116 Comments

Maria Tallchief, the first American prima ballerina and original member of the New York City Ballet, was an Osage. Her ancestor Peter Bigheart negotiated the mineral rights. As a fan of the NYC Ballet I knew about this history.

Hooray for the Osage - another win!

Expand full comment

Imagine a world where there was no Covid panic with shut downs and no massive "free money" handouts with massive fraud, no wasted irrational energy spending which is massive. Imagine the USA avoiding these crazy actions and the assets and cash that remain in private hands working to improve the economy. The problem is mass numbers of American voters who are either badly informed or more often, not informed at all beyond what they hear on NBC, CBS, ABC ect. Good post btw. Is the USA in decline? Yes if this insanity continues the bill will come due faster that we think.

Is this the set up for war with China? Is it avoidable at this point? How many west coast cities will be lost to a thermo nuclear weapon? Is this the lead up to WW3? Does Russia invade the former Warsaw pact nations while the USA is tied up in the East? Will we cut commercial ties with China completely? I could go on for days asking questions about the consequences we face.

Expand full comment

🙏🥰

Expand full comment

This is fantastic news. I've searched for a source in Italian and still total blackout - which is ironic considering it's also what wind energy seems to cause all the time (yesterday in Alberta - Canada). Enel is the biggest Italian company (https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/enel) and it's also public so you would imagine this would be significant to report... marketwatch has their latest update from November. I read a fair amount of alternative news and they seem to have missed this too - it's only when I caught up with old substack articles that I've found it. That's unfortunate because it is a very important story about a minority that is truly disadvantaged, and about the despicable subsidized practices of the renewable industry.

Expand full comment

Apparently they do. Not sure how this got to such an advanced place when there was always the chance that it could be so totally shutdown. Just ignoring well-precedent law is not a winning strategy.

Expand full comment

The ruling that Enel violated tribal mineral rights requires more explanation to understand. Sand, gravel and other common surface minerals are typically not considered to be part of the mineral estate.

Expand full comment

Thanks.

It may not be until later today or tomorrow.

Best to you

Garry

Expand full comment

It's a nice data point that the estimated removal cost for 84 average size wind turbines is $300M. What this almost certainly means of course is that most cases, unless there are successful lawsuits, those things are going to stay right where they are once they're past their useful lives or the subsidies dry up.

Expand full comment

If ‘a large portion of the project is on land that is owned or controlled by Kane’s family’ - and assuming the Kane family approved of Enel utilizing their land - how can it be subject to the Osage ruling? It seems to me that what’s built on Kane land could stay intact. Now - getting the energy off their land may not be possible and is another matter - but why would they be required to remove properly permitted construction on land they own?

The bigger question we are pondering (first time we’ve read about this amazing fight) is how the Osage County Board of Adjustment had so much power to authorize the project. They set all this in motion. One would think Osage nation voices would be well-represented on such a council.

It really seems that the Tribe and Federal governments worked together against a deeply corrupt and well-entrenched kleptocracy of local politicians.

Expand full comment

Does the family also own mineral rights underlying their surface property - which have priority over surface rights? If mineral rights are held by the tribe, they're screwed.

Expand full comment

I don't know how it works in Oklahoma. But in my state, some non-Indians have homes on reservation land but don't actually own the land under it... And certainly not the mineral rights. They can even (theoretically) be provided from using the reservation roads going to and from their homes. These laws are complicated.

Expand full comment

Congratulations to the Osage for their victory. I look forward to the day when the ugliness of the wind turbines on the land is gone forever. Big Wind will pay the price this time for running roughshod over their tribal rights. And in addition, there is the fact that there is NO climate emergency and hence there is no reason to defile the land in this way or for any other bogus climate related reason, including solar panels. Carbon dioxide is no pollutant and its slight increase is of great benefit. Ruining the land is always wrong and resources are being misallocated. It is regrettable that so many people have been so misled. It’s a travesty.

Expand full comment

“There are a lot of smaller tribes that couldn’t have battled this long, but that’s why we’re Osages...We’re here, and this is our homeland, and we are going to protect it at all costs.” What a beautiful quote. Thank you for this story Robert. Thank you to the Osage tribe for not giving up. It gives the rest of us out here fighting hope.

Expand full comment

If we want to poison the planet all we have to do is continue the carbon economy. If Enel abridged the tribes mineral rights which it appears that they did to a small degree then they should pay or make accommodation. In the authors mind the surface owners don't control their land. After the way big oil has treated so many land owners it is ironic that they should be the beneficiaries of this action

Expand full comment
Dec 28, 2023·edited Dec 28, 2023

Found the envirotard.

Expand full comment

The Tribe has had great lawyers!

Expand full comment

Hallelujah! For sanity’s sake... stop the desecration of our land!

Expand full comment

Thank you Robert and Wally Bryce and merry Christmas. Si Kinsella

Expand full comment