This summary from the Mojave Desert Blog provides a very useful summary of the investigation into Steven Black, a former senior Obama administration official of the US Department of the Interior. The investigation by the Office of the Inspector General revealed that Mr. Black applied undue influence on behalf of NextERA and other renewable energy companies seeking permission to construct energy projects in environmental sensitive areas. 

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape USA

Land area within three miles of the Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay shorelines deserves to be protected from wind energy development, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a letter addressed to county commissioners.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Birds Michigan

While the plan covers all renewable energy development. ...The plan's preferred alternative does not, however, create new zones for wind development in either Riverside or Imperial County, with few areas opened to wind overall. Nancy Rader — executive director of the California Wind Energy Association — said in a statement the industry's "worst fears are being realized."

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape USA California

While the plan covers all renewable energy development. ...The plan's preferred alternative does not, however, create new zones for wind development in either Riverside or Imperial County, with few areas opened to wind overall. Nancy Rader — executive director of the California Wind Energy Association — said in a statement the industry's "worst fears are being realized."

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape California USA

Dr. C. William Kilpatrick, a University of Vermont biology professor, said the loss of habitat, the creation of five miles of edge habitat, year-around maintenance of a road, and sound have had substantial adverse impacts on two threatened species - the American marten and Bicknell's thrust. ...the proposed restoration plan only addresses the loss of habitat.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape New Hampshire

For our part, we always felt uneasy about this proposal but joined with others in wanting to defer to the experts. The problem, however, is government oversight of wind farm developers is limited, meaning expert opinions carry less weight. In the end, Element Power withdrew the project rather than try to scale back operations to meet conservationists’ compelling arguments. 

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape Missouri

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to Deepwater Wind Block Island LLC (DWBI) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to construction of the Block Island Wind Farm. The authorization is effective from Oct. 31, 2014, through Oct. 30, 2015.

Impact on Wildlife USA Rhode Island

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to Deepwater Wind Block Island LLC (DWBI) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to construction of the Block Island Wind Farm. The authorization is effective from Oct. 31, 2014, through Oct. 30, 2015.

Impact on Wildlife Rhode Island USA

While the government is prosecuting oil companies for violating laws protecting birds of prey, it is hypocritically giving permits that allow renewable energy companies to kill the same species, including federally protected eagles, without any consequences.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Birds USA

Wind turbine blades rip through federally protected golden and bald eagles and other raptors, but rather than fine the industry, the Obama administration quietly expanded their permits. Meanwhile, in Alaska, the Interior Department prohibited a remote fishing village from building a gravel road, saying it would affect eelgrass that serves as a way-stop meal for migratory birds.

Impact on Wildlife USA California

Wind turbine blades rip through federally protected golden and bald eagles and other raptors, but rather than fine the industry, the Obama administration quietly expanded their permits. Meanwhile, in Alaska, the Interior Department prohibited a remote fishing village from building a gravel road, saying it would affect eelgrass that serves as a way-stop meal for migratory birds.

Impact on Wildlife California USA

The investigators want the halt until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

Impact on Wildlife California

A new study claims that California could power itself entirely with wind, water, solar, and geothermal energy by 2050, ...The catch is that California would need to build miles utility-scale solar power plants and wind turbines covering 3,426 square miles of the state  with offshore wind installations covering an additional 1,406 square miles of the Pacific Ocean.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Landscape California

The study, which began in the spring and continues to February next year, attempts to find how many birds and bats are killed as a result of wind turbines. Huron County’s wind energy ordinance requires developers to submit an avian study to assess potential impacts turbines have on bird and bat species.

Impact on Wildlife Michigan

Hutchins believes seasonal shutdowns or retrofitting power lines and towers are useful tools for reducing bird deaths once wind farms are up and running. The best strategy, though, is siting the turbines properly in the first place. “Unfortunately, these things are going up anywhere, including in important bird areas, and we think that’s highly problematic,” Hutchins said.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Birds Wyoming

Even energy billed as clean can have impacts on wildlife. The U.S. Department of Justice fined Duke Energy $1 million for killing 14 golden eagles and about 150 other protected species between 2009 and 2013. The deaths all occurred on Duke Energy’s Converse County wind farms, and was the first time the Obama administration legally addressed a wind company for bird fatalities. Read more about the wind farm and eagles here.

Impact on Wildlife Wyoming

An AP investigation in 2013 documented dozens of eagle deaths at wind farms. While each one is a violation of federal law, the Obama administration to date has prosecuted only one company, Duke Energy Corp., for killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at two Wyoming wind farms, AP said.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Birds USA

Deepwater Wind has reached an agreement with a coalition of environmental groups to minimize disturbances to endangered whales when it builds a proposed wind farm of up to 200 turbines in federal waters in Rhode Island Sound.

Impact on Wildlife Rhode Island

Among the regulars are pelicans, wood ducks, trumpeter swans, blue-winged teals, sandhill cranes, blue herons, snow geese and smaller shorebirds such as the killdeer. After a layover, they ride the updraft from wind hitting the nearby Loess Hills, formed thousands of years ago from wind-blown soil. Now a company wants to capture that same wind by building Missouri’s largest wind farm nearby.

Impact on Wildlife Kansas

The Chokecherry/Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project is the largest ever proposed in the United States and would likely slaughter dozens of eagles each year, plus hundreds of additional birds and bats, according to the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance (BCA).

Impact on Wildlife USA Wyoming