Posted on 05/19/2023 7:14:54 PM PDT by grundle
BILLINGS, Mont. — A wind energy company was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed over the past decade at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during a Tuesday court appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was charged in the deaths of eagles at three of its wind farms in Wyoming and New Mexico.
In addition to those deaths, golden and bald eagles were killed at wind farms affiliated with ESI and NextEra since 2012 in eight states, prosecutors said: Wyoming, California, New Mexico, North Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona and Illinois. The birds are killed when they fly into the blades of wind turbines. Some ESI turbines killed multiple eagles, prosecutors said.
It’s illegal to kill or harm eagles under federal law.
$8 million bucks is eagle feed. Where’s the prison time?
I've always wondered when people are fined like this, to whom are the fines and restitution paid?? Who gets to have the money, and why?
How much $$$$ did they take in federal subsidies to build the damn things?
Not to mention tons and tons of other birds.
How were they supposed not to kill eagles? There’s some technology that wafts an eagle gently over the blade but whacks vultures and geese?
I think saw an eagle dead on the road today. Route 1, Maryland, north of the Susquehanna hydroelectric, northbound side, if the feds want to investigate.
They’re averaging two eagle deaths per state per year. I think the population can sustain it.
Is green energy a balance, a tradeoff, or does it have to be perfect?
Put some quotes around green. I was in a parking garage where many spots were reserved for “green” cars. I think my little old gas miser should qualify, not having been responsible for toxic mining operations lately, but perhaps I should paint it it first. Celery, or more of a kiwifruit color?
Where is PETA?
Trump said this was going on. Try telling this to the wind loving enviro-whackos, though. They claim only a few birds die. 🙄
Back during the IRS scandal it came out that the fines were fed right into liberal “nonprofit” hard core activist groups.
And that is just the birds found and reported, not the shovel and shut up casualties, or ones that were able to make it off site before succumbing to injuries or being unable to catch food or eat due to injuries to talons or beaks.
When a normal person hears “restitution”, they probably think it means a payment to the aggrieved. But here the aggrieved are eagles. So, it’s probably going to some Democrat “get out the vote” fund or organization, or some such. You know, for social justice.
They could put sensors on the towers that detect the eagles (AI to determine eagles and not grackles or loons), and halt the turbines until the eagles fly safely through the area.
And then what? Do they have t shut down the wind farms? Or do they just get to keep on killing eagles?
Just keep on killin’.
Your minimization of the problem is utterly ridiculous.
See...
How Many Birds Are Killed by Wind Turbines?
January 26, 2021
By Joel Merriman, American Bird Conservancy
Will the payment of a fine assure that the windmills have become less hazardous to eagles?
Are you one of those whistleblowers?
We should allow as many birds to die as the number of babies we abort over identical time frames
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