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An Ill Wind: Open Season on Bald Eagles; Sacrificing 4,200 of the birds a year for green energy sounds fine to regulators.
Topic Started: May 25 2016, 02:21 AM (2,031 Views)
Berton
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An Ill Wind: Open Season on Bald Eagles
Sacrificing 4,200 of the birds a year for green energy sounds fine to regulators.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with protecting bald and golden eagles, is once again trying to make it easier for the wind industry to kill those birds.

Two weeks ago the agency opened public comment on “proposed improvements” to its eagle conservation program. It wants to extend the length of permits for accidental eagle kills from the current five years to 30 years. The changes would allow wind-energy producers to kill or injure as many as 4,200 bald eagles every year. That’s a lot. The agency estimates there are now about 72,434 bald eagles in the continental U.S.

Let’s hope Judge Lucy H. Koh is keeping an eye out. Last August, Ms. Koh, a federal judge in California, shot down the Fish and Wildlife Service’s previous “improvements.” In a lawsuit brought by the American Bird Conservancy, Judge Koh ruled that the agency had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by declaring that it could issue 30-year permits without first doing an environmental assessment. Now the agency has drafted an environmental review and is still pushing for the 30-year permits.

Yet as Judge Koh noted in her ruling, one of the agency’s own eagle program managers warned that 30-year permits are “inherently less protective” and “real, significant, and cumulative biological impacts will result.”

A 2013 study in the Wildlife Society Bulletin estimated that wind turbines killed about 888,000 bats and 573,000 birds (including 83,000 raptors) in 2012 alone. But wind capacity has since increased by about 24%, and it could triple by 2030 under the White House’s Clean Power Plan. “We don’t really know how many birds are being killed now by wind turbines because the wind industry doesn’t have to report the data,” says Michael Hutchins of the American Bird Conservancy. “It’s considered a trade secret.”

The new rule could further harm golden eagles, which are rarer than bald eagles and are being whacked by wind turbines in far greater numbers. Mr. Hutchins says that the lack of protection for golden eagles is “the biggest weakness of this whole rule.”

The double standard is stunning. In 2011 the Fish and Wildlife Service convinced the Justice Department to file criminal indictments against three oil companies working in North Dakota’s Bakken field for inadvertently killing six ducks and one phoebe......

http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-ill-wind-open-season-on-bald-eagles-1463344701


First there is the hypocrisy in treating different industry with different penalties. Then there is the fact that if you or I kill a Eagle we could go to jail. https://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/protect/laws.html Just as we are getting them re-established in OK we are building wind turbines to kill them faster than they can reproduce. eek

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Neutral
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All in the name of the scam.
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ImaHeadaU
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Berton
May 25 2016, 02:21 AM
An Ill Wind: Open Season on Bald Eagles
Sacrificing 4,200 of the birds a year for green energy sounds fine to regulators
....

“We don’t really know how many birds are being killed now by wind turbines because the wind industry doesn’t have to report the data,” says Michael Hutchins of the American Bird Conservancy.
Perhaps they should operate on a scientific basis by determining how may birds of various species are being killed by the turbines now and then draw up a response.

Science operates with real numbers scams don't.
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Berton
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Try to understand what the American Bird Conservancy numbers are and then you might be able to comment with some amount of common sense.

Oh, here are the numbers you demand in order to for YOU to have a adult discussion: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.260/abstract

A link included in the OP. Enjoy!!



Edited by Berton, May 25 2016, 02:48 AM.
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Neutral
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You would think some environmental organization would do a study on birds killed wouldn't you? Nah, they don't want real figures.
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ImaHeadaU
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Berton
May 25 2016, 02:45 AM
Try to understand what the American Bird Conservancy numbers are and then you might be able to comment with some amount of common sense.

Oh, here are the numbers you demand in order to for YOU to have a adult discussion: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.260/abstract



Here is the contradictory quote from your OP.

Quote:
 
“We don’t really know how many birds are being killed now by wind turbines because the wind industry doesn’t have to report the data,” says Michael Hutchins of the American Bird Conservancy.


It is entirely likely that changes have been made to limit the number of bird strikes since the earlier data was collected.
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Berton
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ImaHeadaU
May 25 2016, 03:17 AM
Berton
May 25 2016, 02:45 AM
Try to understand what the American Bird Conservancy numbers are and then you might be able to comment with some amount of common sense.

Oh, here are the numbers you demand in order to for YOU to have a adult discussion: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.260/abstract



Here is the contradictory quote from your OP.

Quote:
 
“We don’t really know how many birds are being killed now by wind turbines because the wind industry doesn’t have to report the data,” says Michael Hutchins of the American Bird Conservancy.


It is entirely likely that changes have been made to limit the number of bird strikes since the earlier data was collected.

Likely? Since they are wanting a 30 year exemption what would they change?

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ImaHeadaU
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Berton
May 25 2016, 03:19 AM
ImaHeadaU
May 25 2016, 03:17 AM
Berton
May 25 2016, 02:45 AM
Try to understand what the American Bird Conservancy numbers are and then you might be able to comment with some amount of common sense.

Oh, here are the numbers you demand in order to for YOU to have a adult discussion: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.260/abstract



Here is the contradictory quote from your OP.

Quote:
 
“We don’t really know how many birds are being killed now by wind turbines because the wind industry doesn’t have to report the data,” says Michael Hutchins of the American Bird Conservancy.


It is entirely likely that changes have been made to limit the number of bird strikes since the earlier data was collected.

Likely? Since they are wanting a 30 year exemption what would they change?

I believe that they are requesting the current five year permit be extended to 30 years. The response to that request should be decided based on real data that has been gathered in a scientific manner.
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Neutral
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Meanwhile they continue to kill the bald eagles.
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Brewster
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Berton doesn't need no stinkin' science. He has the numbers he wants now.
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