"Donald Trump Loses His War Against a Scottish Wind Farm"

"Donald Trump may have been grabbing headlines in Cleveland [last] week, but over in Europe it looks like he’s just lost an ongoing, albeit more low-profile battle.

On Thursday, the Swedish company Vattenfall confirmed it would be investing £300 million ($397 million) in an offshore wind farm off the coast of Northern Scotland. The project, due to start generating power in 2018, has had a long, controversial gestation. Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds raised serious questions about the effect the farm could have on bird life in the area. Trump, who owns land nearby, has also long been a passionate objector to the wind farm project. His expressed objection, however, was rather different from the RSPB’s. He thought it would spoil the view from his golf course.

Trump first secured a stake in this particular area’s future when he bought an estate 15 miles north of Aberdeen in 2006. To complement golf links already on-site, Trump had planned a huge complex featuring a 450-bed hotel, 950 holiday homes and 500 houses for permanent occupancy. To be fair, a wall of turbines looming behind the waves here was never going to be the most easily sold of vacation backdrops. The plans, however, were in the pipeline before Trump bought the site. He must have known what was coming but—this is a guess—gambled on being able to prevent it. If so, that’s a pretty ugly move."

Feargus O'Sullivan reports for Citylab July 22, 2016.