Posted on 12/14/2016 11:51:46 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) The Obama administration on Wednesday finalized a rule that lets wind-energy companies operate high-speed turbines for up to 30 years even if means killing or injuring thousands of federally protected bald and golden eagles.
Under the new rule, wind companies and other power providers will not face a penalty if they kill or injure up to 4,200 bald eagles, nearly four times the current limit. Deaths of the more rare golden eagles would be allowed without penalty so long as companies minimize losses by taking steps such as retrofitting power poles to reduce the risk of electrocution.
The new rule will conserve eagles while also spurring development of a pollution-free energy source intended to ease global warming, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's energy plan, said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.
"No animal says America like the bald eagle," Ashe said in a statement. He said the Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to balance energy development with eagle conservation.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Federally subsidized wind turbines are a blight on America. If they were economically viable, they would not need millions in federal dollars to exist. Plus, they kill millions of birds each year. The whirring blades do not discriminate. And they are a blight on the landscape.
Our local wind turbine outfit (First Wind) went bankrupt. It’s successor is in bankruptcy. This is simply a scam.
Bah humbug on windmills for mass energy production.
There is a type of wind turbine that is safer, much safer for birds. Vertical Types............
Kind of like electric cars - they have to plug-in somewhere...not free
And being that here in Texas 12% of our electricity is produced by wind power and at times there has been so much wind power produced in Texas that wholesale electricity prices have gone to negative, what are we going to do for electricity when all those wind turbines are removed by the federal government? Not only will the cost of electricity increase, but we are going to have brownouts.
LMAO!! Don’t you dare MESS with Mother Nature!!
Thousands of birds are killed flying over solar farms!!
See, what did I tell ya! LOL
I was thinking more like this stuff.
The guage doesn’t have to be all that heavy, and a basic two by four inch or smaller mesh would probably save a lot of birds.
Seems like a framework could be added to a blade system to stop birds just before they fly into the blades. The blade changes with wind direction, and the wire mesh shield moves with it.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0666/3027/files/no_climb_horse_fence.JPG
Vertical turbine blades with screens would be perfect, no problems at all..................
Mr. Trump and Mr. Perry:
STOP THIS MADNESS!!!
Then put shades over them!...............
You have quite the imagination, lol.
You gotta love it. Here are the libs who tout “clean energy” at every chance are now PO’ed because their clearn energy source may kill some eagles. I remember those same people blocking every attempt to build power plants back in the 1990’s and they were quite successful at it. Yet, when the heat start to rise during the summer months and stupid Jerry said he was “forced” into rolling brownouts, those same people bitched like hell. Sorry, Stupid, but this is one of those cake-and-eat-it-too teaching moments. Suck it up or STFU.
It would seem to me that if we could come up with some solutions, the people who produce these things could too.
We shouldn’t be killing that many birds. I’m not a nature freak, but some things are offensive I don’t care what your politics are.
How many sacred eagles must be sacrificed at the altar of Global Warming?
More than DDT would have killed.
I agree with you on wind turbines. Plus they are a visual blight on the landscape. As for CFLs, we have been using fluorescent tubes for as long as I can remember, so I would take issue with your landfill assessment. However, with the advent of the LED light bulb, the CFLs are going to go away very quickly because the LEDs last about five times as long as a CFL and they use a lot less energy. We’ve a large number of recessed lighting fixtures that use R30 and R40 lamps. Some time ago the government cut these bulbs output from 75 watts down to 65, with consequent lower levels of light being produced. We just changed all of them out for the new 75watt LEDs and now we are trying to get used to the improved illumination along with lamps that consume about 15 watts of electricity while they are giving us better lighting.
CFL’s were a bad idea because not only are they a pollution hazard, they give of light that’s hard on the eyes.
They should attach a streamer on the tips of the blades.
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