Nantucket, the town of Barnstable and their financial backer — coal billionaire Bill Koch — have failed yet again in their continuing campaign to use the courts to delay the financing of Cape Wind," company spokeswoman Mark Rodgers wrote in a statement about the decision.
Koch, who owns property in Osterville, is a major donor to the alliance, which is the primary Cape Wind opposition group.
Alliance President Audra Parker said on Wednesday that the court's decision is no green light for Cape Wind.
"The hurdles are still enormous," she said, adding that the project has still failed to secure necessary financing.
Although she thinks the alliance is unlikely to appeal the Court of Appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, Parker said the decision leaves questions about the effect of the project on planes flying under visual flight rules.
A spokesman with the FAA said the agency has received the latest Court of Appeals decision and is reviewing it.
The FAA approved the 130-turbine Cape Wind project in May 2010. But after the alliance and Barnstable officials appealed the decision, the Court of Appeals sent the project back to the agency in October 2011 for more review. In the 2011 decision, the court found the FAA had overlooked its own rules in making its determination.
The project also drew scrutiny from GOP lawmakers who claimed that President Barack Obama's administration had exerted pressure on the FAA to approve the wind farm.
In August 2012, the FAA issued a new finding that the project posed no hazard to aviation.
Parker said opponents are still optimistic they will ultimately defeat the project. And, as dismissive as Cape Wind is of the lawsuits brought against it, the earlier FAA decision is proof that those challenges are not frivolous, Parker said.
In the suit filed Tuesday, the alliance, the town, and several businesses and individuals sued state officials, Cape Wind and NStar, claiming the project violates the U.S. Constitution.
That case is different from earlier challenges of the power contracts because it challenges the project based on a violation of the Federal Power Act, Parker said.
In addition, there are still several consolidated cases pending in federal court that challenge the approval of the project by the Department of the Interior.
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