The Wind Industry’s License to Kill - 400,000 Dead Birds a Year and Counting

400,000 Dead Birds a Year and Counting

The Wind Industry’s License to Kill

by ROBERT BRYCE

In 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that the domestic wind turbines are killing about 440,000 birds per year. Since then, the wind industry has been riding a rapid growth spurt.

But that growth has slowed dramatically due to a tsunami of cheap natural gas and hefty taxpayer subsidies. Even worse: that cheap gas looks like it will last for many years and Congress has been unwilling to extend the 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour subsidy for wind operators that expires at the end of this year.

And now, the wind industry is facing yet another massive headache: increasing resistance from environmental groups who are concerned about the effect that unrestrained construction of wind turbines is having on birds and bats. Ninety environmental groups, led by the American Bird Conservancy, have signed onto the “bird-smart wind petition” which has been submitted to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

It’s about time. Over the past two decades, the federal government has prosecuted hundreds of cases against oil and gas producers and electricity producers for violating some of America’s oldest wildlife-protection laws: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Eagle Protection Act. But the Obama administration — like the Bush administration before it — has never prosecuted the wind industry despite myriad examples of widespread, unpermitted bird kills by turbines. A violation of either law can result in a fine of $250,000 and/or imprisonment for two years.

But amidst all the hoopla about “clean energy” the wind industry is being allowed to continue its illegal slaughter of some of America’s most precious wildlife. Even more perverse: taxpayers — thanks to billions of dollars given to the wind industry through the production tax credit and federal stimulus package — are subsidizing that slaughter.

Last June, Louis Sahagun, a reporter with the Los Angeles Times, reported that about 70 golden eagles per year are being killed by the wind turbines at Altamont Pass, located about 20 miles east of Oakland. A 2008 study funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency estimated that about 2,400 raptors, including burrowing owls, American kestrels, and red-tailed hawks — as well as about 7,500 other birds, nearly all of which are protected under the Migratory Bird Treat Act — are being killed every year by the turbines at Altamont.

A pernicious double standard is at work here and it riles Eric Glitzenstein, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who wrote the petition to the Fish and Wildlife Service for the American Bird Conservancy. He told me, “It’s absolutely clear that there’s been a mandate from the top” echelons of the federal government not to prosecute the wind industry for violating wildlife laws.

Glitzenstein comes to this issue from the Left. Before forming his own law firm, he worked for Public Citizen, an organization created by Ralph Nader. But when it comes to wind energy, “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. The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife recently filed a lawsuit against officials in Kern County, California, in an effort to block the construction of two proposed wind projects — North Sky River and Jawbone — due to concerns about their impact on local bird populations. The groups oppose the projects because of their proximity to the deadly Pine Tree facility, which the Fish and Wildlife Service believes is killing 1,595 birds, or about 12 birds per megawatt of installed capacity, per year.

The only time a public entity has pressured the wind industry for killing birds occurred in 2010, when California brokered a $2.5 million settlement with NextEra Energy Resources for bird kills at Altamont. The lawyer on that case: former attorney general and current Gov. Jerry Brown, who’s now pushing the Golden State to get 33 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020.

Despite the toll that wind turbines are taking on wildlife, the wind industry wants to keep its get-out-of-jail-free card. Last May, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed new guidelines for wind turbine installations. The American Wind Energy Association has responded by calling the proposed rules “unworkable” and “extremely problematic.”

Given that many billions of dollars are at stake, it’s not surprising that the wind industry is eager to downplay its effect on wildlife. And while much of the focus has been on birds, bats are getting whacked, too. Last July, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the 420 wind turbines that have been erected in Pennsylvania “killed more than 10,000 bats last year…That’s an average of 25 bats per turbine per year, and the Nature Conservancy predicts that as many as 2,900 turbines will be set up across the state by 2030.” A coalition of environmental groups have mobilized to fight the proposed Shaffer Mountain wind project in Pennsylvania because of its possible effect on the endangered Indiana bat.

Last November, that coalition – which includes Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society, the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch, Sensible Wind Solutions, the Mountain Laurel Chapter of Trout Unlimited — sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service for issuing an opinion that may allow the Shaffer Mountain project to go forward. The letter cited Michael Gannon, a bat expert and professor of biology at Penn State University, who said that “there is an unprecedented risk to Indiana bats at the Shaffer Mountain project site.” He continued, saying the project could “jeopardize the species’ survival and recovery efforts.”

The backlash against the wind industry that’s now coming from the Left, has clearly put the Obama administration in a tight spot. President Obama has repeatedly said he favors renewable energy. But now, even the Sierra Club is saying that mandatory rules are needed for proper wind turbine siting.

Continue reading here.

Robert Bryce is the author of Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the...


http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/15/the-wind-industrys-license-t...


Please also see:



Vultures blind to the dangers of wind farms


Collisions with turbines a result of visual adaptation for foraging.

13 March 2012
Vultures flying close to turbine blades

Vultures may collide with the blades of wind turbines because of blind spots in their visual field.

M. MIRINHA/STRIX


Vultures have such large blind spots in their visual field that they cannot see objects directly in front of them when they fly. This discovery explains why vultures frequently collide with conspicuous structures such as wind turbines and power lines, despite having some of the sharpest eyes of any animal.

This means that making wind turbines more conspicuous will do little to reduce collisions. “You can paint them with bright stripes or hang things off them, but that won’t be effective,” says Graham Martin, an ornithologist at the University of Birmingham, UK, who led the study published this week in the journal Ibis1. “You’ve got to keep the birds and the turbines apart.”

Working with Steven Portugal from the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire and Campbell Murn from the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Hampshire, UK, Martin measured the visual fields of griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) and African white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus). “I used the same device that an optician would use when you get an eye test,” he says. “These are big birds with big beaks. I did lose a bit of my thumb.”

“These are big birds with big beaks. I did lose a bit of my thumb.”

The researchers found that vultures have large visual fields that give comprehensive coverage of the ground ahead and the sky on either side, allowing them to scan for food while observing other vultures. But they have large blind spots above and below their heads. When they fly, they tilt their heads downwards, so that the space directly in front of them becomes a blind area.

Martin thinks that these blind spots allow vultures to soar without being dazzled by the Sun. “If you’ve evolved an eye with high acuity, you don’t want to constantly expose yourself to something that’s going to reduce it,” he says. Large eyes are most vulnerable to this problem, and Martin has found that big birds such as bustards and cranes share the same blind spots, whereas smaller ones such as pigeons, ducks and herons do not.

Continue reading here.

http://www.nature.com/news/vultures-blind-to-the-dangers-of-wind-fa...



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Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on March 17, 2012 at 11:45am

Mike is exactly right..AND Audobon..

Comment by Mike DiCenso on March 17, 2012 at 11:05am

Plus, the transmission lines result in more kills. It is about time the real env. groups get involved. The NRCM should take note.

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on March 16, 2012 at 2:49pm

and the killing seems to be worse than we even know from reports around the country..and as you mention not just for birds but for land habitat as well..very bad for wonderful nature rich Maine.

Comment by Allen Barrette on March 16, 2012 at 2:39pm

Wow $250,000. x 400.000 dead birds now theres some cash this state could really use. Yes we need to impose huge fines on these bird killers.

Comment by Hart Daley on March 16, 2012 at 8:29am

"The Fish and Wildlife Service, working with the Department of Justice, brought charges against the companies under both the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Eagle Protection Act."

Looks like we need to get these people involved since Colonel Holman Ridgeline is home to many hawks, which I see in my field all summer long, There are also nesting Bald Eagles on the ridge and every Spring and Fall, migratory Canadian Geese travel North and South along the ridge!

I also spoke to a local Maine Game Warden yesterday who informed me that self-proclaimed environmentalist Angus King's wind project in Roxbury cut straight through and deforested an "essential deer wintering habitat" crucial for their survival during the Maine winters!

Additionally I was told that Roxbury's mil rate was cut in half this year BUT next year it is going right back up to where it was! This came from a selectperson. What a scam!

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on March 16, 2012 at 8:21am

I hope Mr Bryce and Mr Wiegand's research gets into the mainstream media more and more, where it belongs.

 

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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