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Omaha Steve

(99,074 posts)
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 11:12 PM Nov 2013

Wind energy company pleads guilty to eagle deaths

Source: AP-Excite

By DINA CAPPIELLO

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government for the first time has enforced environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities, winning a $1 million settlement Friday from a power company that pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at two Wyoming wind farms.

The Obama administration has championed pollution-free wind power and used the same law against oil companies and power companies for drowning and electrocuting birds. The case against Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm was the first prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act against a wind energy company.

"In this plea agreement, Duke Energy Renewables acknowledges that it constructed these wind projects in a manner it knew beforehand would likely result in avian deaths," Robert G. Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement Friday.

An investigation by The Associated Press in May revealed dozens of eagle deaths from wind energy facilities, including at Duke's Top of the World farm outside Casper, Wyo., the deadliest for eagles of 15 such facilities that Duke operates nationwide. The other wind farm included in the settlement is also in Converse County and is called Campbell Hill. All the deaths, which included golden eagles, hawks, blackbirds, wrens and sparrows, occurred from 2009 to 2013.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131122/DAA7UVV80.html





In this April 18, 2013, file photo, a golden eagle is seen flying over a wind turbine on Duke energy's top of the world wind farm in Converse County Wyo. For the first time, the Obama administration is taking action against wind farms for killing eagles. In a settlement announced Friday, Nov. 22, Duke Energy will pay $1 million for killing 14 golden eagles over the past three years at two Wyoming wind farms. The company says it pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. (AP Photo/Dina Cappiello, File)

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adieu

(1,009 posts)
3. Meanwhile...
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 02:56 AM
Nov 2013

the US Congress through Joe Barton apologizes to BP for having the temerity to just let loose 50 bazillion barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

bluedeathray

(511 posts)
6. Bird strikes are mitigated by
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 06:09 AM
Nov 2013

Adjusting Wind Turbine "cut in" speeds to a higher position during bird migratory times of year. It just means that the turbine won't begin spinning until a higher wind speed is reached. Bats are actually susceptible to generator strikes too.

But I'm still trying to figure out why I didn't here of similar lawsuits when millions of pelicans, seagulls, terns, sandpipers, looneys, ernes, and albatrosses were poisoned by, or lost breeding habitat to oil spills.

Hello! EPA! Is this thing on?

 

cosmicone

(11,014 posts)
12. They can probably use multifaceted shining reflectors
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 12:21 PM
Nov 2013

on the blades etched holographically so that there is no drag.

Then, as the blades turn, ambient light will reflect and create scintillating spots where the windmills are and the birds will automatically avoid them. At night, floodlights on the blades will do the same thing.

MBS

(9,688 posts)
8. they can take the kinds of amelioration measures that the Obama administration is asking for here.
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 07:32 AM
Nov 2013

And, also, be very, very careful where they build the wind farms in the first place.

Theyletmeeatcake2

(348 posts)
5. It's terrible but what can you do! It's for the greater good.....
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 04:04 AM
Nov 2013

If it was people getting untold diseases from cigarettes,fatty takeaways,polluted groundwater,chemicals,plastics and other man made stuff then it's a complex issue that affects the job creators...and what about other wildlife dying from pollution.

loudsue

(14,087 posts)
10. That is what I was wondering. Is this the oil industry complaining about it under the guise
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 11:25 AM
Nov 2013

of being environmentalists?

greenman3610

(3,947 posts)
9. best to remember that Audobon Society is a big wind supporter
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 09:40 AM
Nov 2013
http://policy.audubon.org/wind-power-overview-0

Summary: Audubon strongly supports properly-sited wind power as a clean alternative energy source that reduces the threat of global warming. Wind power facilities should be planned, sited and operated to minimize negative impacts on bird and wildlife populations.

Rationale: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has clearly stated that the impacts of climate change are here now and will get worse.[1] Scientists have found that climate change has already affected half of the world's wild species' breeding, distribution, abundance and survival rates.[2] By mid-century, the IPCC predicts that climate change may contribute to the extinction of 20-30 percent of all species on earth.

In order to prevent species extinctions and other catastrophic impacts of climate change, scientists say we must reduce global warming emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050. Reducing pollution from fossil fuels to this degree will require rapidly expanding energy and fuel efficiency, renewable energy and alternative fuels, and changes in land use, agriculture, and transportation. To avoid catastrophe, we need to do all of these.
--




http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/science/21birds.html?_r=0
While public attention has focused on wind turbines as a menace to birds, a new study shows that a far greater threat may be posed by a more familiar antagonist: the pet house cat.

A new study in The Journal of Ornithology on the mortality of baby gray catbirds in the Washington suburbs found that cats were the No. 1 killer in the area, by a large margin.

Nearly 80 percent of the birds were killed by predators, and cats were responsible for 47 percent of those deaths, according to the researchers, from the Smithsonian Institution and Towson University in Maryland. Death rates were particularly high in neighborhoods with large cat populations.
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If you are worried about birds, keep your kitty inside. Cats kill thousands of times more birds than wind turbines.

graph here
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/05/20/why-coal-and-nuclear-plants-kill-far-more-birds-than-wind-power/

Sunlei

(22,651 posts)
11. probably a lot more unreported. anyway they can use or invent...
Sat Nov 23, 2013, 11:26 AM
Nov 2013

some type of grill, or mirror, flasher, visual or sound in bird range of hearing to help birds not fly close to the blades?

something that is small/light weight that can be attached to the center, pole or blade tips.

Theyletmeeatcake2

(348 posts)
15. Is that a picture of the Koch brothers laughing all the way to the bank!!!!
Sun Nov 24, 2013, 07:18 AM
Nov 2013

I feel soiled just thinking about them!!!

blackspade

(10,056 posts)
16. I find this to be totally hypocritical considering the spills from fossil fuels.
Mon Nov 25, 2013, 04:46 AM
Nov 2013

What about all of the bird losses from coal settling ponds, pipeline breaks, salt dome collapses, etc?
Where are the fines from those?
This is just another angle that our bought government watchdogs are using to destroy renewables.

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