The word "rights" surprisingly didn't come in that piece. By analogy to "water rights" [1], "wind rights" are a thing, both in the basic sense of permission to extract wind power from some chunk of land [2] and the messier sense of that article: conflicts between upstream and downstream users of the wind [3] (recent article and fascinating read)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riparian_water_rights
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_rights
[3] https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/wind-wakes-and-the-right-to-win...
Wind rights, as presently constructed, are more analogous to air rights than water rights. They convey the right to use a space versus resource.
Thanks for posting this. Water rights and who gets priority was the first thing that came to mind. The thought of “wind augmentation plans” is fun to think about.
From the article:
"you can't steal something that can't be owned - and nobody owns the wind"
Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's the straw, you see? Watch it.
Now my straw reaches acroooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake!