Four years after his effort to block an offshore wind farm project near one of his 16 golf courses was unanimously rebuked by the UK Supreme Court, Donald Trump has been ordered to pay Scotland US$290,000 to cover its legal expenses.
Citing coverage of the latest trouncing of the Trump empire by The Scotsman, which broke the story, as well as the Washington Post and The Guardian, EcoWatch reports that the then-White-House-wannabe began legal proceedings against the Scottish government in 2012, after it approved Vattenfall’s 11-turbine wind farm just two miles from the links of Trump’s golf course in Aberdeenshire.
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In the ensuing fight, EcoWatch recalls, “Trump lashed out against both wind power and the Scottish government,” calling the project “monstrous” and referring to then-Scottish first minister Alex Salmond as “Mad Alex” in a 2013 op-ed for the Scottish Mail.
Trump swore to fight Salmond “to hell if I have to” and, briefly and bizarrely snatching at the mantle of Scottish nationalism, declared himself prepared “to spend as much as it takes to block this useless and grotesque blot on our heritage”.
That Trump and his commercial and real estate business will now be $US290,000 less rich is music to the ears of actual Scots, like Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie. “Trump has attempted to avoid any responsibility over the impact of his developments and bullied anyone who has tried to stand in his way,” Harvie told The Scotsman. “So I’m delighted his business is being forced to compensate Scotland for his failed legal challenges.”
Friends of the Earth Scotland Director Dr. Richard Dixon praised his nation’s government for “resisting repeated attempts” to prevent the “popular and much needed” wind farm, adding that “a positive gesture would be for this money recouped from Donald Trump to be committed into programs which support the growth in community-owned renewables.”
As for the wind farm that Trump failed to stop, its 93.2 MW of turbines went into operation in July, producing the equivalent of 70% of Aberdeen’s electricity demand and preventing more than 130,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
“Meanwhile, Trump’s golf course has operated at a loss for seven years in a row,” EcoWatch writes, citing the Washington Post. “It lost $1.4 million in 2018.”
