American Bird Conservancy asks feds to regulate wind industry

Our forthcoming February issue reports on the deaths of hundreds of warblers and other birds at a wind-power facility in West Virginia, and it includes an article about researchers who are working to protect Golden Eagles in eastern North America from a similar fate. So our interest was piqued today when the American Bird Conservancy announced it had petitioned the Interior Department to protect birds from the negative impacts of wind energy by developing regulations that will safeguard wildlife and reward responsible wind-energy development.

Right: a turbine at a wind farm in West Virginia. Photo by Gavin Shire, American Bird Conservancy
 
The 109-page petition urges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to establish a mandatory permitting system under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) for the operation of wind-energy projects and mitigation of their impacts on migratory birds.
 
The recent West Virginia incident was notable for the large numbers of birds that died, but government estimates suggest it was the tip of the iceberg.

"Based on the operation of approximately 22,000 turbines, FWS estimated in 2009 that at least 440,000 birds were killed each year by wind turbines," according to the ABC petition. "By 2020, there are expected to be more than 100,000 wind turbines in the United States and these are expected to kill at least one million birds each year."

Further, ABC notes that wind-energy projects are also expected to adversely impact almost 20,000 square miles of terrestrial habitat and another 4,000 square miles of marine habitat.
 
“ABC is filing this petition because it’s clear that the voluntary guidelines the government has drafted will neither protect birds nor give the wind industry the regulatory certainty it has been asking for," said Kelly Fuller, wind campaign coordinator for ABC. "We’ve had voluntary guidelines since 2003, and yet preventable bird deaths at wind farms keep occurring. This includes thousands of Golden Eagles that have died at Altamont Pass in California and multiple mass mortality events that have occurred recently in West Virginia.”

“We have an industry that is operating in a manner that is legally as well as environmentally unsustainable," added Eric Glitzenstein, an attorney who advocates for wildlife protections. Wind-power facilities that are already in operation, he said, "are causing wholesale violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, with no enforcement actions being brought by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Essentially, a policy has been adopted to look the other way when we have violations of the MBTA." --Matt Mendenhall, Associate Editor

Read "Eye on Conservation," our regular column from the American Bird Conservancy

Comments

Brenda Hartley-Foubert wrote re: American Bird Conservancy asks feds to regulate wind industry on Wed, Dec 14 2011 1:50 PM Wolfe Island in Canada is a great example..hundreds of deaths per year and Amherst Island in a strong fight against them..what price will we pay..

newfoundlander61 wrote re: American Bird Conservancy asks feds to regulate wind industry on Mon, Dec 19 2011 5:32 PM Regarding Wolfe Island: A consultant’s report covering the period between July and December of 2009 indicated that 602 birds and 1,270 bats were killed by the turbines over that stretch.

Farnham wrote re: American Bird Conservancy asks feds to regulate wind industry on Tue, Jan 31 2012 3:53 PM Wolfe Island has registered the highest bird kill in North America  due to wind turbines.  Now the Ontario government is proposing to install a 75MW wind factory on Amherst Island (33 mega-turbines) as well as a 100 turbine offshore installation that stretches on Lake Ontario  from Wolfe Island through Prince Edward County.  Add to that the Ostrander Point installation on Prince Edward County (starting with 8 turbines) and we have effectively covered this whole migratory pathway in double layers!!  This will be a bloodbath!  Isn't there some international treaty to stop this?  Fighting hard on Amherst Island!