Posted on 03/31/2013 12:48:40 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
May 21, 2012: Wind turbines operate at a wind farm near Milford, Utah. (Reuters)
ELY, Nev. – An eastern Nevada wind farm could face a fine of up to $200,000 over the death of a golden eagle.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the bird's death at the Spring Valley Wind Farm near the Utah border, 350 miles east of Reno, spokesman Jeannie Stafford said.
San Francisco-based Pattern Energy, owner of the 152-megawatt wind energy project that sells power to Las Vegas-based NV Energy, turned over the dead eagle to federal authorities within 36 hours of its discovery in February.
Despite reporting the death, the wind farm could face a fine because it does not hold a federal "take" permit that would allow the incidental death of a golden or bald eagle, the Las Vegas Review-Journal
reported.
Eagles receive special protection under federal law.
Scott Flaherty, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service's southwestern regional office in Sacramento, Calif., said wind energy projects are not required to obtain take permits, but those that don't open themselves up to investigation and possible prosecution under federal law.
Applying for a permit and engaging with the service before any eagles are killed "provides the best possible outcomes for the companies and the wildlife," Flaherty said.
"We really prefer that wind developers work with the Service early on in the process" to identify the best site for a farm and its individual turbines to reduce bird strikes, he told the Review-Journal.
The $225 million facility went online in August as the first utility-scale wind farm in Nevada and the first to be built on federal land anywhere in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I hear you can get away with that these days.
I guess they aren't aware of the three S's....... shoot, shovel, shut up.
Try doing anything else in a National Park!
Lefty tree-hugging Park Ranger thugs abusing Lefty tree-hugging wind farms operators.
Love it.
take the fine out of the pay of whoever reported it...
I would imagine that a "take permit" would run you in the neighborhood of $250,000 so the developers did a cost/benefit analysis and so it goes...
Sooner or later they'll off a Golden Condor and then they'll really wish they'd have popped for the permit.
Regards,
GtG
Me too!
This would all be ok if the utility employees gathered the shredded poultry downstream to feed to the starving victims of the Baraqqi Depression.
So if you get a federal take permit to allow an incidental death of a golden eagle, what kind of permit allows you to actually take an eagle intentionaly?
Do you need a separate take permit for every single type of endangered species? Do they come cheaper if you buy permits by the dozens, or is there an all inclusive take permit for non taking of species?
Is there an EPA take permit for EPA Fools? No, wait, they are not an endangered species...
All agents of the feral government who encouraged and subsidized said wind farm should be fined and imprisoned.
Scroodat. Fine 'em already.
There.
Fixed...
It was clearly suicide by wind turbine
About six years ago in Germany...I was watching a documentary over the whole wind mill operation. It was surprising to me that a maintenance guy came out every day. But the camera guy caught this awkward moment...as the guy opened his trunk and got out a garbage bag. What he was doing as he approached the dozen windmills....was picking up the dead birds. Then the question came...you do this each day? Yes. And then he picked up around six birds from the previous day. You can do the math and figure the situation. That’s just one site....for one day.
Today in Germany....you have a small fringe group of Green guys who just absolutely are against windmills....because of the dead bird episode. Then another Green group is totally for the windmills because that’s the angle against nuke energy.
Beat me to it. Never ever admit anything.
You know how it goes; if you are a good registered Democrat who contributes generously to all the good Democrat Campaigns and holds fund raisers in his elegantly decorated mansion for Obama, the local Rep and Senators you accumulate good will with the those that hold the dispensations powers.
Do seals really go clubbing ?
Bar hopping maybe ....
It’s a wind farm!
No, it’s a food processor!
It’s a wind farm!
Stop! You’re both right. It’s A Government Electric Chop-o-Matic Wind Turbine. It’ll julian bald eagles, and then generate the power you need to fry ‘em up.
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