Wind power: Nothing more than avian cuisinarts

I loathe wind power and the entire wind generation industry. That may anger some who work in our domestic wind generation industry but I do not care, and make no apologies for my opinion.

Solar power is about all I can see being really feasible for 'green energy.'

We must use our domestic fossil fuels all them, especially COAL. OIL and Natural gas until other energy alternatives are viable and affordable.

I have seen first hand the decimated bodies of  Golden eagles, Hawks, Falcons and Owls at the base of wind turbines. Some were barely recognizable, the bodies had gotten so hacked up by the turbine blades. So there is reason number one.

Want another reason?

Government subsidies to the point that when the wind stops blowing, utilities, agencies like the Bonneville Power Administration and ultimately us, the customers, are required to pay the wind companies a certain rate even if they are not producing wind power. I know, as I see it our electric bill from Pacific Power every month

Back to the birds and bats and how the USFW wants to issue permits to kill Eagles by wind companies:

"Nationwide, however, about 450,000 birds are killed by wind turbines every year—a number that will surely grow as more wind facilities come on line. 

Every year, wind turbines at the Altamont Pass Wind Farm in the Bay Area kill approximately 75 to 100 eagles, according to the Audobon Society. Some are decapitated. Others lose their wings, or are cut in half, suffering a painful and sometimes tortuous death. 

In San Diego County, there are only 94 nesting eagles—47 pairs. Many have foraging areas near proposed wind farms slated for McCain Valley near Boulevard and Ocotillo, adjacent to Anza Borrego Desert State Park. 

Mark Duchamp, president of Save the Eagles International, is strongly against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to issue the permits throughout the nation.

“Eagles are a federally protected species. Yet the USFWS is minded to issue licenses to kill Golden Eagles in order to benefit wind farm developers.”

Wildlife biologist Jim Wiegand contends that larger modern turbines with larger blade sweeps are capable of killing even more birds than those with older, smaller and slower-moving blades.  Moreover he has stated that many bird kills go unreported, since the dead birds may be carried off by scavengers and the carcasses never found.  Some injured birds will also fly to areas outside the search site before succumbing to their wounds.

The USFWS contends that after fulfilling a rigorous set of criteria, the permits are permissible.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently in the process of finalizing Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance that could allow the take of bald and golden eagles provided the applicant meets a set of standards,” says Alexandra Pitts, Deputy Regional Director for the Pacific Southwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “This guidance provides help to Service biologists and others in applying the regulatory permit standards as specified in the 2009 Final Eagle Permit Rule.”

Because wind turbines and eagles are attracted to similar wind currents, wind farms are often times built in the direct path of the birds, causing them to be killed. 

Two companies seeking to build wind farms in the San Diego area funded a study on bird kills at their facilities in Texas.  Pattern Energy owns 118 turbines at the Texas site and aspires to build even more at Ocotillo; Iberdrola Renewables owns 168 at the Texas site and aims to erect 137 turbines in McCain Valley.  The companies voluntarily released results of their first yearlong studies.

Pattern estimates up to 921 birds and 2,309 bats were killed between Aug. 24, 2009, and July 31; Iberdrola's estimates were 1,812 birds and 3,087 bats for the same period. The studies claimed no endangered species were found and that bird killings matched the national average, though one researcher found bat kills higher than expected."  

Source for above commentary is here from East County Magazine. PatriotUSA

More from Canada Free Press:

Wind Energy Bird Killing Exemptions 

By Jack Dini

Environmentalists have gone to great lengths to have certain eagles, hawks, and owls protected as endangered species, only to have wind turbines act as avian cuisinarts.

Wind power currently enjoys a unique exemption from Endangered Species Act protections and other federal restrictions protecting animals from deliberate or incidental killings. And to add to this, here is an interesting new development: the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering a dramatic expansion in the length of permits allowing wind power operators to kill bald eagles and other protected bird species. (1)

Under current law, developers of renewable energy projects can apply for a five-year permit that allows them to kill bald eagles in the course of conducting normal business operations. However, the FWS, which administers the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, is now proposing introducing 30-year permits ‘to better correspond to the time frame of renewable energy projects’. The prospect of a six-fold increase in the length of FSW’s ‘programmatic incidental permits’ has unnerved bird advocates, many of whom are already alarmed by the number of birds and bats killed by wind farms. (1)

 In just one location, the Altamont Pass in northern California, turbines yearly kill 75 to 100 golden eagles, 350 burrowing owls, 300 rat-tailed hawks, and 333 American kestrels. (2)
One resident of California protested: “There’s a big, big hypocrisy here. If I shoot an eagle it’s a $10,000 fine and/or a vacation of one to five years in a federal pen of my choice.” (3)
 
One resident of California protested: “There’s a big, big hypocrisy here. If I shoot an eagle it’s a $10,000 fine and/or a vacation of one to five years in a federal pen of my choice.” (3)

The hypocrisy was underscored when the US attorney for North Dakota hauled seven oil and natural gas companies into federal court for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 by (inadvertently) being responsible for the death of 28 migratory birds found near an oil waste lagoon. As The Wall Street Journal noted, “This prosecution is all the more remarkable because the wind industry each year kills not 28 birds…but some 440,000 according to estimates by the American Bird Conservancy based on FSW data. Guess how many legal actions the Obama administration has brought against wind turbine operators under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act? As far as we can tell it’s zero..” (4)

As Bonner Cohen reported,”Wind turbines take their toll while providing very little electricity. According to the Energy Information Administration, wind power in 2011 accounted for only 3 percent of the electricity generated in the United States.” Says Dan Simmons, director of regulatory affairs for the Institute for Energy Research, “The Obama administration’s position appears to be that it’s okay to permit bald eagles to be killed as long as it’s wind turbines that are doing the killing.” (1) 

References

1. Bonner R. Cohen, “Fed considering longer permits for wind turbines to kill bald eagles,” Environment & Climate News, 15, 11, October 2012
2. Andrew Walden, “Wind Energy’s Ghosts,” American Thinker, February 15, 2010
3. Katie Pavlich, “Oops: greenies killing thousands of protected birds daily,” townhall.com/tipsheet, August 16, 2011
4. “A bird-brained prosecution,” online.wsj.com,.. September 29, 2011

Source is here from CFP.

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