Govt: voluntary rules for wind farm bird impacts

[phantom power]

More voluntary "regulation" -- what could possibly go wrong?
:eyes:

"With proper diligence paid to siting, operations and management of projects, it is possible to mitigate for adverse effects" on wildlife, the guidelines say. "This is best accomplished when the developer coordinates as early as possible with the (Fish and Wildlife) Service and other stakeholders."

The agency is also proposing new voluntary guidance aimed at preventing deaths of bald and golden eagles.

The American Bird Conservancy said that the wind industry's goal of providing 20 percent of the nation's electricity by 2030 would lead to a million bird deaths a year or more. The group took out print and online advertisements in political publications this week featuring a cartoon bird saying, "Help me get home alive," and asking people to sign a petition calling for mandatory standards.

"Let's not fast-track wind energy at the expense of America's birds," said Mike Parr, a vice president with the group. "Just a few small changes need to be made to make wind bird-smart, but without these, wind power simply can't be considered a green technology."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_re_us/us_wind_power_birds

[liberal N proud]

1. This has to be tough for the less government group who are also pro oil and coal

They could use regulation to slow or kill the alternative energy programs yet they want to reduce regulations on existing industries like coal and oil.

But then they probably don't think alternative sources stand a chance anyway and what are a million or so living creatures in support of their less regulation cause.

[Buzz Clik]

2. One gets the impression that dead birds and bats are accumulating behind windmills.

How devastating to bird populations are windmills compared to, say, housecats?

[XemaSab]

3. If more people die in car accidents than are shot by guns

does that mean that we shouldn't have gun control? :shrug:

[Buzz Clik]

5. And if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it...

... is your metaphor meaningless? Yes.

The mechanism by which birds are killed by windmills requires that they pass within inches of the blades. This makes the occurence of bird/bat deaths very, very infrequent. In my opinion, promoting alternative sources of energy is the absolute higher priority compared to preventing bird and bat deaths.

[XemaSab]

6. You have research to back that up?

http://www.batcon.org/index.php/what-we-do/bats-and-wind-energy.html

[phantom power]

4. I have two thoughts on that topic

The first is: will wind farms kill the same kind of birds that cats do? Are the kinds of migratory birds that wind farms would kill more endangered? (I do not know)

The second is: the ratio of birds killed by wind farms versus cats will, of course, increase if/when we actually start building enough wind farms to supply the amounts of energy that wind-farm proponents like to propose as goals. The number of wind turbines required to meet these targets is thousands of times what we have currently installed.