Iowa AG sues Global Fiberglass Solutions over wind turbine blades [Video]

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is suing a Washington state-based company for allegedly violating Iowa’s solid waste laws by abandoning wind turbine blades at various locations across the state.

In the lawsuit, Bird says that although Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS) was contracted and paid millions of dollars by major wind turbine companies General Electric (GE) and MidAmerican Energy to recycle decommissioned turbine blades back in 2017, 1,300 of them sat in stockpiles for years in the towns of Ellsworth, Newton and Atlantic.

“Defendants illegally disposed of solid waste by speculatively accumulating decommissioned wind-turbine blades at several locations in Iowa beginning as early as November 2017, and made no effort to recycle or otherwise legally dispose of the blades,” the lawsuit reads.

The Newton site, located where the old Maytag appliance production facility once was, reportedly housed approximately 868 blades. …