A federal judge has dismissed the last of a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's denial of a wind-farm permit. The permit had been sought by Ralls, a Delaware-based corporation owned by two Chinese nationals.
In a 29-page decision Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected the final remaining element of Ralls' legal challenge to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Jackson had earlier this year dismissed most of the Ralls' lawsuit.
As summed up by Jackson, Ralls in March 2012 entered into a transaction involving the acquisition of several windfarm projects located in the vicinity of a U.S. Naval installation in Oregon, where Ralls planned to install wind turbines manufactured by the Chinese company with which it is affiliated.
On July 25, 2012, CFIUS found that the transaction posed a national security risk to the United States, and President Barack Obama then issued an order under section 721 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 “prohibiting” the transaction.
"Because Ralls has not alleged that it was deprived of a protected interest and because, even if the Court were to find a protected interest, Ralls received sufficient process before the deprivation took place, the Court will grant defendants’ motion to dismiss," Jackson concluded.