A scientific panel has concluded that new wind farms could generate up to 7 percent of U.S. electricity in 15 years. That's the positive side. The negative side is not good news for our fine feathered friends.

Each year, an estimated 2.5 billion birds are also killed inadvertently in the U.S. due to human activities. Such bird mortality includes collisions with lighted buildings and communication towers, pesticide poisoning, and free-roaming cat predation. Two million acres of bird habitat are also lost to development annually. New concerns over the potential impacts of climate change, especially among coastal, alpine, and Arctic bird species; as well as the spread of corn for biofuels which may replace vital bird habitats; and poorly placed wind farms that can kill thousands of birds are also causing serious concern. The combination of mass mortality and serious habitat loss poses a grave risk to many bird species across all regions and habitats.

Ducks in the Dakotas, tanagers in Texas and grosbeaks along the Gulf of Mexico could all be hit by the rapid growth of wind power unless the renewable electricity farms are carefully sited, experts said. "The first three rules of avoiding impacts with wind turbines are always going to be location, location, location," Mike Daulton, a spokesman with the National Audubon Society, said in a telephone interview. Clean-energy wind farms are cropping up rapidly in the United States on rising concerns about greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emissions and flat output of natural gas, which fires most of the power plants built since the 1990s. U.S. wind power is expected to increase by 26 percent in installed generation this year, after similar growth last year. A study by the National Academy of Sciences released late this week found that wind energy could reduce the energy sector's carbon dioxide emissions by 4.5 percent by 2020. But federal and state governments should take environmental impacts of wind energy more seriously as part of the planning, locating and regulating turbines, it said.

WASHINGTON - An unusual coalition of conservationists and coal advocates told Congress on Tuesday that before the nation continues its rapid expansion of wind power, an assessment is needed of how many bats and birds are maimed and killed by wind turbines' blades. That study should be followed up with regulations to protect those species, witnesses told a House Natural Resources subcommittee.

An environmental group wants Congress to protect birds as part of new tax credits for wind energy currently under consideration. The tax-writing committees on both sides of the hill are working on legislation to extend production tax credits for wind power and other renewable energy. Wind power advocates are pressing for the extension of the 1.9-cents-per-kilowatt-hour credit, which they say is crucial for projects to attract funding. Michael Fry of the American Bird Conservancy will ask Congress today to be sure to link any federal tax credit or subsidy to a requirement that companies mitigate harm to federally protected migratory birds. Fry is one of several bird advocates testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee today on wind power's effects on birds and bats. ‘Any renewal of the production tax credit for wind energy should include provisions that require developers follow best management practices in avoiding and minimizing bird and wildlife impacts, Fry said in a statement released yesterday.

In summary, there has been a great deal of discussion and very little action on the part of industry and the federal government to resolve bird and wildlife issues. Bird populations at greatest risk include birds of prey and grassland songbirds.

Infrared monitoring shows that savvy seabirds steer clear of wind turbines. Uncertainty surrounding wind power's impact on wildlife--particularly the potential for deadly collisions between birds and turbines--has tarnished its image and even delayed some wind farms. Indeed, the first large offshore wind farm proposed for U.S. waters--the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts's Nantucket Sound--has been held up in part by concerns that its 130 turbines could kill thousands of seabirds annually. Now a simple infrared collision-detection system developed by Denmark's National Environmental Research Institute is helping clear the air. The Thermal Animal Detection System (TADS) is essentially a heat-activated infrared video camera that watches a wind turbine around the clock, recording deadly collisions much as a security camera captures crimes. The first results, released this winter as part of a comprehensive $15 million study of Denmark's large offshore wind farms, show seabirds to be remarkably adept at avoiding offshore installations. "There had been suggestions that enormous numbers of birds would be killed," says Robert Furness, a seabird specialist at the University of Glasgow, who chaired the study's scientific advisory panel. "There's a greater feeling now among European politicians that marine wind farms are not going to be a major ecological problem, and therefore going ahead with construction is not going to raise lots of political difficulties."

Despite a recent endorsement from the National Audubon Society and improvements in bird-friendly technology, there is still some opposition to wind power. In a recent article, John Flicker, president of the NAS, told the American Wind Energy Association that Audubon “strongly supports wind power as a clean alternative energy source.” Research showing prospective effects of climate change on bird populations demonstrated a need for prevention, one approach being renewable energy. The NAS has acknowledged the possible advantages of wind, while still encouraging extensive preconstruction research; however organizations such as National Wind Watch and the Humane Society remain skeptical.

Is the pursuit of fewer dropped calls leading to more dropping birds? The lights atop communications towers that warn pilots to stay away can have a come-hither effect on birds - killing millions of migrating warblers, thrushes and other species every year. During bad weather, birds can mistake tower lights for the stars they use to navigate. They will circle a tower trancelike, often until they crash into the structure, its guy wires or other birds. Sometimes disoriented birds simply plummet to the ground from exhaustion.

Ongoing research in Norway adds weight to the idea that turbines and large birds don't mix.

In addition to the threat of collision, wind generators can also pose a risk to migratory birds and bats, he said. Especially dangerous is wind farm turbine configurations that create a "barrier effect." Airborne animals are more likely to come into peril when trying to pass a wall of turbines, rather than a single turbine or small-scale operation.

Predictions by bat experts that expanded industrial wind farms in West Virginia will increase numbers of disease-carrying mosquitoes and crop-destroying grasshoppers, locusts, and moths are not the only expected ecological consequences of expanded wind farms. Giant wind turbines take an even greater toll on birds, including many endangered species and birds of prey instrumental in controlling rodent populations, says the Heartland Institute.

A 2005 federal study that has so far received little attention warns that oil and gas exploration in the untapped eastern Gulf of Mexico may have a significant negative impact on migratory bird populations.

Editor's Note:While this article does not address wind turbines, it raises significant issues related to the potential adverse impact of off-shore windplants on migratory bird populations.

The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service thought it would be a breeze to get interested parties together earlier this month to work out some kinks in its guidelines on how to build wind turbines with minimal harm to bats and birds.

In September, a report by the Government Accountability Office found that the federal government offers minimal oversight in approving wind-power plants. The report urged federal officials to take a more active role in weighing the effect of wind power farms on bird and bat deaths

In the continuing dialog between Endless Energy Corp. and people interested in the proposed five turbine wind farm, Monday's meeting focused on ecological issues.

Environmentalists in California are taking issue with the way wind power is affecting native bird populations in the area. Citing research by the California Energy Commission (CEC), two groups have launched lawsuits against the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, saying that permits issued for wind turbines do not sufficiently account for the environmental impact of the energy source.

When it comes to Cape Wind Associates’ plan to create a 130-turbine wind farm on Nantucket Sound, environmentalists not only disagree, some can’t even agree as to whether or not there’s a disagreement.

Sometimes it's not easy being green. Proponents say Michigan is ideal for wind generation, a Green Power energy source that is pollution free and self renewing. But some worry that spinning wind turbine blades up to 85-feet long could be lethal scythes for migrating birds, especially if, as some predict, wind generation gathers steam in Michigan.