Court Invalidates 30-Year "Eagle Take" Rule For Wind Farms

[Mr VJP]

The Department of the Interior violated federal laws when it created a final regulation allowing wind energy and some other companies to obtain 30-year permits to kill protected Bald and Golden Eagles without prosecution by the federal government.

 

 

http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/story/1439442228z2jpkhrcfv9

[growalot]

That is one of the reasons I have no wind turbine signs on my fences...we have eagles gliding over us all summer and great horned owls all kinds or raptors flocks of about every thing...lake country fly way

[Curmudgeon]

Good thing.

 

I've carefully reviewed the avian impact assessments for about a dozen wind projects in NY over the years. Most are inadequate or poorly done. Sometimes the studies are poorly designed. Often they will survey for migrants on days when they aren't flying. One assessment was especially egregious. The migration surveys were too few and on bad days. It was clear from the data that the surveyor could not identify raptors in flight. The whole thing was trash. A cynic might wonder if they were trying NOT to find raptors.

 

The scuttlebutt among some regulators was that the developer of the project with that horrible assessment - located in what I believe may have be the worst possible place to expose eagles to wind turbines in NYS (eagles: meaning both species, combined impacts) - was going to apply for a take permit for Bald Eagles.

 

That project was abandoned after our involvement. However, the assessment was done by an international company that has done this work for many wind projects. Considering the quality of assessments I have seen, the idea that FWS would issue eagle take permits for 30 years when many projects likely had inadequate avian impact assessments before construction is bizarre, even offensive.