Feds fail to “offset” wind turbine eagle kills – Watts Up With That?

From CFACT

By CFACT

CFACT just released a troubling report by senior advisor David Wojick about the dramatic threat wind turbines pose to bald and golden eagles.

Federal regulators concluded that the golden eagle population cannot survive increased kills from human activity and also determined that wind turbines substantially increase eagle deaths.

The feds then offered a solution only a bureaucrat could love, don’t protect the eagles from turbine strikes, but “offset” their deaths by reducing electrocutions from power poles.

Government being as efficient as it is, they then underestimated the number of power poles that would need to be made “safe” by a factor of as much as 241 and failed to save any meaningful number of eagles.

Check out Wojick’s report.

Executive Summary

Nearly 15 years ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that the golden eagle population could not withstand an increase in human-caused mortality. However, a large queue of proposed wind projects sought FWS permits exempting them from harm they may cause eagles under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act—permits that would inevitably increase the kill rate.

In response, the FWS created an offset program in which eagle deaths caused by wind turbines would purportedly be compensated for by reducing electrocution deaths from power poles. We now know this offset program has completely failed, as there has been no measurable reduction in electrocution deaths.

The likely cause of this failure is FWS’s use of a wildly inaccurate electrocution death rate. As a result, the number of power poles made “safe” is just a tiny fraction of what would be required to create a legitimate offset. While FWS currently requires about 278 poles to be “made safe” per wind-killed eagle, the correct number, according to the results presented in this report, may be closer to 67,000. It is no wonder the program has failed.

At a minimum, FWS should issue no new wind power eagle-kill permits until the glaring issues uncovered in this study are resolved. Accurate electrocution death rates must be determined. Given there are well over 100 million power poles in America, the offset numbers may prove so high that the program becomes unfeasible. In that case, wind power development must stop. Existing facilities may need to be retired as well.

READ THE FULL REPORT

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