A 104-turbine wind farm that would power a data center for online retailer Amazon is the target of a lawsuit filed by a couple claiming the facility would pose a variety of aesthetic and environmental problems.
The News & Observer said last week that construction crews have been building access roads to the site in Perquimans and Pasquotank counties in the northeast corner of North Carolina and plan to pour concrete foundations for the towers early next year.
But a local couple, with help from the conservative Civitas Institute, claim that the project is an expensive boondoggle. Neither Amazon nor project developer Iberdrola are parties to the suit. Instead, the couple is suing the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in an attempt to force a new regulatory review of the project.
“I’m concerned it will make our beautiful county, quite frankly, ugly,” Jillanne Gigi Badawi told the newspaper. “Each turbine is the size of the Washington Monument. These things are huge monstrosities.” She lives less than a mile from where the nearest turbine would be located.
A new review, which would include studies of wildlife, noise, and shadow flicker, could take more than a year and would probably kill the project. The wind farm must be up and running by the end of 2016 in order to quality for a 30% federal tax credit, the newspaper said.
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Plans for a 104-turbine wind farm in North Carolina are being challenged by a couple who complain the towers are "huge monstrosities."
