The Obama administration has championed pollution-free wind power and used the same law against oil companies and power companies for drowning and electrocuting birds. The case against Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm was the first prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act against a wind energy company. In this plea agreement, Duke Energy Renewables acknowledges that it constructed these wind projects in a manner it knew beforehand would likely result in avian deaths, Robert G. Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Departments Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement Friday. An investigation by The Associated Press in May revealed dozens of eagle deaths from wind energy facilities, including at Dukes Top of the World farm outside Casper, Wyo., the deadliest for eagles of 15 such facilities that Duke operates nationwide. The other wind farm included in the settlement is also in Converse County and is called Campbell Hill. All the deaths, which included golden eagles, hawks, blackbirds, wrens and sparrows, occurred from 2009 to 2013. Wind energy is not green if it is killing hundreds of thousands of birds, said George Fenwick, president of the American Bird Conservancy, which supports properly sited wind farms. The unfortunate reality is that the flagrant violations of the law seen in this case are widespread. Flying eagles behave like drivers texting on their cellphones; they dont look up. As they scan for food, they dont notice the industrial turbine blades until its too late. Once a wind farm is built, there is little a company can do to stop the deaths. Some firms have tried using radar to detect birds and to shut down the turbines when they get too close. Others have used human spotters to warn when birds are flying too close to the blades. Another tactic has been to remove vegetation to reduce the prey the birds like to eat. As part of the agreement, Duke will continue to use field biologists to identify eagles and shut down turbines when they get too close. It will install new radar technology, similar to what is used in Afghanistan to track missiles. And it will continue to voluntarily report all eagle and bird deaths to the government. The company will also have to apply for an eagle take permit, and draft a plan to reduce eagle and bird deaths at its four wind farms in Wyoming. Dukes $1 million will be divided. The fine — $400,000 — will go into a wetlands conservation fund. The state of Wyoming gets $100,000. The remainder will be used to purchase land or easements to protect golden eagle habitat and for projects aimed at minimizing interactions between eagles and wind turbines in Wyoming. While the settlement with Duke is a first, there could be more enforcement. The Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating 18 bird-death cases involving wind-power facilities, and about a half dozen have been referred to the Justice Department.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 18:19:20 +0000
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