Offshore Wind In Scotland Is Pretty Much Dead -- Long Llive The Birds -- BBC --July 20, 2016

Truly cool. At least the Scots have their act together.

Wind developers had four major off-shore wind projects planned.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds sued to stop the projects -- the RSPB is the equivalent of "Ducks Unlimited" or the "Sierra Club," one might say.

A judge upheld the RSPB Scoltland's challenge to consent to any wind turbines in the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay.

Hurray.

The four projects - Inch Cape, Neart na Gaoithe and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo - were approved by Scottish ministers in October 2014, and could power more than 1.4 million homes.

RSPB Scotland lodged a legal challenge, saying the turbines could have "serious implications" for wildlife, and argued that the government had breached legal requirements when making the original decision by not giving proper consideration to this.

Judge Lord Stewart ruled in favour of the charity, calling the consents "defective", meaning ministers will have to reconsider the planning decisions and address the points put forward by the RSPB's lawyers.

Mr Wilson also said it was difficult to see how the "damning" ruling could be appealed, as it was "so comprehensively critical".

The word in the firths: "offshore wind in Scotland is pretty much dead."

The swallow, the house martin, the swift,
The dotterel, the osprey
All say "hurray!"

The wheatear, the ring ouzel,
The willow warbler, the common tern,
And the cuckoo, too,
To wind developers, cry "Shoo!"

The Firth of Forth,
Henceforth,
Is wind turbine free,
As is the Firth of Tay!
Hurray!

With apologies to Emily Dickinson.