Over the past two decades, the federal
government has prosecuted hundreds of cases against oil and gas
producers and electricity producers for violating some of America’s
oldest wildlife-protection laws: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Eagle
Protection Act.
But the Obama administration—like the Bush
administration before it—has never prosecuted the wind industry despite
myriad examples of widespread, unpermitted bird kills by turbines. A
violation of either law can result in a fine of up to $250,000 and
imprisonment for two years…
Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported that about 70 golden eagles are being killed per year by the wind turbines at Altamont Pass, about 20 miles east of Oakland, Calif. A 2008 study funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency estimated that about 2,400 raptors, including burrowing owls, American kestrels, and red-tailed hawks—as well as about 7,500 other birds, nearly all of which are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act—are being killed every year by the turbines at Altamont. (Continues here)
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