AWEA’s Eagle Mortality Defense: A Response

By Jim Wiegand -- August 31, 2015

“Wind projects are the number one source of golden eagle fatalities, mortally wounded eagles, and eagle carcasses found in the regions of wind farms. It is very telling that Mr. Anderson would compare this regional slaughter to every other source of human-related eagle mortality on a planet occupied by 7 billion people.”

In the weekend Wall Street Journal, John Anderson of the American Wind Energy Association wrote a deceitful rebuttal to Robert Bryce’s August 19th opinion-page editorial, “Obama’s Wind-Energy Lobby Gets Blown Away: California Judge Rules i....”

“Chalk one up for the bald eagle,” Bryce began. “The avian symbol of American freedom has beaten the Obama administration and the wind industry in court, though the majestic birds still don’t stand a chance when flying near the subsidy-fueled blades of green-energy production.”

The court victory concerned an August 11th ruling in the Northern District of California by an Obama appointee who struck down a proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to permit the wind power industry to legally kill bald eagles and golden eagles for as long as 30 years.

In response, AWEA’s Anderson argued:

“No industry takes wildlife impacts more seriously than the wind industry. “

Yes, AWEA and the wind industry take wildlife mortality seriously. That is why they hide most of their slaughter with research designed NOT to find carcasses. Slaughtering rare and endangered species, bad for any business, is an industry-killer for wind power because of legal liability and public attitudes toward a taxpayer-enabled industry.

History has shown the wind industry’s longstanding history of slaughtering protected wildlife, including eagles and endangered species. An objective scientific look at wind industry research discloses a legacy of masking most of their turbine-related slaughter with non-scientific studies.

Anderson goes on to state:

“But eagle fatalities from wind-power generation are relatively uncommon. Golden eagles losses at modern wind facilities represent less than 3% of all reported sources of human-caused fatalities, and only a few bald eagles have been lost in collisions in the history of the industry.”

The undisclosed truth is that golden eagle fatalities from wind-power generation are, in fact, common and can be expected whenever wind turbines are placed in their habitat. Only when the regional populations have been decimated or killed off by turbines, then eagle mortality can become what John Anderson calls “relatively uncommon.”

Wind projects are the number one source of golden eagle fatalities, mortally wounded eagles, and eagle carcasses found in the regions of wind farms. It is very telling that Mr. Anderson would compare this regional slaughter to every other source of human related eagle mortality on a planet occupied by 7 billion people. It is also very telling that this 3% figure was derived from the industry’s own research designed to hide most of turbine mortality.

The wind industry can make such bold deceptive statements because the Fish & Wildlife Service’s (Interior Department) voluntary regulations for the wind industry conveniently require no honesty. As a result, wind-industry spokesmen can sing all they want  from a fraudulent platform.

This industry does not have to and has not disclosed most of their turbine related eagle carcasses. That is exactly why the public knows nothing about the 31,000 bald eagle and golden carcasses shipped to the Denver repository since 1997.  If the source of this hidden eagle carcass total were ever released, the public would be horrified at the magnitude of wind industry’s illegal bald eagle and golden eagle slaughter that’s been taking place for decades without permits.

With accountability and scientific scrutiny, some wind farms (besides Altamont) would be required to get kill permits for 30–100 eagles a year. Without accountability, kill permits are not needed; the few kill permits that have been issued by the FWS amount to nothing but a puppet show for the masses.

Beware when it comes to the American Wind Energy Association saying just about anything relating to avian mortality. There is a lot of fire under the smoke of what is a Sierra Club official once called “the Cuisinarts of the Air.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              https://www.masterresource.org/american-wind-energy-association/awe...

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Comment by Robert Goldman on September 1, 2015 at 10:26am
Such is life in the age of Obama, where ecologically vital and beautiful wolves are slaughtered by the thousands to appease the lying federal welfare cattlemen and sadistic sport killers, where Shell Oil is green lighted to drill in the turbulent Arctic Ocean eventhough the oil industry predicts a huge spill is highly likely and where 'environmental' groups conspire with corporate thieves to erect industrial wind turbines that don't work yet kill endangered wildlife by the tens of thousands.
Comment by Penny Gray on September 1, 2015 at 9:17am

Thank you, Jim Wiegand.

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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