US gov't greenlights the slaughter of BALD EAGLES on windfarms!

Recognize this bird?

www.audubon.org...

So now the Obama administration wants them DEAD.

This got little press attention apparently, but that is major to both patriots and anyone who cares about the survival of wildlife species...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will allow companies to seek authorization to kill and harm bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty in an effort to balance some of the environmental trade-offs of green energy.

The change, requested by the wind energy industry and officially revealed Friday, will provide legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects that obtain a permit and do everything possible to avoid killing the birds. Companies will also have to commit to take additional measures if they exceed their permit limits or if new information suggests eagle populations are being affected.

But the rule makes clear that revoking a permit is a last resort.

“We anticipate that implementing additional mitigation measures ... will reduce the likelihood of amendments to, or revocation of, the permit,” the rule reads.

Right now, as an AP investigation has documented, wind farms are killing eagles in violation of the law. Not a single wind energy company has a permit authorizing the killing, harm or harassment of eagles, although five-year permits have been available since 2009. That puts companies at legal risk and discourages private investment in renewable energy.

It also doesn’t help eagles, since without a permit, companies are not required to take steps to reduce their impact on the birds or report when they kill them.

Conservation groups, which have been aligned with the wind industry on other issues, said Friday the decision by the Interior Department sanctioned the killing of America’s symbol.

“Instead of balancing the need for conservation and renewable energy, Interior wrote the wind industry a blank check,” Audubon President and CEO David Yarnold said in a statement. The group said it would challenge the decision.

The wind energy industry says the change mirrors permitting already in place for endangered species, which are far more at risk than bald and golden eagles. Bald eagles were removed from the endangered species list in 2007 but are still protected under two federal laws.

The regulation published Friday was not subjected to a full environmental review because the administration classified it as

an administrative change

.

Last month, Duke Energy Corp. pleaded guilty to killing eagles and other birds at two Wyoming wind farms, the first time a wind energy company has been prosecuted under a law protecting migratory birds. The permitting program falls under a separate statute, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

A study by federal biologists released in September found that wind farms since 2008 had killed at least 67 bald and golden eagles, a number that the researchers said was likely underestimated.

It’s unclear what toll, if any, wind energy companies are having on eagle populations locally or regionally. Gunshots, electrocutions and poisonings likely kill more bald and golden eagles than wind farms.

But with the industry still growing, the toll could grow. A recent assessment of status of the golden eagle in the western U.S. showed that populations have been decreasing in some areas and rising in others. © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

From Vancouver Sun

This is crazy... So now eagles are being threatened to disappear just with some ridiculous "administrative change", and because of... green energy. The cynicism and arrogance of those bastards in D.C. is beyond belief. They simply are the lowest scum imaginable for showing such disregard for animal life.

People in California, please DO SOMETHING to stop this! Either support that environmental group, or show some other kind of opposition.

reply to post by Echtelion


Old, but important news. Not just Bald E. MANY BIRDS....

Umm.. Okay, this BANANA stuff is getting to be too much, in my humble opinion. Right from the quote in the OP..

The change, requested by the wind energy industry and officially revealed Friday, will provide legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects that obtain a permit and do everything possible to avoid killing the birds. Companies will also have to commit to take additional measures if they exceed their permit limits or if new information suggests eagle populations are being affected.

But the rule makes clear that revoking a permit is a last resort.

Now if nothing short of shutting down entirely is what some consider to be enough. Okay.. I'll go with that...if we can stop trying to bankrupt coal and put that industry down so hard ...or watching oil struggle outside of very specific projects and favored efforts.

However, this IS the 'alternative' power so many loudly demand. If it's not this, it's solar...but the Sierra Club has sued that to a standstill on both San Diego and San Bernardino counties in California... (rolls eyes)

BTW.. BANANA stands for Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything...and it's what this has become. I've seen the enormous wind farms in California outside Palm Springs, in Kern County and elsewhere. If they can't exist there...explain to everyone how they can't exist anywhere, because that's as far in the middle of nowhere as it ever gets, IMO.

Has anyone tried to paint something intimidating and put some LEDs on the blades so the birds can see them?

Seems like a simple solution that might discourage birds from flying into the turbines.

The only rational thing to shut them down for would be during migrations which last about 2 weeks.
If they put a picture on the blade they wouldn't be able to see it if it was spinning, it would still have the original problem going on.
I got to see a bald eagle steal a fish from an osprey once, he dove on it and made him drop the fish then he dove and while twisting snatched the fish in both his talons. It was quite impressive as are their nests. These things get HUGE - like 10 feet across. My wife and I were fortunate to have had permission while working on a series of illustrations for a state park to go to the nesting grounds and take pictures. They eat a fair amount of terrapin turtles in addition to fish from the shells we found underneath it.

Compared to the oil industry destroying entire ecosystems?

I read the title and then I read they must do everything possible to avoid harming them. So I wonder how the OP ends up so confused?

hmmmmm....

Obama killing the National Emblem of America.

Not so subtle.

He's killing the Country in every way possible so now it's time to kill off the emblem itself.

Peace

jrod
Has anyone tried to paint something intimidating and put some LEDs on the blades so the birds can see them?

Seems like a simple solution that might discourage birds from flying into the turbines.

It won't work. When eagles are hunting they don't look where they are going that is why they are flying into the windmills.

Why didn't the article point out how hunters kill more eagles each year than the windmills kill.

LDragonFire
Compared to the oil industry destroying entire ecosystems?

But there is profit when killing ecosystems. So that's good. Killing birds has very little profit. So that's bad.

reply to post by buster2010


It is worth a try, it could be a simple solution. If the turbine looks like a possible very large predator I think the birds will avoid it.

Has any wind-farm tried this? If not, then how do you know it will not work?

1) We need "green" energy.
2) "Green" energy kills birds.
3) Don't kill birds.
4) WTF????

As is typical with the progressive / liberal mindset: you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Dr. Seuss couldn't make this up.

Once, I did a little report in university about the dangers of windengines, and tried to find evidence of killed birds - there was close to zero..

Even our greatest animal-protecting groups like Greenpeace or BUND didn't have any notes about that problem, so it might not be a big problem.

reply to post by Echtelion

this is terrible, but i must ask: what did you eat today? if it involved animals, why are those worth less than an eagle?

Why not attach some type of "whistle" to the fan blades ?

I understand this could possibly cause nearby residents concern, however these wind farms are usually some distance from residential areas. Farmhouses are usually well apart, so it could be worth trialing ...

Just a thought.

You know those little safety covers our table-top fans have on them, you know, to stop,our kids sticking their tongues in the blades?






Why don't they just make these for the wind turbines?

kurthall
reply to post by Echtelion

 

Old, but important news. Not just Bald E. MANY BIRDS....

And bats as well, which are dying off rapidly as it is due to white nose syndrome. The bats that die to wind turbines were found to have been subjected to barotrauma and not even from being struck by the blades. The wind generated by the blades themselves killed them by rupturing their internal organs through a change in air pressure.

It's been estimated that 600,000 bats died in 2012 so if the white nose doesn't kill them all off, well, our wind turbines will. www.eurekalert.org...

reply to post by Echtelion


What is the alternative... use coal powered stations. I think you will find they kill an awful lot more birds than wind farms. So why not a a thread about them. How about a thread on nuclear power station they have the potential to wipe out the entire biosphere....

That is crazy!

The wind farms can have a "turkey shoot" - open season on eagles, just because they can hit the blades or try to nest on the turbine support towers? These wind farms have far more rights than the average citizen, because unless you're a Native American with a permit, "Joe" citizen will be fined and put in jail for merely possessing an eagle feather they picked up from the ground.

Also, who said you need these huge vertical props on a wind turbine to generate a profitable amount of electricity? How about soft prop blades on a cylindrical or spherical turbine that slowly rotates horizontally? What about high altitude turbines of some kind? How about some other method of wind generated electricity that utilizes bending or waving action rather than rotation?

Also, it seems to me that there could be combination solar/wind generators incorporated right into buildings with high electricity usage. If they were cleverly designed, they could be bird friendly and never be noticed as anything but part of the architecture.

ETA: How about solar powered drones that are programmed to fly around the farm and scare away eagles?

All you tree huggers whined you wanted "green"energy.
Well, you got it. Are you happy now?