Not only did a Tulsa federal judge rule this week that Enel Green Power has to remove 84 wind towers it installed years ago on Osage land in northeast Oklahoma, the firm and two of its subsidiaries owe more than $36 million in attorney fees.
This is the case where the Osage Minerals Council filed suit after Osage Wind,LLD, Enel Kansas, LLC and Enel Green Power North America, Inc. started construction of a wind farm in Osage County, a county where all mineral interests are controlled by the Osage Tribe. It was reported to be the longest-running wind farm fight in the U.S. after the tribe filed suit in 2011.
Thirteen years later, U.S. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves determined the renewable energy firms “committed trespass, continuing trespass, and conversion in the construction of a wind farm on Indian land.” She also gave Enel one year to finish removal of every one of the wind turbines.
Enel estimated it will cost $300 million to remove the turbines but the company was also smacked with millions in attorneys fees. The judge ordered Enel to pay $242,652.28 to the U.S. government and the Osage Mineral Council. She also said Enel had to pay $66,780 to the government and the tribe because it was “liable for trespass.”
For “continuing trespass” the Judge said Enel had to remove the wind farm from the Osage Mineral Estate and return the land to “its pre-trespass condition on or before December 1, 2025.”
Then she hit Enel with more monetary conditions including a reimbursement to the federal governmentof $1,943,666.17 for attorneys ‘fees and $32,554.08 for costs incurred in the litigation. Judge Choe-Groves also ordered Enel to reimburse the Osage Mineral Council $1,822,575.85 for attorneys’ fees and $88,891.78 for const incurred in the litigation.
“I’m so happy, I can barely talk,” was the response of Everett Waller, former chairman of the Osage Minerals Council. He was interviewed by energy writer Robert Bryce.
“We had to win this case, and we did. It was vital,” he said. Enel came into Osage County, because the company “Planned on running us into the ground. They chose us because they thought we’d be easy,” he said. “They learned that wasn’t the case.”
The tribe took Enel to court after the renewable energy company started construction without obtaining a permit from the tribe. The dispute attracted the Bureau of Indian Affairs which told Enel in 2014 to stop construction until it obtained a Sandy Soil Permit from the Osage Agency.
Why are mineral interests in Osage County controlled by the tribe? Because Chief James Bighart negotiated it and in 1906 the Osage Allotment Act was assured, giving the tribe ownership of the mineral rights. It was a move that eventually made sure tribal members would share in the oil wealth discovered in the county.