By Gregory Wrightstone
Last week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they had sentenced ESI Energy for a “blatant disregard” of federal wildlife laws of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). In their guilty plea to multiple violations, ESI admitted to the killing of at least 150 bald and golden eagles across 50 of its wind-energy facilities since 2012. Nearly all died of blunt force trauma attributable to being struck by a wind-turbine blade.
The so-called “clean” energy company — a subsidiary of NextEra Energy — was fined $8 million, or about $53,300 per carcass. It turns out that the fine and sentencing was NOT because they killed many dozens of our national symbol, but rather that they killed them without first acquiring the necessary permits that would have legalized the slaughter.
Why would ESI simply fail to do the paperwork that is regularly a part of the process for permitting wind facilities? The answer: money, and a lot of it.
The most egregious project was located in Converse County, Wyoming, known as the Cedar Springs I, II and III wind-power facilities. In the spring of 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) informed the company that Cedar Springs was expected to kill 44 golden eagles and 23 bald eagles over the first five years of operations and recommended that the “proposed wind facilities not be built.” Later that same year the FWS repeated its objection and recommended that the facility, if built, should “implement seasonal curtailment during daylight hours.” Construction continued, and no curtailment was employed.
According to DOJ, the company expedited construction “intended to meet, among other things, power purchase agreement commitments and qualifying deadlines for particular tax credit rates for renewable energy.” The DOJ press release further stated: “ESI and its affiliates received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal tax credits for generating electricity from wind power at facilities that it operated, knowing that multiple eagles would be killed and wounded without legal authorization.”
This $8 million settlement appears to be the cost of doing business for ESI in order for them to cash in on the Big Wind green energy scam.
These eagles are much like inattentive drivers texting on their cell phones with their heads down and not looking up, unaware that there is a truck stopped ahead. Like that distracted driver, the birds are looking for prey on the ground and unaware of the looming danger ahead until it is too late.
The legalized slaughter of eagles and other large birds of prey was legitimized under the Obama administration and continues today. At the time, it was estimated that nearly 600,000 birds of all types were killed by the much smaller wind footprint at that time, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles.
Unknown to most citizens is the fact that the FWS has established a “take limit” for wind energy companies to kill bald eagles. This would be similar to a bag limit for a hunter. However, hunters dare not as they are not of the protected class and would be subject to a maximum fine of $250,000 or two years of imprisonment for a felony conviction. FWS regularly imposes fines on oil companies and electric transmission firms for inadvertent deaths of bald eagles, all the while giving its seal of approval to green-induced eagle carnage of a grand scale from turbines.
The FWS bald eagle take limits were revised February 2022 to allow a more than four-fold increase in the legalized slaughter.
Those promoting the flawed idea that a complete transition from fossil fuels to an economy driven solely by wind and solar need to ask themselves, “At what cost?”
Gregory Wrightstone is a geologist, Executive Director of the CO2 Coalition in Arlington, Virginia and an expert reviewer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR6). He is the best-selling author of Inconvenient Facts: The Science that Al Gore doesn’t want you to know.
This commentary was first published at Human Events April 11, 2022
The image below was created by Thiago Hellinger for the CO2 Coalition and may be reproduced with our permission in its entirety with attribution.
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I can imagine what would happen to some small time oil company if a dead Bald Eagle was found in an unscreened open top salt water tank.
Windmills, drones, helicopters, hobby rocketry, War, Aircraft, dogs, people hunting geese are all issues for raptors. This post is absurdly inverse to the garden variety climate change propaganda. The hills around Eastern PA are full of Falcons, so many I see one every time I turn my head. What is missing are Pidgeon’s and Starlings which used to plagues us and song birds have become a rare sight. The carnage can be witnessed at the intersection on top of the hill where many have witness Falcons swooping in a foot above the pavement then straight up to grab doves in mid-air. DDT is long gone and now Falcons of become the new overly populated pest bird. Let’s stick with economics and data. The fact that windmills without a tax credit may or may not be cost effective is an issue. Are they or are they not cost effective? .The PTC is a federal subsidy that pays wind farm owners $23 per megawatt-hour through the first ten years of a turbine’s operation. Data about abandoned wind farms is hard to find. For instance, California once had 14.000 now they have less than 6,000. None of data I have found looks reliable. I am sure there is someone on WUWT that has access to reliable wind turbine data.
I’m not a bird expert, but to me it seems highly unlikely that the population of a large bird such as the bald eagle that probably doesn’t reach sexual maturity until age 4 or 5 and would only fledge 2 or 3 chicks per year max. could increase by over 400% in 10 years as the figures from FWS claim.
I suspect they’ve adjusted/made up the population estimates for 2019 in order to try and justify a massive increase in permitted take.
Always the first thing the marxists go after is numbers. Always numbers (votes are numbers).
Of all the horrible “solutions” to a non-existant problem, wind power is the absolute worst. They certainly live up to the moniker “Ruinables”. I suspect many communities who were suckered in by Big Wind now regret their deal with the Devil. Now they’re stuck with the damn things.
Union Carbide: you can do that?
So that’s where they keep the Lost Ark, in cold storage with evidence rooms of energy policy casualties. It’s too bad Obama is not kept there with them.
Is there any explanation in the more than four fold increase in Bald Eagle numbers between 2009 and 2019. Seems a remarkable recovery.
As a percentage the 2019 take is marginally lower.
It is still amazing that the hard line environmentalist who ignore this outcome pullout all stops to halt developments with far less impacts.
It would be interesting to know how many seabirds are killed by turbines. Most of the bodies, of course would be washed away, so no effects on wildife at all.
Every indoor fan has a wireframe or plastic shield to prevent hands, especially those of children, from coming into contact with the blades.
While I realize such a shield would not be free, and would create a small (de minimus?) reduction of power, what are the costs? I have read a fair bit about windmills, and bird kills, and do not recall a single discussion of this issue.
Vertical axis turbines probably cause a lot less harm, presenting a more obvious silhouette. But they may still not help with bird species that spend their lives looking down. Although presumably too the maximum speed obtained would be lower for these types.
Wind turbines today commonly have 100 m (328 ft) diameter rotors, and the newest Vestas have 172 m (564 ft) rotors. Chicken wire enough for a screen on both sides of a 100 m rotor would weigh 6,900 lb, and for a a172 m rotor it would weigh 20,400 lb. That’s just the light weight part. One would need a shroud somewhat larger in diameter than the rotor, and longer than the maximum rotor thickness, to support the mesh. It can’t be made of “plastic”, though a composite would work. For the largest turbine, even a composite shroud would weigh over 100,000 pounds. The shroud would have to be mounted to the nacelle by struts, which would be quite massive, and the shroud would need spider struts to maintain roundness and to support the wire mesh.
All of this would add at least 70 (more likely 100) tons to the very top of the wind turbine. As an engineer, I call the idea a non-starter.
The drawing is from a photo of a real person and a real bird…
https://climatism.wordpress.com/2021/05/05/green-new-death-no-to-the-whirlwinds-they-kill-our-birds-of-prey/
😢
Wind turbines are not now nor ever will be “clean energy”.
and they’re ugly as sin.
Not to mention the effects of low frequency noise.
The eagles themselves are to blame for their poor choice of feather shampoo.
Furthermore, as Griff would say,
“but cats 🐈 “.
Hi, Mr. Salmon,
The second winning non-scientist contest essay (by David Hawkins), the 4th winner, was never published. I have been watching vigilantly. Have you seen it?
After his essay was published, Anthony told us that all the rest of the entries would be published:
In addition to the two winning essays in each category posted here, I will publish ALL of the essays over the coming weeks. We don’t want the hard work of our contestants to go unnoticed and un-appreciated.
(https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/04/wuwt-contest-winners-announced/ ).
I haven’t seen yours published. Was it?
Looking forward to reading yours and all the rest.
By the way, when I expressed concern about the first 3 published contest winners not responding at all to any of the comments about their essays, David Hawkins responded to me and said that he looked forward to doing that when his essay is published.
Hope all is well with you,
Janice
It is not just eagles that are getting slaughtered.
Of course we all know that.
I was just reading about a planned installation of gigantic turbines 15 miles offshore of Martha’s Vinyard.
The race to roll out ‘super-sized’ wind turbines is on (msn.com)
These things are over 260 meters (853″) tall, and have blades that over 100 meters long, so the rotor diameter is over 200 meters.
There are 4 major flyways used by migratory birds that cross the United States.
Perhaps the most important one is the Atlantic Flyway.
I think I do not have to say much more, except to point out that a huge number and variety of birds use this route every year…twice.
According to Audubon, about 500 bird species use the Atlantic Flyway.
Bird Migration: Birds of the Atlantic Flyway (perkypet.com)
“Some migrating birds, including the duck-like Eider and the Snowy Owl, can fly all the way to Greenland, the massive island nation East of Canada.
”
Feeder birds using the flyway include:
“The Atlantic Flyway is a major north-south flyway for migratory birds in North America. The route starts in Greenland, follows the coast of North America to South America and the Caribbean. Migratory birds travel this route every year. This route does not have mountains to block the path, and has good sources of water, food and cover over it’s entire length. The Atlantic Flyway is the most densely populated and intensively developed of the four flyways. The other flyways include the Central, the Pacific and the Mississippi. According to Audubon, about 500 bird species use the Atlantic Flyway.
Spring migration occurs in a mass movement. It takes place over a shorter period of time than the fall migration since birds are anxious to reach their breeding grounds and begin mating. From March until May you can see flocks making their way North all across the United States. Along the Flyway there are many key sites that migratory birds use to breed, feed or rest. Among the sites listed is the Cape Cod National Seashore. Migratory birds can be seen along the 40 miles of public beach and sand dunes.”
Bird Migration In The Atlantic Flyway | Cape Wildlife Center
How the hell are they allowed to put these things along this route?
Meanwhile…..
WSJOil Industry Objects to Fees, Permits to Mitigate Accidental Bird KillingsMeasures being considered could include a permit process for new skyscrapers, power lines, wind turbines and other structures that pose hazards to birds…
The measures being considered could include a permit process for new skyscrapers, power lines, wind turbines and other structures that birds fly into, often with fatal results. Businesses that secure a permit would limit exposure to steep fines for inadvertent bird killings under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Fish and Wildlife officials are also considering assessing a conservation fee as part of that permit process, with the money going to help mitigate habitat loss that has contributed to declining bird populations.
The agency said the rules are needed to protect declining populations of migratory birds, noting that nearly 10% of roughly 1,100 species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act are threatened or endangered.
…
Wind turbines are estimated to kill between 140,000 and 500,000 birds a year, according to Fish and Wildlife, and a major expansion of those turbines could push bird deaths over 1 million annually, wildlife researchers have estimated.
Fish and Wildlife has given broad outlines of what a permit system might entail, and expects to release a formal proposal this summer for public comment. Officials say they haven’t made any decisions on who would be required to get permits and how much they will cost.
The permitting proposal reflects middle ground in the back and forth between the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations.
…
Violators of the rarely enforced law face up to $15,000 in fines and up to six months in prison for each killed bird.
Duke Energy Corp., whose subsidiary was fined $1 million in 2013 after dozens of birds died at a wind-turbine project in Wyoming, said it supports the new rule-making effort.
<Rarely enforced unless you are a political opponent of Mr. Biden, like Harold Hamm.>
Moma Bald Eagle feeding her three eaglets then sees a threat. Probably another bird of prey. Screeches a continual warning spreading her wings to protect her brood. Dad returns with a small fish and then departs, probably to run off the potential threat.
https://youtu.be/c2WgFp5VMZg