[editor’s note: Here is some helpful background information useful for reading the guest post below.
A federal judge has dismissed most of a lawsuit filed by North Fork Wind against Knox County, Nebraska, after the county changed its zoning regulations, effectively halting development of a proposed 600-megawatt wind farm. U.S. District Court Judge John Gerrard ruled that North Fork Wind had not proven that Knox County’s new setback requirements and other regulations had interfered with its contracts or violated its constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. However, the judge did allow the company to proceed with a Fifth Amendment claim, arguing that the county’s actions amounted to an unlawful taking of property.
The entire news article can be read here.
[\editor’s note]
By David D. Begley
I’m a solo practitioner in Omaha. I was hired as the Special Knox County Attorney to represent it in a federal court lawsuit. Knox County borders South Dakota in the northeast corner of the state. The beautiful Niobrara River runs through it. It borders a lake. (Come visit!) It is home to 8,000 people. The county seat of Center has a population of 73.
The lead plaintiff in the federal court lawsuit is North Fork Wind, LLC; a wholly owned subsidiary of National Grid Renewables. The UK’s National Grid just sold National Grid Renewables to a Canadian company named Brookfield Asset Management for $1.7 billion. North Fork Wind is represented by the Omaha law firm of Baird Holm. Baird Holm employs 100 very fine lawyers. My opponent is Brian Barmettler and he is an outstanding advocate.
Mostly by luck, I was hired the day before a pleading was due. The Board wasn’t happy with the lawyer its insurance company had assigned to the case. He’s a Democrat and had run for Mayor of Lincoln. He had drafted an Answer and I thought a Motion to Dismiss was the right thing to do as there were good defenses that could only be asserted through a 12(b)(6) motion.
The Complaint raised constitutional law issues that I hadn’t thought about since 1980 at Creighton Law School. I remembered enough to know where to start and studied up as best as I could. I raised and briefed all the defenses that I thought applied.
The Knox County industrial wind farm is the flagship project for National Grid Renewables. The projected cost is $1.3 billion. North Fork Wind intends to build 150 plus wind turbines over 600 feet in height. North Fork Wind spent – exclusive of attorneys’ fees – $19.3 million developing this project. Local landowners are projected to be paid $5.8 million per year. Knox County political subdivisions are to receive $2.8 million per year. These are big numbers.
On March 14, 2025, Senior United States District Court Judge John M. Gerrard mostly granted my motion. After his ruling, I doubt that the industrial wind project will be built. The full 40-page memorandum and order can be found on PACER at 4:24-cv-3150.
In footnote 6, the judge wrote, “there’s no mechanism under Nebraska or federal law that prevents Knox County from banning commercial wind farms, so long as there is a conceivably or hypothetically rational reason to do so.”
I write this post to inform the wider public of this statement of the law. I know some states have banned wind farms, but I don’t think many counties have. I think it would be very difficult to pass a wind and solar farm ban in Nebraska, but many counties would do so. My sense is that counties didn’t think they had such authority. Many counties enacted moratoriums and different regulations have been passed, but there are no outright bans in Nebraska counties.
Judge Gerrard is only the second person to serve on both the Nebraska Supreme Court and the federal district court. When he was on the Nebraska Supreme Court, he wrote many opinions about land use and zoning. And I read them all. He’s really an expert in this area. The Knox County case deals mostly with federal constitutional law and there are interesting statements about due process, equal protection, the Contracts Clause, the Takings Clause and special legislation. Other lawyers around the nation might find this opinion to be useful in opposing Big Wind and Big Solar.
The other point I want to call readers’ attention to is that, more likely than not, the federal government will not be handing out at least $390 million in taxpayer money to North Fork Wind, LLC. I, David D. Begley, personally stopped the federal government from spending $390 million that it doesn’t have and would have to borrow and add to our $37 trillion debt. I’m no Elon Musk, but I did what I could. You are all welcome. Glad to help.
Over the years I learned how inefficient solar and wind energy are and how it raises prices for consumers. People like the fantasy of “free” power. I think most people are poorly informed about the economics of Green energy. Wall Street, however, knows the numbers and Goldman Sachs projected $1.3 trillion in free federal money for Green projects through 2032.
After my mother passed, I found in her drawer a letter from her mother-in-law. It was brutal. She chastised my mom for not naming her first born “Michael.” My paternal grandfather was Michael J. Begley and he died at the age of 63 of a heart attack while working in the pickle department of a local packinghouse. He was one of the oldest packinghouse workers in all of South Omaha.
So, it turns out that 67 years later that my parents were on to something with my first name. I finally lived up to it.
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