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Windmills Take Toll on Wildlife
Los Angeles Times ^ | December 8, 2003 | Rone Tempest

Posted on 12/08/2003 11:20:40 AM PST by Willie Green

ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. — When the giant Altamont wind farm sprouted here two decades ago, the only major objections were aesthetic. Local residents didn't appreciate the forest of 7,000 ungainly wind towers cluttering their view.

No one, apparently, thought about the birds.

Since the phalanx of giant windmills began churning in the air above the Altamont Pass east of San Francisco Bay, an estimated 22,000 birds have died, including hundreds of golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, kestrels and other raptors, after flying into the spinning blades of the wind turbines.

Now, some environmental groups that routinely supported wind power as a clean, alternative source of electric power are opposing the renewal of permits for the wind farm until steps are taken to reduce the bird deaths.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: energy; environment; wildlife; windmills
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1 posted on 12/08/2003 11:20:40 AM PST by Willie Green
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; biblewonk; farmfriend; RightWhale; boris
ping
2 posted on 12/08/2003 11:21:34 AM PST by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
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To: Willie Green
If only they could combine this with a nuke plant, they could simulateously catch, pluck, slice and microwave fresh fowl!
3 posted on 12/08/2003 11:22:11 AM PST by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
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To: Willie Green
Ya can't win fer losin'.
4 posted on 12/08/2003 11:22:26 AM PST by EggsAckley (..................."Dean's got Tom McClintock Eyes".........................)
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To: Willie Green
I detect an opportunity to make millions of dollars selling and installing giant fan guards.
5 posted on 12/08/2003 11:23:03 AM PST by DoctorHydrocal
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To: Willie Green
Wind power is a darned silly idea. What worked for a lone farm on the prairie in the 20s is nothing but a feel-good gesture now. It's also not fair to the raptors, who after all, are just trying to scavange the guts of crushed songbirds off the giant blades when they themselves get whacked.
6 posted on 12/08/2003 11:26:17 AM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
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To: Willie Green
only show's ta go ya that no matter what you do, the libs will NOT be satisfied until we revert to the pre-industrial rev days.
7 posted on 12/08/2003 11:28:07 AM PST by camle (no fool like a damned fool)
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To: Willie Green
22,000 birds? including 100's of Golden Eagles? And they are expecting a "moratorium" on more windmills to come up with a solution?

What are they thinking? a giant net over northern California?

Face it, you environmental wacko's, windmills kill birds!, Now either continue your rant to return civilization to the stone age or get behind the clean applications of nuclear and fossil fuels.

8 posted on 12/08/2003 11:28:49 AM PST by AgThorn (Go go Bush!!)
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To: Willie Green
If this were true, we would be inundated with pictures of dead birds at the bottom of the windmills. They are trying the same story with wireless antennas. Fortunately, BS does not fly well, no matter how hard it is thrown by the environmentalist Luddites.
9 posted on 12/08/2003 11:29:13 AM PST by rock58seg (If Bush really were a tyrant, the liberals would love him.)
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To: Willie Green
We visited a big wind farm up in SW Minnesota- they claimed that they lost many more bats than birds, and, think of all the bugs!! Nobody even counts them ! Sob !
10 posted on 12/08/2003 11:31:27 AM PST by Red Boots
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To: Red Boots
So how many dead bats did you see?
11 posted on 12/08/2003 11:32:25 AM PST by rock58seg (If Bush really were a tyrant, the liberals would love him.)
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To: RightWhale
>>Wind power is a darned silly idea<<

I a lot of places, sure. Out here in West Texas, the wind is always blowing, nothing but desert grasslands, and the developement of wind farms...good investment unless the environits wourk their way out here and jabber-jaw about some grackle gettin' hurt...

12 posted on 12/08/2003 11:32:36 AM PST by Roughneck (". . .For there is going to come a time when people won't listen to the truth. . .")
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To: Willie Green
Nuclear fusion.
13 posted on 12/08/2003 11:34:14 AM PST by Z-28 ())
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To: Willie Green; AAABEST; Ace2U; Alamo-Girl; Alas; alfons; amom; AndreaZingg; Anonymous2; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

14 posted on 12/08/2003 11:34:43 AM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: Willie Green
Don't believe it... even remotely believe it..

Sounds like bull to me...

15 posted on 12/08/2003 11:36:00 AM PST by hosepipe
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To: Willie Green
A Mighty Wind BLOWS
16 posted on 12/08/2003 11:36:36 AM PST by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
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To: Red Boots
As a kid, we used to shoot at bats with our bb guns. (Lived behind our chimney.) They could tell the difference between bb's and insects. They were able to swerve and make us miss. Somehow I think they would notice the approach of a windmill blade.
17 posted on 12/08/2003 11:37:00 AM PST by rock58seg (If Bush really were a tyrant, the liberals would love him.)
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To: AgThorn
"a giant net over northern California?"

That would never fly, then the birds would not be able to land and make nests, etc.
18 posted on 12/08/2003 11:37:04 AM PST by looscnnn ("Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils" Gen. John Stark 1809)
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To: Willie Green
It has been known for years that windmills are cuisinarts for birds. It's amazing how flexible the greens can be when one of their pet projects collides with an endangered species.
19 posted on 12/08/2003 11:39:45 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Drug prohibition laws help fund terrorism.)
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To: finnman69
Well, the Lawrence Livermore Lab isn't too far away!
20 posted on 12/08/2003 11:40:31 AM PST by bootless (Never Forget)
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