Opinions
Category:
Impact on Birds
The Latest Wind-Energy Outrage; The Obama administration allows widespread eagle kills
May 16, 2013 in National Review
May 16, 2013 in National Review
Thus, the wind industry wants to use more public land - and of course, more public money - so that it can continue killing the public's wildlife with impunity. But since the wind industry can claim that it is doing something - no matter how insignificant - with regard to carbon dioxide emissions, the Obama administration is willing to go along, and even help the industry hide the extent of its bird kills.
If there is a more obvious example of crony capitalism to be had in our country than the treatment the wind industry now enjoys, I can't think of it.
Also filed under [
USA]
It stands to reason that if you build a wind turbine in a bird's flight path, the result will be lethal. If birds maintain a predictable flight path, such as an annual migration route, then it should be possible to avoid that flight path. But what if you want to build your wind farm between a bird's breeding place and its regular hunting grounds? That is more difficult.
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Impact on Wildlife|
Australia / New Zealand]
"We find it absurd that the Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife Service, could reasonably conclude that three oil and gas operators should face prosecution for the incidental killing of seven birds at the same time it considers permits to kill between eight and fifteen bald eagles."
Also filed under [
USA]
The wind-energy lobby has sought such permission for years, insisting that eagle-kill permits ought to last longer than the current limit of five years. Last April the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed, and it published a Federal Register notice saying it planned to extend incidental-take permits to 30 years so as to "facilitate the responsible development of renewable energy."
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USA]
By using mathematical formulas derived from these studies, the average distance of a large bird carcass found under the 2.3 MW turbines at Wolf Island would be 101 meters from their towers. This average is far outside the search areas used. The Wolf Island mortality studies used search areas of only 60 and 50 meters. These studies clearly missed most of the carcasses. It also does not account for wandering cripples and wind personal interference.
This gut wrenching poem tells a true story.
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Impact on Wildlife|
Michigan]
It was inevitable of course, when you pit feather and bone against a turbine blade 45-metres long, the blade wins. And if the blade belongs to big energy the deal is cinched.
It doesn't take a master's in quantum physics to predict the grim result of anchoring a mega-fan in the path of migrating birds.
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Canada]
Wind power takes precedence over protecting endangered cranes
September 5, 2012 in The Houston Chronicle
September 5, 2012 in The Houston Chronicle
Wind farm owners worry about prosecution under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) if a whooping crane is killed by one of their turbines. So the industry is seeking an exemption under the ESA, known as a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP), if a crane is accidentally killed.
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Impact on Wildlife|
USA]
Nowhere is this more true than off the coast of Norfolk, where Ed Davey has just made one of those life and death decisions that come with the high office of Energy Secretary. Shockingly, he has decreed that guillotining 94 shaggy-crested terns a year is acceptable, even if you have no plans to put them in a sandwich.
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Impact on Wildlife|
UK]
Several of America's finest national wildlife refuges - Pocosin Lakes, Alligator River and Lake Mattamuskeet - in concert with local landowners, provide the winter base from which these incredible animals can fly ...Remarkably, if the project moves ahead, the migratory swans, geese, ducks, and raptors may return to their winter Carolina home in a year or two to find 49 spinning turbines, each the height of the Washington Monument.
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Impact on Wildlife|
North Carolina]
Local organization supports Golden Eagle research amid questions about effective regulation of the wind industry
June 23, 2012 in The Recorder
June 23, 2012 in The Recorder
Highlanders For Responsible Development (HRD) has donated $1,000 to support a West Virginia University research effort to better determine the status and behaviour of golden eagles in the central Appalachians, including Highland County and the surrounding area. A major concern for HRD and the WVU research group is the potential for golden eagle mortality and population impacts associated with construction of utility-scale wind turbines on mountain ridges in the region.
Although it has the potential to be a green source of energy, wind power as it currently is being developed kills hundreds of thousands birds each year, including bald and golden eagles. ...The birds that are publicly acknowledged as being killed therefore represent just a fraction of the true toll.
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Impact on Wildlife|
USA]
The wildlife service says that monitoring and reporting by the wind energy operators "will be critically important for assessing impacts to eagles" under the proposed rules, and that the agency will conduct "periodic evaluations" of permitted sites. But the acreage devoted to wind turbines has exploded in the past decade; wildlife service staff has not. Effectively enforcement of these permits is a dubious prospect.
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Impact on Wildlife|
USA]
When bald eagles confront danger, most normal Americans would leap to protect America's national symbol. But Team Obama wants to give wind-power companies long-term permits to butcher bald eagles on the altar of green energy.
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Impact on Wildlife|
USA]
When bald eagles confront danger, most normal Americans would leap to preserve, protect and defend America's national symbol. But Team Obama's response is completely different: It wants to give wind-power companies long-term permits to butcher bald eagles on the altar of green energy.
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Impact on Wildlife|
USA]
About 70 golden eagles are killed every year by turbines at California's Altamont
March 8, 2012 in Wall Street Journal
March 8, 2012 in Wall Street Journal
"Many environmental groups have been claiming that too few people are paying attention to the science of climate change, but some of those same groups are ignoring the science that shows wind energy's negative impacts on bird and bat populations."
That willful ignorance may be ending.
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Impact on Wildlife|
USA]
The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services have expressed deep concerns about putting wind turbines in the migration flyway along and south of the Lake Erie shoreline.
Will the Thruway Authority have bird studies done to cover these sites? Will they secure permits to killing golden and bald eagles? Have the people of Western New York lost their rights to present their views?
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New York]
The massive Laurel Mountain Wind Farm, near Elkins, West Virginia was just opened officially with a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, but it's already making news in a most ungreenfriendly way. Word is leaking out regarding a massive kill of migratory songbirds that took place about two weeks ago at one of the turbine farm's installations.
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West Virginia]
I live in a rather harsh and very real world. And I've learned some things. When you pull a trigger you can't stop the bullet. It's gone. Like an extinct species, there is no amount of "what-ifs" or "if we had just done something" that will bring them back.
But there is still time in this case. If we stand up for what we know is right and organize we can stop these Cuisinarts of the sky from coming.
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Impact on Wildlife|
Texas]
Feds go after big oil for 28 bird deaths; ignore 400K deaths from wind turbines
October 1, 2011 in Hot Air
October 1, 2011 in Hot Air
None of which has deterred U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon from pressing forward, despite criticism that the case is a targeted effort to advance the Obama administration's war on fossil fuels.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
USA]
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