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When it comes to bird kills, oil, gas and electric utility companies face heavy fines. Wind farms get a free pass

Feds Being Sued Over Wind Farms 30-Year Eagle Kill Permit



With an anticipated twelve-fold energy build-up by the year 2030, bird mortality is expected to dramatically increase in the coming years, absent significant changes in the way wind farms are sited and operated.
And when it comes to bird kills, oil, gas and electric utility companies face heavy fines. Wind farms get a free pass. Reports Michael Fry, “Wind power is the fastest-growing form of alternative energy, with projections that it will grow twelve-fold over the next 20 years. This will mean about 175,000 new turbines installed on more than 30,000 square miles of land—more than in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Wind is currently the only energy sector in the United States that is free from most forms of federal regulation. From California to Appalachia, each month sees new wind installations springing up like daises, often with far too little environmental review.” (1) There has been a legal double standard that exists with regard to enforcement of two of America's oldest wildlife-protection laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (enacted in 1918) and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (enacted in 1940). Over the past few decades, the Interior Department and the Fish and Wildlife Service have brought hundreds of suits against the oil and gas industry, as well as the electric-utility sector for unauthorized bird kills. (2)

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2012 Alone: Wind turbines killed 888,000 bats and 573,000 birds

Despite the widespread evidence of bird kills by wind turbines, only one enforcement action against the wind industry has occurred. That move, which came last November, led Duke Energy to pay $1 million to settle criminal charges related to bird kills at two Wyoming projects. The Duke facility had killed some 14 golden eagles and 149 other protected birds. (2) How many birds are being killed by wind turbines? In March 2013, a peer-reviewed study published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin estimated that in 2012 alone, wind turbines killed 888,000 bats and 573,000 birds. Those bird kills included 83,000 raptors notes Robert Bryce. Robert Johns reports that in 2009, a rule was adopted that provided the wind industry with a maximum duration of five years for each permit to kill eagles. According to a statement issued at that time by the Fish & Wildlife Service in the Federal Register, a permit of any longer duration 'would be incompatible with the preservation of the bald or golden eagle.' Yet just four years later Department of the Interior increased by six-fold the time during which eagles could be killed, without offering a strong scientific justification for this change. (3) Recently, the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) filed suit in federal court against the Department of the Interior (DOI), charging DOI with multiple violations of federal law in connection with its December 9, 2013 final regulation that allows wind energy companies and others to obtain 30-year permits to kill eagles without prosecution by the federal government. (3) The lawsuit by ABC marks a turning point in the deployment of 'green' energy. For years, environmental groups have been nearly uniform in their support for renewable energy projects. But now, some environmental groups are realizing that the land-devouring sprawl that accompanies wind-energy development isn't beneficial to wildlife. Furthermore, they are realizing that, by trying to placate the wind energy lobby, the Interior Department and Fish and Wildlife Service are subverting federal law. The two agencies' move to change the rules protecting eagles violated the National Environment Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Regardless, of the lawsuit outcome, a change is in the air. America's biggest environmental groups are no longer toeing the line when it comes to wind energy. The National Audubon Society has indicated it may file its own legal challenge to the 30-year eagle kill permits says Robert Bryce. (2) References
  1. Michael Fry, “Wind power might blow a hole in bird populations,” Los Angeles Times, November 2, 2009
  2. Robert Bryce, “Gambling with eagles,” robertbryce.com, May 6, 2014
  3. Robert Johns, “American Bird Conservancy sues fed over 30-year eagle kill rule,” abcbirds.org, June 19, 2014


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Jack Dini -- Bio and Archives

Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology.  He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.


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