Green Energy Company Pleads Guilty After 150 Bald Eagles Were Killed at Their Wind Farms
“Almost all of the eagles killed at the NextEra subsidiary’s facilities were struck by the blades of wind turbines, prosecutors said.”
The Bald Eagle is not only America’s national symbol, they are also a protected species. Just a little over a year ago, they appeared to be making a comeback in 48 states.
Now a green energy company has pleaded guilty to the deaths of at least 150 of these beautiful birds, which were killed by wind farms.
The Associated Press reports, via the FOX Business Network:
Wind energy company kills 150 bald eagles in US, pleads guilty
A subsidiary of one of the largest U.S. providers of renewable energy pleaded guilty to criminal charges and was ordered to pay over $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 bald eagles were killed at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy was also sentenced to five years probation after being charged with three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during a court appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The charges arose from the deaths of nine bald eagles at three wind farms in Wyoming and New Mexico.
In addition to those deaths, the company acknowledged the deaths of golden and bald eagles at 50 wind farms affiliated with ESI and NextEra since 2012, prosecutors said. Birds were killed in eight states: Wyoming, California, New Mexico, North Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona and Illinois…
Almost all of the eagles killed at the NextEra subsidiary’s facilities were struck by the blades of wind turbines, prosecutors said. Some turbines killed multiple eagles and because the carcasses are not always found, officials said the number killed was likely higher than the 150 birds cited in court documents.
Have you ever seen a wind turbine blade? They’re massive.
This is interesting… A new wind turbine blade is 100% recyclable. Good to hear! We also have heard of old wind turbines being repurposed for new #utility poles. https://t.co/C6q4gI8Tuf
— EnergyBin (@EnergyBinCom) April 4, 2022
NPR of all places, has some interesting background on this case:
The company was warned prior to building the wind farms in New Mexico and Wyoming that they would kill birds, but it proceeded anyway and at times ignored advice from federal wildlife officials about how to minimize the deaths, according to court documents.
“For more than a decade, ESI has violated (wildlife) laws, taking eagles without obtaining or even seeking the necessary permit,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in a statement.
ESI agreed under a plea agreement to spend up to $27 million during its five-year probationary period on measures to prevent future eagle deaths. That includes shutting down turbines at times when eagles are more likely to be present.
Despite those measures, wildlife officials anticipate that some eagles still could die. When that happens, the company will pay $29,623 per dead eagle, under the agreement.
So there’s a price per eagle?
A lot of people think you're not allowed to kill bald eagles, but you are. You just have to pay $53,333 for each one. And you have to make sure you kill them with a wind turbine. Because it's necessary to kill eagles to save them from climate change.https://t.co/AHAEkVZWMj
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) April 6, 2022
I seem to remember a certain politician being mocked by the media for warning this would happen.
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I wonder what would happen if an Eagle was killed by equipment at a coal power plant?
Bad things, I’m sure, they can’t buy the right to do so.
So 50 wind farms, 150 birds killed (verified), over roughly ten years (a guess) works out to one bird every three years in each wind farm. I’m willing to bet the process for how to reduce bird deaths starts at “Don’t run the generators” and goes no further. That’s like how to prevent roadkill being “Don’t drive.”
Hey! There will be no “proving” any points using rayciss math on this blog!
Don’t you realize that due to America’s unsustainable ecology and capitalistic greed, there are fewer than a hundred of these beautiful, majestic, tearjerking, endangered birds left in the wild? If you kill 150 of them every year, you will make them extinct in just a few years!
Bernie 2022!
“That’s like how to prevent roadkill being “Don’t drive.”
What’s wrong with that?
We all know that the primary rule of “gun safety” is “never own a gun!”
If you willfully kill one the feds show up and take everything you own because it’s illegal. Unless you are Native American you can’t even possess a single eagle feather.
But wind get gets a free pass because it’s pushed by the Lefty’s…at least until now. And don’t get me started on the mining aspect, or worse, disposal of carbon fiber…it’s not recycled, it’s buried.
“That includes shutting down turbines at times when eagles are more likely to be present.”
Yes, please – I have always wanted the availability of my electricity to depend on the kindness of strangebirds.
Switch to nuke power? It’s always on and doesn’t have turbines to slice up Eagles.
We could build our nuclear power plants in Iran and ship the electricity here in re-chargable batteries.
If it were only you and me, it would already be done. But the eagle-killers don’t like them.
Very true. The Luddites have too much influence.
There is no such thing as green energy. It’s a fairy tale they tell little children along with “You can be any gender you want to be.” All energy production, no matter what color you paint it, comes with an environmental cost.
CO2 is food plant.
Higher CO2 levels yield a greener Earth.
So in a way, there is “green energy” but it’s not the one they are pushing.
“plant food ” or “food for plants”
I will ask Elon Muk to buy 9% of LI and add an edit button.
An edit button would be a great improvement.
The “Preview” icon can also work if you give yourself a few moments and re-read your posting with a “new set of eyes”
I used to edit a national print magazine. I was a stickler for proofreading before going to press. And yet, in about half the issues, I would find at least one typo in the issue I got in the mail. A lot of the problem is that words lay out differently on the page then on the computer (well, they did then, it was before WYSIWYG). And your eye will skip over
KEEP OFF THE
THE GRASS
a lot easier than it will skip over
KEEP OFF THE THE GRASS.
I’m sure it’s 5000% more
We’ve been hearing about the high death tolls for birds from turbine blades for years. (see e.g.: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2009/10/07/wind-turbines-are-killing-condors/)
A google search using “wind turbines causing bird deaths” gives millions of results, including https://abcbirds.org/blog21/wind-turbine-mortality/ and https://windmillskill.com/blog/windfarms-kill-10-20-times-more-previously-thought.
The numbers that we know are high, and most likely well below the actual toll.
Remember that time when DDT was causing Bald Eagle egg shells to be too thin, resulting in a population decline in the eagles?
The proggies went ape shit and forced DDT to be removed from widespread use, resulting in the deaths of many millions of “People of Color”.
The left’s tolerance for cognitive dissonance is truly remarkable.
Who would down vote reality? Malaria is a big killer. “Silent Spring” wasn’t about a total ban on DDT but when has the Left ever moderated toward reality?
If I recall correctly, “DDT thins bird egg shells” turned out not to be true.
It was the “bat soup” of its day.
Your federal and other subsidized agencies at work….as in the C.D.C. and face masks.
If I recall correctly, we had no EPA then. And the DDT “issue,” for which the primary “authority” was pretty much that book itself, was one of the excuses used to claim an EPA was necessary.
Cognitive dissonance is when you can hold the insane president to be sane without batting an eyelash, no matter how insanely he behaves. A couple of hours ago the insane president said:
“America’s a nation that can be defined in a single word…I was in the foothills of the Himalayas with Xi Jinping, traveling with him, that’s when I traveled 17,000 miles when I was vice president. I don’t know that for a fact.”
And all the people clapped their hands with joy.
You know when I first read this comment, I thought you were just making up satire.
Then later, I saw a videoclip of Brandon actually saying exactly this.
God save America.
And who will ultimately pay the fines? The rate payers, after the utility goes to the PUC to get approval for higher rates in order to continue to make their guaranteed profit.
“And who will ultimately pay the fines? The rate payers, after the utility goes to the PUC to get approval for higher rates in order to continue to make their guaranteed profit.”
New Mexico’s Clean Energy law, passed in 2019, requires twice the amount of renewable energy by 2025 and mandates 50% renewable energy by 2030, 80% by 2040, and 100% by 2045.
Perhaps at some point those rate payers will realize they’ve elected politicians who have enacted measures that all but ensure that electric power will become increasingly costly and unreliable and “vote the bums out,” but for now this seems to be “the people’s choice.”
Although even in states that don’t pass such foolish legislation it might make financial sense for the utility to provide it so it can get federal subsidies (“A formula grant provided through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) State Energy Program (SEP) helped the state of Wyoming promote energy efficiency by funding 16 awards in 2019. An SEP formula grant of $285,284.49 partially funded these initiatives.”).
Besides, if electric power is priced high enough to become a luxury good that only the rich can afford then governments can always pass programs to provide subsidies to the poor poor, can’t they. And should even that fail, the federal government can create a few $trillion in new money at will? What could go wrong?
(And if even that fails, can’t utilities can be directed to harvest moonbeams from cucumbers- and bankrupted if they fail to comply?)
At least there are no mean tweets.
/someone had to…
The solution is to build the wind farms in Saudi Arabia and lay a transatlantic cable to bring the electricity to America.
Hey, coyotes have to eat, too.
I had to give you a thumbs up. I have never, could never, hold it against a predator trying to make a living. They actually have a rough life, given the huge amounts of attempts they have to try to make a kill. And then they have to hold on to the kill long enough to gain nourishment to sustain life.
I don’t know where to begin. How about I begin with an early morning walk with my 10 week old Chesapeake Bay Retriever pup. I decide to turn the morning walk into a morning run, so I unleash the pup. Right then out of the undeveloped field five coyotes stand up. I don’t know who is chasing who but I know my dog is no match for five coyotes. Just a week earlier a pack of coyotes ripped apart an 85lb Labrador while the horrified owner was holding onto the leash.
There’s a phenomenon known as prey fixation. A predator locks onto a target and will not let go. The target might be your toddler. Something about the size a coyote thinks it can handle. Pick the child up. It won’t matter. As far as the coyote is concerned you aren’t there.
http://www.kanoklafurco.com/2012/04/prices-2012-2013.html
“KanOkla Fur Company is a licensed fur buyer, paying high fur prices. Hunters and Trappers receive top prices for wild fur such as bobcats, coyotes, coons, beavers, foxes, mink, and other furbearers.”
Fine with me if the critters hang out long enough to make me a profit.
The last thing I would want to is try to convince you it’s jungle out there. Death lurks around every turn. And OBTW I have just the tactical shotgun that if you buy it will make you invincible.
No. But I would recommend at least carrying a ski pole.
“For more than a decade, ESI has violated (wildlife) laws, taking eagles without obtaining or even seeking the necessary permit,”
—————————————–
Didn’t obtain a permit. So much for the laws against killing bald eagles.
Bet the company would have skated if they’d donated heavily to the biden crime family.
They did skate. They send a check for a fine which the ratepayers will be billed for. If it was Joe Landowner they would be in jail.
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a permit to take an eagle.
I do know that if you’re a bonafide member of a registered Indian tribe you can possess an eagle feather. Or, more. But if you’re not a registered tribal member and you have so much as an eagle feather you’re going to prison.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdla/pr/homer-man-receives-federal-prison-sentence-possession-feather-bald-eagle
Any questions?
The electricians working on “wind farms” main job every day is to collect the bodies of birds killed by the windmills. They fill pickups with birds. The windmills attract bugs and the birds go after the bugs.
I actually go into it with an environmentalist who didn’t think it was any big deal that his windmills kill birds, House cats kill birds so, derr, I should be fine with his earth saving bird choppers executing eagles, hawks, and owls.
House cats kill sparrows. They don’t kill eagles. Eagles kill cats. Derr!!
Wind farms attract bugs. The bugs get killed either by getting chopped up or in the vacuum the blades create which basically explode (implode?) the bug. The sweet scent of bug juice attracts small birds. Which attracts larger birds. Eventually you step up to hawks and eagles.
And it isn’t just the windmills.
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-solar-plant-accidentally-incinerates-up-to-6-000-birds-a-year#:~:text=A%20rare%20and%20unusual%20type%20of%20solar%20power,beams%20of%20sunlight%2C%20and%20spontaneously%20bursting%20into%20flames.
“This Solar Plant Accidentally Incinerates Up to 6,000 Birds a Year”
Count me out. I’m not buying the “accident” of entirely predictable sh*t. AOC et al aren’t trying to wrest me away from my bitching Mustang to save the planet. They want to pry me out of the driver’s seat because they don’t want me in the driver’s seat of anything. That gives me too much independence. I’m having too much fun.
Any good communist will tell you the prime directive is putting a stop to fun and independence.
An electric car race would be BORING! On the other hand, fan that I am of throbbing fossil fueled V8s I’m not necessarily claiming that they’re the future. Just that they’re fun.
And when exactly did I authorize AOC and Bernie Sanders and Jill Biden to legislate all the fun out of the future and force me into golf carts?
When it comes to picking winners and loser do we really want Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, or AOC having a vote? That’s a rhetorical question.
https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/35209996.html
“Toyota City, Japan, April 22, 2021―Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announced today that, toward the achievement of a carbon-neutral mobility society, it is developing a hydrogen engine. It has installed the engine on a racing vehicle based on Toyota’s Corolla Sport, which it will enter in competition under the ORC ROOKIE Racing banner starting with the Super Taikyu Series 2021 Powered by Hankook Round 3 NAPAC Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours Race on May 21-23.
By honing its under-development hydrogen engine in the harsh environment of motorsports, Toyota aims to contribute to the realization of a sustainable and prosperous mobility society….”
I’m betting on hydgrogen. Not electric. Mostly because I want to have fun.
“I’m betting on hydgrogen.”
You and the booing dirigible industry..
Oh, the humanity!
Very funny. I mean that. I deserve that. But you’re also making my point. Hydrogen is dangerous because it’s the most energy dense of chemical fuels. Thus excluding nuclear. Which doesn’t mean if someone invents a practical nuclear reactor I’m not retrofitting the Mustang. And nuclear is by far the safest way to generate energy.
https://images.mauldineconomics.com/images/uploads/world-money-analyst/6522/image/Nuclear_Safest_Source_fmt.png
But getting back to chemical fuels, hydrogen is dangerous because it is powerful. Energy density is defined as the amount of energy stored in a given system, substance, or region of space per unit volume: Hydrogen is three times more dense than gasoline, and 200 times more dense than the stored energy in batteries.
Can anyone tell me why we’re still playing with batteries? Other than, I’m told, some dumb f*** wants to date AOC.