Obama to Give Wind Farms 30-Year Pass on Eagle Deaths
The Obama administration is about to approve a rule that will ensure the death of golden and bald eagles for the next 30 more years.Now, I'm going to leave aside the whole "are wind farms worth it" argument here. I want to focus on the reaction to the Obama administration just flat-out handing a blanket exemption to the wind companies to skirt federal regulations on killing endangered wildlife. Imagine the furor if that had been a Republican president. Imagine the protests, angry op-ed columns, and red-faced
Hundreds of thousands of birds die each year flying into the deadly turbine blades atop the soaring towers that compose wind farms. The rule will give wind farms thirty year permits for the “non purposeful take of eagles-that is where the take is associated with but not the purpose of, the activity.’’ The take of eagles is also a euphemism for the slaughter of them.
But Teleprompter Jesus waves his imperial hand and exempts wind companies from turning endangered bald eagles into meatloaf-of-the-plains? No problem! You can't make an omelet without breaking a few condor eggs, right? It's all for that greater good of greener energy, right? So a few birds get puréed. This is GREEN, baby! We have to decapitate those majestic birds to save them.
The other thing I want to know is where those activists went. You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that flew to the Gulf of Mississippi and Prince William Sound to clean the poor pelicans and penguins with their very tears. We were saturated with image after image of these poor birds and seals just covered with oil, dying a horrible death, etc. to tug at our heartstrings. When it comes to bald eagles - the symbol of America - getting hacked to bits by wind power? Cue the crickets.
Well, at least there will be more crickets in areas de-birded by windmills...
That is all.
8 comments:
Selective enforcement once again... Gotta "protectz" those greenies...
I'm fairly certain neither bald nor golden eagles are endangered. I understand the point you're making and agree the double standard is deplorable, but accuracy is important. The other side will use any minor factual error to claim that your entire argument is invalid, despite the fact that they routinely pull their own evidence out of thin air.
It's even worse when you consider that oil spills and other man-made disasters are almost always despite many safety systems and procedures put in place to reduce the likelihood of those disasters.
A wind turbine on the other hand must be intentionally designed to withstand bird strikes and continue operating without needing maintenance. In other words, killing wild life is not just an accident but part of the design.
The activists are all too busy protesting BC for having a trained bald eagle fly over football games. Because that's cruel. Oh they're also targeting Tom the Tiger (Memphis.... hand raised in captivity), Ralphie the CU Buffalo, the Trojan Horse fer feck's sake.
I guess eagles don't vote democrat or donate enough money?
Just saying....
Gerry
I don't expect it to happen. But what would be the response if some bird or other went extinct because of this?
I mean, isn't that the sort of reasoning they used to use to close down industrial activity where endangered wildlife are?
"Tonight, on the news -- the left-winged red-breasted featherduster is believed extinct. The last known sighting of one was last month, just before it got shredded my a wind farm that was allowed to stay open, despite the danger to the birds, by President Obama's executive order."
Or -- sorry, I can't resist -- how do you ask a bird to be the last one to die for a mistake?
I'm half-surprised that they haven't pushed for a giant screen enclosure around each of the windmills. Kind of like the ones we have on the oscilating home fans to keep peoples' fingers out of the blades. Sure, sure, it might be expensive, but anything is worth it right? ;)
if it saves just one eagle...
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