The recent action of the U.S. Department of Justice against a major wind developer for ‘takings’ of golden eagles, as well as the tip-of-the-iceberg problem of such wind carnage, is major news. The post today revisits a decade-old dodge of the problem by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), now part of the American Clean Power Association. So where were the real environmentalists then–and where are they today?
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The double-standard and hypocrisy of the AWEA can be documented from their August 19, 2011, release: Fact Check: Fox News Off Base on Bird Collisions, concerning Altamont Pass’s impact on golden eagles. The op-ed follows with comment:
FoxNews.Com carried a story on bird collisions a few days ago with a number of misleading statements. We covered much of the same ground with a response to the Los Angeles Times in early June (see “News story draws questionable conclusions from eagle collisions with old turbines,” June 6, 2011), and won’t repeat that material at length.…
Continue Reading“It’s hard to imagine and even harder to stomach, but more than 60,000 eagle carcasses have secretly shipped to this repository, with no cause of death or origin given…. Since 1997, nobody involved with wind energy and its eagle carcasses, has been allowed to disclose the truth.”
“America’s silenced USFWS agents know exactly what’s taking place because they process and arrange FedEx overnight shipping for nearly all the eagle carcasses shipped to the Denver Eagle Repository.”
Recently an American wind energy company pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges after at least 150 eagles were killed since 2012. The company has agreed to spend as much as $27 million on efforts to prevent more deaths.
What good are these millions? Except for shutting down turbines, there is no way to prevent eagle deaths from wind blades.…
Continue Reading“ESI further acknowledged that at least 150 bald and golden eagles have died in total since 2012, across 50 of its 154 wind energy facilities. 136 of those deaths have been affirmatively determined to be attributable to the eagle being struck by a wind turbine blade.” (Justice Department, April 5, 2022)
For decades, the American Wind Energy Association (now part of the American Clean Power Association) has dismissed the “avian mortality problem” as little different than everyday deaths of birds from cats and windows. The Sierra Club echoes this argument in ground-zero wind growth states such as Michigan.
There are two problems with this argument. First, millions of deaths annually from wind blades is that amount too many given that wind power is uneconomic and unnecessary. Taxpayers and birds can be spared with a gain in resource efficiency.…
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