Donald Trump Supreme Court Battle: Wind Turbines Near Scottish Resort To Be Challenged By Billionaire Presidential Candidate

Donald Trump apparently has plenty of money left to spend on legal fees abroad, even as he continues to bankroll his presidential campaign here in the United States. The billionaire businessman is expected to challenge the building of offshore wind turbines near his Scottish golf resort in the United Kingdom’s supreme court Thursday. While he is not likely to appear at the Westminster court in person, he has promised to take the lawsuit to European courts if he loses this battle, according to the Guardian.

Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Limited first applied for approval to construct an electricity generating station and offshore wind turbines in 2011. The Scottish government told the company in 2013 that it could build 11 wind turbines, which would be about two miles from the coast of Aberdeenshire, where Trump’s golf resort is located.

But Trump has said this plan will be a “monstrous” blight on the coast, the Guardian reports, and hopes to challenge the interpretation of the Electricity Act of 1989, which gave the wind farm company the right to build its turbines. The Electricity Act determines who is allowed “to apply for consent to construct a generating station.”

The website for Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort displays a message from the Republican frontrunner that touts his connection to Scotland through his Scottish mother and praises the beauty of the country’s nature.

“When I saw this piece of land I was overwhelmed by the imposing dunes and rugged Aberdeenshire coastline. I knew that this was the perfect site for Trump International, Scotland. I have never seen such an unspoiled and dramatic seaside landscape and the location makes it perfect for our development,” the message reads.

Trump previously lost another attempt to stop a significant onshore wind farm, according to The Shetland Times. In earlier rounds of this case, Trump accused Scotland’s former first minister, Alex Salmond, of skewing the approval process in favor of the large and expensive project. But three Edinburgh judges ruled in June that this argument had no grounds -- a move that was heralded as a victory by wildlife groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature in Scotland.

This is not the first time Trump’s golf resort is in the news. Since he purchased part of the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 2006, the golf resort has seen its fair share of controversies. The golf course was built on top of ancient sand dunes that Scotland had declared a site of special scientific interest, and locals have raised concerns about the resort affects wildlife in the area.