A ruling from the U.K.’s top court has the GOP presidential front-runner blowing hot air over a proposed clean-energy project near his luxury golf course.
Image via (cc) Flickr user Gage Skidmore
While all eyes were on Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate, it’s quite possible that the GOP front-runner had greener pastures in mind—specifically, those of his luxury golf course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where the property tycoon has been fighting a pitched battle against a proposed series of wind turbines set to go up near the Trump property.
That fight may have come to an end this week, however, when it was announced that Britain’s top court had rejected Trump’s bid to stop the turbine construction, reports Reuters. The ruling came after years of legal wrangling—and characteristically Trump-y rhetoric—following the Scottish government’s approval of plans to build the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, a farm of 11 turbines in coastal waters several miles from the Trump property. The mogul has been fervently opposed to the proposed green-energy construction since plans were given the green light in 2013, claiming, according to The New York Times, that the turbines would be “one of the most serious problems Scotland will have or has had.” They would also, Reuters points out, be visible from Trump’s luxury property.
Trump had previously challenged the EOWDC’s construction plans throughout the Scottish court system. This week’s ruling from the U.K. Supreme Court rejects Trump’s claim that the wind farm’s original plans had been improperly approved. Trump reportedly has threatened to slow his development of—and the accompanying flow of money to—his property, should the wind farm be built.
Image via (cc) Flickr user bathyporeia
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump Organization issued a statement calling the decision “nothing more than delusional posturing” and claiming that “history will judge those involved unfavorably and the outcome demonstrates the foolish, small minded and parochial mentality which dominates the current Scottish Government’s dangerous experiment with wind energy.” The EOWDC claims that, once built, it will be able to generate enough eco-friendly electricity to power around 68,000 homes annually.
Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing tweeted his approval of the decision, saying simply, “I am pleased that the Supreme Court has unanimously found in our favour re European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.”
The Trump Organization’s statement did indicate that the business tycoon may not see this ruling as the end of the line in his fight against the offshore wind farm, claiming “we will evaluate the court's decision and continue to fight this proposal on every possible front”—which, energy project legal expert Shabana Anwar explained to Agence France-Presse, could mean a trip to the European Union’s Court of Justice.
In addition to the ruling against the Republican presidential candidate by the U.K. Supreme Court, Trump was faced with two other pieces of bad news this week: First, Politico reports that Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has called Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States “full of hatred” and “full of this ideology of being discriminative towards others.” Second, a recent (and entirely unscientific) online poll showed the GOP front-runner losing in a general election to none other than iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader.
[via NYTimes, Yahoo, Digital Journal]
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