Wind power and birds

dbeyat45

dbeyat45

Professional Stirrer
Location
SE Queensland, Australia
Guilty plea in bird deaths at wind farms a first


  • WASHINGTON (AP) - A major U.S. power company has pleaded guilty to killing eagles and other birds at two Wyoming wind farms and agreed to pay $1 million as part of the first enforcement of environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities.

    Until the settlement announced Friday with Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm, not a single wind energy company had been prosecuted for a death of an eagle or other protected bird - even though each death is a violation of federal law, unless a company has a federal permit. Not a single wind energy facility has obtained a permit.

    The Charlotte, N.C.-based company pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at its Top of the World and Campbell Hill wind farms outside Casper, Wyo. 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."

    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.

    Wind farms are clusters of turbines as tall as 30-story buildings, with spinning rotors as wide as a passenger jet's wingspan. Though the blades appear to move slowly, they can reach speeds up to 170 mph at the tips, creating tornado-like vortexes. Eagles are especially vulnerable because they don't look up as they scan the ground for food, failing to notice the blades until it's too late.

    ....................... cont.
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/24050658/guilty-plea-in-bird-deaths-at-wind-farms-a-first
 

So they killed an average of 32 birds per year. There would have to be over 6,000 wind farms with the same mortality rates in order to meet Mr. Fenwick's "hundreds of thousands" number.

Appeal to emotions. Minus points. Inaccurate maths. Minus more points.

It would be interesting to see how much power was produced by these farms and graph it against the bird deaths, to see how much energy (and by extension, cost) each bird is worth.

... or is that just wrong? :rolleyes:

Let's see ... 60,000 megawatts total wind power produced in the U.S. in the 3rd quarter of 2013 divided by 200,000 birds (Mr. Fenwick said "hundreds of thousands" but didn't give an exact number, so I'm assuming lowest -case scenario) = 300,000 watts per bird = 300 kilowatts per bird @ $0.12/KWH (national average) = $36 per bird.

That's $7.2 million of birds per year for producing $7.2 BILLION worth of electricity.

ETA: WAIT!

I used quarterly figures for the electricity produced, but yearly figures for the birds. That means ...

One-quarter of the bird price = $9/bird = $1.8 million worth of birds for $28.8 billion worth of electricity.

$0.006 of bird for every dollar of electricity.
 
I just wish Duke Energy could find a way to keep squirrels off their lines, as the tree rats use their lines in order to jump on my house, and cause havoc. I don't like them.
 

Not to make light of the situation, because I really do like birds. But, have you ever considered how many wild birds are killed each year, by cats who are let outside?
 
RedRibbons said:
Not to make light of the situation, because I really do like birds. But, have you ever considered how many wild birds are killed each year, by cats who are let outside?
Click to expand...

... and shot by hunters and eaten by other birds and poisoned by farmers and that fly into windows and ...

I hold all life as sacred, but there comes a time when you have to weigh consequences. Continue to rape the Earth by pulling the limited supply of oil out of it, or start building on renewable sources.

Maybe they could build huge birdcages around the turbines to keep the birds out ... :eek:nthego:
 
I'm an animal lover, and I'm sure that many are killed by many things made by people, like windmills, airplanes, cars, etc. Guess it would be nice if the wind turbines had some kind of protective cover to keep birds out, don't know if that's reasonable. How many birds and other animals are killed by pesticides and weed killers like RoundUp. Little too much attention to the loss of some birds, IMO. :rolleyes:
 
I don't know about you, but I have weeds, and other wild stuff on my land, and nothing but a strong weed killer will kill it. Me killing this stuff, has not harmed any birds. I wish there was something that would kill snakes, but there is nothing like that. Yes, I know they are Supposed to eat mice and rats. They have not done that on my property, as those vermin are abundant around here.
 
I just have a normal yard, so no weed killers here, because I don't want to use anything toxic that may hurt my pets. I've pulled them cowboy style, and used boiled salt water for spot treatments in cracks of walkways, etc. You don't really know if you harmed any birds, that would be hard to track. We have snakes too, small snakes and bull snakes, but only kill the rattlers.
 
I know I have not killed any birds. I am happy you have such tame weeds you only need the so called Natural treatments to get rid of them. Heck, I cannot even kill English Ivy with strong weed killer here. You must not live in the South, as we have very tough weeds, and other wild stuff that grows here, almost impossible to get rid of. I hope none of the "Harmless" snakes ever come into your house, and crawl up on your bed while you are sleeping.
 
I really think that this is a big fuss that is just to stop the wind turbines. There have always been accidental animal injuries and death from any method of power generation.
Dams completely mess up the fish spawning, since they have almost an impossibility to get back up the dam to the spawning areas, and as water levels are raised and lowered, this also affects the fish, and other creatures that live near the water, not to mention the birds that fish for food nearby.

Birds, squirrels, and other wildlife are killed by the electricity in the power poles, and trees are stripped out of the woods to make a path for the high-rise electrical towers that cross the country.
Miners die each year from coal mining accidents, so it is not just animals and birds that suffer from power generation.

When you look at all of the total picture, the actual loss of birds from flying into wind turbines, is truly a small cost for the electricity it can produce, while doing no other damage to our earth, as most of the other forms of power production cause.
 
RedRibbons said:
I know I have not killed any birds. I am happy you have such tame weeds you only need the so called Natural treatments to get rid of them. Heck, I cannot even kill English Ivy with strong weed killer here. You must not live in the South, as we have very tough weeds, and other wild stuff that grows here, almost impossible to get rid of. I hope none of the "Harmless" snakes ever come into your house, and crawl up on your bed while you are sleeping.
Click to expand...

I'm in Colorado, and really not fussy about the weeds in my yard...anything that covers the dirt and avoids mud during snows and rains is okay by me. :playful: I did have a snake in my house years back, and killed it with a shovel, also one in my garage around a week ago that had the cat's attention. I only worry about the poisonous ones, my dog was bitten by a rattlesnake a long time ago and needed emergency care. :eek:
 
Happyflowerlady said:
[ Snip ]
When you look at all of the total picture, the actual loss of birds from flying into wind turbines, is truly a small cost for the electricity it can produce, while doing no other damage to our earth, as most of the other forms of power production cause.
Click to expand...
You will get some arguments about the "no other damage" bit from some quarters HFL.
 
SifuPhil said:
Not to beat a dead horse, but how do you know? Do you make monthly bird-counts?

It's the old problem of proving a negative - one can prove that they DID kill some birds, but how does one prove they did NOT?
Click to expand...

Haaa, you love to argue, don't you? I don't have to prove anything. I did not kill any birds, pure and simple.
 
RedRibbons said:
Haaa, you love to argue, don't you? I don't have to prove anything. I did not kill any birds, pure and simple.
Click to expand...

It isn't arguing - it's just good debate etiquette.

When you make a statement such as you did on a discussion forum, it's usually good to have the ability to prove it when questioned, that's all.

I could come out and say "I never kicked a dog", but if asked to prove it I would be hard pressed - there IS no way to prove that I did NOT kick a dog at least once in my life. I might KNOW I never kicked one, but I could never PROVE it, and therefore I wouldn't use it in my defense on a forum.
 
SifuPhil said:
It isn't arguing - it's just good debate etiquette.

When you make a statement such as you did on a discussion forum, it's usually good to have the ability to prove it when questioned, that's all.

I could come out and say "I never kicked a dog", but if asked to prove it I would be hard pressed - there IS no way to prove that I did NOT kick a dog at least once in my life. I might KNOW I never kicked one, but I could never PROVE it, and therefore I wouldn't use it in my defense on a forum.
Click to expand...


Haaa, you are funny even though you don't make much sense.
 
Thank you Phil and others. I appreciate the intellectual stimulation. It helps me see both sides of many things and makes me think. Though that is a little difficult this morning with only one cup of coffee.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top