Apparently getting such a permit is expensive – in that the permit requires “minimizing impacts” which in turn mandate expensive countermeasures.
Certainly we should all be supporting wind power as an oil alternative, and certainly we should all be concerned at the deaths of federally-protected species of animal life. But when those two goals are at odds with each other, what should we do?
It’s pretty simple: modernize the wind turbines to reduce kills. Newer turbines with slower blade speed have significantly reduced raptor mortality. Gradually phasing out older turbines is the answer. No need to “root for” one or the other. There’s no “gotcha” here.
Eagles are smart enough to learn to avoid windmill blades, and any other method of producing the equivalent power has far greater environmental impact, anyway. It’s unfortunate that this will cause the deaths of a few eagles, but that’s life.
I believe the bird deaths in the huge off-shore wind farms in Germany decreased greatly after 1 year and again the second year. Birds seem to adapt. If the species was endangered that might not be enough but the good news it that Golden Eagles are listed as “least concern” on the Conservation status. Their range is quite huge. If it was a California Condor I would be far more alarmed and recommend the immediate shut down of the windmills.
What is odd though is I know I read the Altamont Pass windfarm did not see a descrease in the bird deaths from windmills. So there does seem to be some variance by type of bird.
It even specifically mentions the older Altamont Pass Windfarm I recall reading about (my bolding below)
The info on the German windfarms was in a Scientific America and thus I cannot site it. Sorry about that and feel free to not take it as a cite. But if you feel like it you can try Googling about it.
I live in Antioch, CA. It has about a thousand large wind turbines. It also has at least 6 mated pairs of Golden Eagles. Watching the various raptors and crows ride the votecies of the turbines is really an amazing sight. They seem to be teasing each other.
They appear to be thriving, not getting killed. We have at least six pair in the area. That is a lot. The GEs are huge. I haven’t seen an eagle playing chicken with the crows and the turbines, but I have seen hawks doing it, and they very much appear to be playing, as they do it for 5 to 10 minutes or more hovering in the same general area being pushed about by the currents.
The article has a great chart to look at and I’m really making a long story short with a quick quote. But long-term, we might not need wind if we can distribute solar power effectively i.e. if it is worth doing to save the raptors in less sunny places.
Don’t like that approach? Then root for wind to replace natural gas since gas drillers are basically criminals if you compare their behavior to what is demanded by the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the very plainest common sense.
I don’t know if I would call that an ‘excellent summary’. :dubious:
But I will give it credit, that it does give a general idea of the different causes of bird mortality, due to mankind. (Some of the numbers, sound exceedingly high.)
With that said, IMHO it’s just one of those things that are bound to happen, with the introduction of machinery into the ‘natural’ world.
Eagles can spot small animals at great distances. Wind turbines are massive structures that generate a great deal of noise. If Eagles are hitting them it’s not because they can’t see and avoid them. The idea that a power company should pay some kind of bio-blood money is pointless regulatory bullshit. It literally serves no purpose.
And solar cells are still too expensive compared to other sources of power. The only thing that makes sense at this time is solar thermal and that’s where production money should go. We have a tremendous amount of desert space out west that can be utilized economically for this purpose.
Do we have a cite that Bricker, even once, had any energy policy more sophisticated than “Drill, Baby, Drill” or “You liberals are so stuupid about nukes” ?
Do we have a cite that Bricker, even once, had any concern about endangered species?
I call bullshit. Tradeoffs occur over and over everyday. There’s nothing special about this one, involving two issues you don’t care about, except that Bricker thought progressive thinkers are as small-brained as his idols, and this “paradox” would make their heads explode. :smack:
I’ve never understood the right wing’s taking joy in the problems with the environmental movement. The failure of alternative energy companies, the anti-electric/hybrid cars hysteria, the use of fossil fuels by environmentalists, anti-recycling, or clean energy having any kind of negative effect brings out the animosity in the right wing like little else. I can understand a bit of smugness while looking at the tie dyed, longhaired hippy types who, for all their good intentions, don’t really accomplish much, but I don’t get the glee the right has in celebrating the perceived failures of the environmental movement.
There is no celebration of the failures of the environmental movement. We invented the EPA. That isn’t an excuse to spend money poorly. When an alternative energy company is estimated to fail in 6 months if we throw tax money at and we fund it anyway then it’s not a celebration when it fails in 6 months. It’s a huge WTF were the people who did this thinking? If a bank CEO squanders hundreds of millions of dollars they are brought up before congress. When a politician does with public money nobody blinks.
There is no celebration when electric cars fail. It was predicted they would fail. Not because a bunch of tie-died hippies built them but because they aren’t a particularly good substitute for the current hybrids. When they are more desirable we will buy them with the same enthusiasm we buy hybrids now. What would make economic sense would be to roll back EPA laws that restrict diesel cars in the United States. We could be driving 65 mpg diesels right now. I just drove a turbo diesel VW that gets 45 mpg around town. Is was frickin awesome. A little car that could tow something and is fun to drive.
But back to the Eagles. We built the friggin wind turbines in good faith to save the planet and there is absolutely no way they can exist without affecting some microbe or furry little creature in some manner. too bad. Birds and bugs are whacked every day by cars. that’s life.
Sounds like they’ll have to either get one or come to some similar agreement with the FWS to meet the terms of the Bald and Golden Eagle Act, or end up getting sued/fined out of existence.
In any case, the problem seems pretty manageable. The birds aren’t endangered, so a few extra deaths due to turbine collisions don’t seem likely to threaten their longterm viability. Managibility measures in other windfarms have met with success at reducing avian mortality, and such measures will probably be part of whatever deal the windfarm reaches with FWS. I don’t really see anything that makes me think we can’t have sustainable Golden Eagle populations and windfarms.
