“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 in Favor of Bald Eagles and Against 30-year Permits to Shred Them.”
“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.”
The green movement will not have a problem with wind energy until they tackle hydrocarbons or wind actually becomes profitable. Natural gas was championed until a cleaner alternative to oil, but then once American production picks up, they start demonizing natural gas. If wind were to gain market share environmentalists would surely find a problem with it.
The green movement is a fraud and propaganda movement. Recently the Amherst Island wind project was approved by Ontario’s The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. This 27 turbine project will be constructed in a highly sensitive wildlife habitat. These turbines will kill eagles, snowy owls, the Island’s rare barn owls and gyrfalcons. In addition Blanding’s turtles will probably be flattened by construction and wind personnel looking for or hiding turbine carcasses. Of course rigged mortality studies approved by The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change will hide most of the turbine slaughter.
After this project was approved I personally renamed this administrative branch …… “The Ministry of Fraud and Propaganda”.
In 2009 career politician and renewable energy propagandist, Governor Deval Patrick celebrated the installation of two wind turbines at MWRA’s Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The American Wind Energy Association now claims that America’s wind turbines are killing 2.6 birds per MW per year. These figures however were obtained by using fraudulent research with methodologies rigged to not find bodies.
In an article published August 28, 2015, “Wind Turbines of Deer Island Killing Birds”, it was reported that 125 birds have been killed in 3 years by two 600 kW wind turbines. This is a reported turbine kill rate of 35 birds per MW per year.
The truth is that this reported kill rate is actually far too low because the seagulls hanging around these turbines are attracted to and eating the smaller birds being smashed by turbine blades. Honest studies would document this hidden slaughter.
[…] AWEA’s Eagle Mortality Defense: A Response […]
[…] China drastically reducing wind and solar subsidies UK PM Cameron: “Get Rid of the Green Crap” AWEA’s Eagle Mortality Defense: A Response The story behind “Renewables” and “Sustainability” “Renewable” Energy – Powerful […]
[…] and 270,000,000 tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass and rare earths, plus millions of dead birds and bats every year? Is that […]
[…] and 270,000,000 tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass and rare earths, plus millions of dead birds and bats every year? Is that […]
[…] and 270,000,000 tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass and rare earths, plus millions of dead birds and bats every year? Is that […]
[…] and 270,000,000 tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass and rare earths, plus millions of dead birds and bats every year? Is that […]
[…] and 270,000,000 tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass and rare earths, plus millions of dead birds and bats every year? Is that […]
[…] turbine blades moving 180 mph at their tips will slice and dice millions of eagles, hawks and other birds and bats, from local habitats and even from nesting areas 100 miles from the […]
[…] turbine blades moving 180 mph at their tips will slice and dice millions of eagles, hawks and other birds and bats, from local habitats and even from nesting areas 100 miles from the […]
[…] turbine blades moving 180 mph at their tips will slice and dice millions of eagles, hawks and other birds and bats, from local habitats and even from nesting areas 100 miles from the […]
[…] turbine blades moving 180 mph at their tips will slice and dice millions of eagles, hawks and other birds and bats, from local habitats and even from nesting areas 100 miles from the […]
[…] turbine blades moving 180 mph at their tips will slice and dice millions of eagles, hawks and other birds and bats, from local habitats and even from nesting areas 100 miles from the […]
[…] turbine blades moving 180 mph at their tips will slice and dice millions of eagles, hawks and other birds and bats, from local habitats and even from nesting areas 100 miles from the […]
[…] turbine blades moving 180 mph at their tips will slice and dice millions of eagles, hawks and other birds and bats, from local habitats and even from nesting areas 100 miles from the […]
[…] subsidize large-scale wind turbine installations – while ignoring or exempting their impacts on raptors and other birds, bats, and even whales(NMFS should investigate that) and human […]
[…] subsidize large-scale wind turbine installations – while ignoring or exempting their impacts on raptors and other birds, bats, and even whales (NMFS should investigate that) and human […]
[…] subsidize large-scale wind turbine installations – while ignoring or exempting their impacts on raptors and other birds, bats, and even whales (NMFS should investigate that) and human […]
[…] subsidize large-scale wind turbine installations – while ignoring or exempting their impacts on raptors and other birds, bats, and even whales (NMFS should investigate that) and human […]
[…] subsidize large-scale wind turbine installations – while ignoring or exempting their impacts on raptors and other birds, bats, and even whales (NMFS should investigate that) and human […]