Hot air over bird deaths
to stall windmills?
Activist likens turbines to 'terrestrial Exxon Valdez'
Posted: December 8, 2003
6:16 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
They were touted by environmentalists as an alternative source of pollution-free electric power that was good for the planet, but 20 years and countless dollars later environmentalists are now crying foul over the Altamont wind farm east of San Francisco Bay.
 Windmills generate electric power at Altamont Pass, Calif. (EPA Photo: Christy Shake.) |
Two organizations seek to block the renewal of permits for nearly 1,400 wind towers – for the sake of birds. An estimated 22,000 have died due to run-ins with the structures' blades, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks and other raptors.
"Renewing these permits without addressing the cumulative impacts of wind energy on migratory birds, especially raptor species, will give a black eye to wind power," the Los Angeles Times quotes Michael Boyd, president of Californians for Renewable Energy, as saying.
Boyd's group and the Center for Biological Diversity seek to reverse a recent decision by an Alameda County zoning board that granted permit renewals in November to some of the wind power operators in the area, accounting for nearly 1,400 windmills.
Alameda County planners estimate there are about 4,000 operational wind turbines in the county, reports the Alameda Times-Star. Most were approved between 1983 and 1988, before the hazard wind turbines in the Altamont Pass pose to birds was fully understood.
Activists claim the county is obligated to conduct an environmental review of the windmills before it renews permits.
"The county did everyone a disservice by choosing to ignore the true impacts of these turbines, which are the equivalent of a terrestrial Exxon Valdez every year," Jeff Miller, spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Times in reference to the oil spill that killed an estimated 250,000 seabirds and 250 bald eagles.
Miller vows legal action unless the county reviews the impact of the turbines on birds and considers implementing changes in the 50,000-acre wind farm to deter avian fatalities.
Among the changes recommended by the California Energy Commission, according to the Times, is painting the turbine blades a different color to make them more visible to birds.
The California Energy Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been working with the wind-farm operators to find ways of reducing the deaths.
Industry officials told the Times they felt blindsided by the flip-flop of environmentalists on the issue and were angered by the Exxon Valdez bird-kill comparison.
"It would take 400 years to reach [the Exxon Valdez] number here, " Steven Steinhour, vice president of Seawest, a San Diego wind power company with holdings in Altamont, told the Times.
The flap over bird deaths has hampered the growth of the industry, according to an industry-funded advocacy group, the National Wind Coordinating Committee.
Its 2001 report concludes the controversy has "delayed and even significantly contributed to blocking the development of some wind plants in the U.S."
Although many wind farms around the world co-exist well with birds, avian biologists say the Altamont Pass wind farm deserves extra attention because it's home to one of the largest nesting populations of golden eagles in the world.
But the wind-farm industry report puts the bird deaths into perspective, contending more birds get killed every year in collisions with vehicles (60 million) and window panes (98 million) than windmills.
"When you turn on your lights you kill something, no matter what the source of electricity," maintains Paul Kerlinger, a New Jersey biologist who works as an industry consultant.
Defending the zoning board's renewal of permits, member Larry Gosselin told the Alameda Times-Star the bird deaths must be weighed against the benefits of producing electricity without producing greenhouse gases and other pollutants.