Free Republic

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...

HERMAN, WI (AP) — A company that operates a southern Wisconsin wind farm is investigating what caused part of a wind turbine and its blades to plummet to the ground, leaving debris strewn across a field. No one was injured Wednesday night when the blades and top portion of a wind turbine collapsed in Dodge County, near the town of Herman. The turbine, which is part of the Butler Ridge wind farm, stands about 400 feet above the ground, according to the National Weather Service. Mark Dietrich, whose father owns the property where the collapse occurred, told WISN-TV that a...

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they had sentenced ESI Energy for a “blatant disregard” of federal wildlife laws of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). In their guilty plea to multiple violations, ESI admitted to the killing of at least 150 bald and golden eagles across 50 of its wind-energy facilities since 2012. Nearly all died of blunt force trauma attributable to being struck by a wind-turbine blade. The so-called “clean” energy company — a subsidiary of NextEra Energy — was fined $8 million, or about $53,300 per carcass. It turns out that the fine...

BLYTHE, Calif.—A major Southern California solar energy project could be delayed or even canceled following a deadly outbreak of distemper among kit foxes and the discovery of a prehistoric human settlement on the work site, according to a report Saturday. The $1 billion Genesis Solar Energy Project near Blythe in the desert east of Los Angeles was on track to start producing power for some 187,500 homes starting in 2014. But critics tell the Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/wrtgOD) the distemper outbreak and discovery of a possible Native American cremation site show that expedited procedures approved by state and federal...

The Energy Department (DOE) is not backing down in its efforts to support clean energy companies, despite a Republican push to pummel the Obama administration for approving a $535 million loan guarantee to a now-bankrupt solar firm. The department could approve as many as 15 renewable energy loan guarantees by the end of the month when a program launched under the stimulus law ends. The approvals could open up the Obama administration to more criticism from Republicans, who have raised broad concerns about the administration’s investments in clean energy in the aftermath of the bankruptcy of California-based Solyndra. The 2009...