Prairie-chicken nests appear unaffected by wind energy facility

Date: August 9, 2017

Source: American Ornithological Society Publications Office

Summary:

Wind energy development in the Great Plains is increasing, spurring concern about its potential effects on grassland birds, the most rapidly declining avian group in North America. However, a new study suggests that for one grassland bird species of concern -- the greater prairie-chicken -- wind energy infrastructure has little to no effect on nesting. Instead, roads and livestock grazing remain the most significant threats to its successful reproduction.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170809073339.htm

Leading bird organisation petitions US government to regulate the wind industry

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has filed a formal petition with the US Department of the Interior (DOI) calling for new regulations governing the impacts of wind energy projects on migratory birds to be established.

The US wind industry is now operating under “voluntary” instead of mandatory regulatory guidelines.

The ABC petition supports “Bird-Smart” wind energy, which requires independent, science-based risk assessment leading to careful siting; effective mitigation; independent, transparent post-construction monitoring of bird kills; and compensation if public trust resources are being taken.

Bird-Smart wind energy is designed to reduce and redress any unavoidable bird mortality and habitat loss.

“This petition includes new information that further makes the case for wind industry regulation,” says Dr Michael Hutchins, the National Coordinator of ABC’s Bird Smart Wind Energy Campaign.

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Wind Company Convicted in Deaths of Eagles, Other Birds

by Chris Clarke 

December 19, 2014 2:42 PM

A Portland-based wind energy company that recently sued the federal government to keep its bird death data secret has been convicted in federal court over deaths of protected birds at two of its wind facilities in Wyoming.

The carcasses of 38 golden eagles were found at PacifiCorp Energy's "Seven Mile Hill" and "Glenrock/Rolling Hills" installations in Carbon and Converse counties between 2009 and this year, along with 336 other birds protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, PacificCorp disregarded risk to eagles and other birds when it built its turbines at the two facilities.

"PacifiCorp Energy built two of its Wyoming wind projects in a manner it knew would likely result in the deaths of eagles and other protected birds," said Sam Hirsch, the U.S Department of Justice's Acting Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources.

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Bird conservation group challenges feds over wind farm eagle deaths

Published May 02, 2014

FoxNews.com

One of the nation's leading bird conservation groups plans to sue the Obama administration over a federal regulation that allows wind energy companies to obtain 30-year permits to kill eagles without prosecution by the government.

The American Bird Conservancy on Wednesday announced its intent to file the lawsuit, arguing the Department of the Interior violated federal laws when it promulgated the regulation it says sanctions the killing of bald and golden eagles. 

A wind farm in Colorado is shown here. (AP Photo)

"The rule lacks a firm foundation in scientific justification and was generated without the benefit of a full assessment of its impacts on eagle populations,” said Michael Hutchins, National Coordinator of ABC's Bird Smart Wind Energy Campaign.

The Obama administration announced in December it would allow companies to seek authorization to kill and harm bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty in a bid to balance the environmental trade-offs of green energy. 

The Interior Department rule provides legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects if companies obtain permits and make efforts to avoid killing protected birds.

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GOP: Administration stonewalling on bird deaths

Posted: Mar 26, 2014 5:42 PM GSTUpdated: Mar 26, 2014 9:25 PM GST

By MATTHEW DALY

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is refusing to turn over documents related to enforcement of environmental laws at wind farms where dozens of eagles and other protected birds have been killed, House Republicans charged Wednesday.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said the Fish and Wildlife Service has engaged in a "deliberate slow rolling of documents and answers" for nearly a year. Hastings is chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which has been seeking to compel the wildlife agency turn over internal documents related to its enforcement of laws protecting eagles and other birds.

An Associated Press investigation last year revealed that the administration was not prosecuting wind energy companies for killing eagles and other protected birds.

Only one wind energy company has been prosecuted for killing eagles and other birds in violation of federal law. Duke Energy pleaded guilty in November to killing eagles and other birds at two Wyoming wind farms and will pay $1 million.

The government estimates that at least 85 eagles are killed each year by wind turbines.

The wildlife agency "dragged its feet for six months" before providing a two-page memo written the year before, Hastings said, and many of the documents that have been turned over so far are incomplete or have largely been blacked out.

"This is not compliance. This is deliberate slow rolling of documents and answers, and we've had enough," Hastings said.

Committee members asked the agency's director, Dan Ashe, at a hearing Wednesday about a new agency rule allowing energy companies to kill or injure eagles without fear of prosecution for up to 30 years.

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A Possible First: Lawsuit Over Birds Stops Federal Wind Energy Project

by Chris Clarke

on January 29, 2014 5:02 PM

This is well outside California, but it may well have ramifications in the Golden State: A lawsuit threatened by a pair of bird conservation groups has halted a wind power development the federal government had planned along the Lake Erie shore in Ohio.

The project, on the Camp Perry Air National Guard Station just east of Toledo, had already been reduced in size due to pressure from bird protection groups. The military base occupies a stretch of lakeshore that's been identified as one of the most crucial bird migration corridors in the northeast, if not North America.

But the Air National Guard's downsized plan still included a 600-kilowatt wind turbine on the base. That, according to wildlife activists and state and federal agencies, posed an unacceptable risk to migrating birds including the federally Endangered Kirtland's warbler. The national group American Bird Conservancy (ABC), and the Ohio-based Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO) threatened to sue to block the project January 8: the Air National Guard yanked the project in response on Tuesday.

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Wind Energy vs. Bald Eagle: Audubon Society Blasts Rule on Allowing Eagle Deaths - Update

By Deb Belt

The Interior Department has finalized a controversial regulation that authorizes permits for wind farms to allow accidental golden and bald eagle deaths for as long as 30 years, reports the National Journal.

A leading conservation group quickly denounced the rule that lengthens the current five-year permit for the unintentional deaths of eagles caused by wind farms and other facilities. Under the rule change the time period allowed for accidental eagle deaths will lengthen to 30 years, the National Journal says.

Continued