Leading Bird Conservation Group Formally Petitions Feds to Regulate Wind Industry

[OKIsItJustMe]

17. Well, that certainly sucked

However, it’s difficult to draw many conclusions from it, other than that a vulture was killed by a collision with a wind turbine. Where did this happen? When did it happen? How often does it happen?

I believe ABCbirds has overstated their case.

I much prefer the Audubon Society’s stance:
http://policy.audubon.org/wind-power-overview-0

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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.

Wind power is an important part of the strategy to combat global warming. Wind power is currently the most economically competitive form of renewable energy. It provides nearly 15,000 megawatts of power in the United States, enough power for more than 3 million households, and could provide up to 20 percent of the country's electricity needs. Every megawatt-hour produced by wind energy avoids an average of 1,220 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. If the United States obtains 20 percent of its electricity from wind power by 2020, it will reduce global warming emissions equivalent to taking 71 million cars off the road or planting 104 million acres of trees. Expanding wind power instead of fossil fuels also avoids the wildlife and human health impacts of oil and gas drilling, coal mining and fossil fuel burning.

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