A federal judge has just done something usual — ordered the removal of an energy project that's been generating power for nine years. The December decision came as a shock even to the leaders of the Osage Nation, who have argued for more than a decade that the 84-turbine Osage Wind Farm interferes with the tribe’s mineral rights. "To be honest with you, I was stunned we got such a huge victory," Osage Minerals Council Chair Everett Waller told POLITICO's E&E News. The Osage Nation gained nationwide recognition in recent months from "Killers of the Flower Moon.” The film — based on a nonfiction book — tells the story of dozens of murders of tribal members in the early 20th century by white men who wanted to take the tribe's oil rights. (Waller appears in the film as Osage Assistant Chief Paul Red Eagle.) While the film explores the violence surrounding control over the profits from oil and gas development, Waller said the case against Osage Wind is about more than just being able to pursue fossil fuel leasing on the land beneath the turbines. It’s about protecting the tribe's ability to develop precious minerals, hydrogen power or carbon sequestration for future climate projects, he said. "Our effort, not only will it protect the production side, but we're looking at actually protection of our reservation for future generations," Waller said. "That is really a huge effort." It’s rare for a court to remove an operating energy development. The Standing Rock tribe, for example, has unsuccessfully made a similar case against the Dakota Access pipeline. The Oklahoma district court agreed that the wind farm had to go to protect the Osage Nation's sovereignty. The project's developers — Osage Wind, Enel Kansas and Enel Green Power North America — failed to get mining leases, despite digging up and crushing rocks to use as support for the turbines. Leaving Osage Wind in place "would create the prospect for future interference with the Osage Mineral Council's authority," either from the project's developers or anyone else interested in developing the mineral estate, the judge in the case wrote in her opinion in December. The court ruling came after the Interior Department first sued the company for failing to get a mining approval for the project. The federal agency holds the minerals beneath the wind farm in trust for the Osage Nation. The wind farm's developers may still try to appeal the decision to remove the project, though their attorney did not respond to a request for comment on whether that was likely. Another hearing that hasn't yet been set will decide how much they owe the Osage Nation for a decade of trespassing.
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