From: imbibe@mindspring.com   
      
   Wind Energy Company to Pay $8 Million in Killings of 150 Eagles   
   By Eduardo Medina, April 10, 2022, NY Times   
      
   A wind energy company pleaded guilty last week to killing at least    
   150 eagles at its wind farms and was ordered to pay $8 million in    
   fines and restitution, federal prosecutors said.   
      
   The company, ESI Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra    
   Energy Resources, was also sentenced to probation for five years,    
   during which it must follow an eagle management plan, after pleading    
   guilty on Tues to 3 counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.   
      
   ESI acknowledged that at least 150 bald and golden eagles had died    
   at its facilities since 2012, and that 136 of those deaths were    
   “affirmatively determined to be attributable to the eagle being    
   struck by a wind turbine blade,” the Justice Dept said in a statement.   
   The deaths occurred across 50 of the 154 wind farms that the company    
   operates in the United States, the Justice Dept said.   
      
   The company failed to take steps to protect the eagles or obtain    
   the permits that are necessary when eagle deaths are documented or    
   predicted, the Justice Department said. By not taking these steps,    
   prosecutors said, ESI had “gained a competitive advantage.”   
      
   “This prosecution and the restitution it secures will protect the    
   ecologically vital and majestic natural resources of our bald eagle    
   and golden eagle populations,” Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. attorney    
   for the Eastern District of California, said in a statement.   
      
   Rebecca Kujawa, the president of NextEra, said in a statement that    
   she disagreed with the federal government’s enforcement of the policy    
   because “the reality is building any structure, driving any vehicle,    
   or flying any airplane carries with it a possibility that accidental    
   eagle and other bird collisions may occur as a result of that activity.”   
      
   “We have a longstanding and well-earned reputation for protecting our    
   environment and positively coexisting with and supporting wildlife    
   around our facilities,” Ms. Kujawa said. “And we have never sited a    
   wind turbine knowing an eagle would fly into it, nor have we taken    
   any action in disregard of federal law.”   
      
   The company agreed to spend up to $27 million on measures to “minimize    
   additional eagle deaths and injuries,” prosecutors said. Steven Stengel,    
   a spokesman for NextEra, said that there was so far no specific breakdown    
   of how that money would be spent.   
      
   The case comes as the bald eagle, the nation’s symbol whose resurgence    
   is considered one of the greatest conservation stories of the 21st c,    
   faces a new threat: lead poisoning.   
      
   All but a few hundred bald eagles were presumed dead by the mid-20th    
   century, killed off largely by the widespread use of the synthetic    
   insecticide DDT. A ban on DDT in 1972 and conservation efforts helped    
   the population to rebound. The bald eagle was removed from Endangered    
   Species Act protection in 2007 and its estimated population grew to 316,   
   700 by 2019.   
      
   But researchers found this year that of the 1,200 eagles they tested,    
   nearly half had been exposed repeatedly to lead, which can lead to death    
   and slow population growth. Scientists believe that the primary source of    
   the lead is ammunition used by hunters, who shoot animals that the eagles    
   then scavenge.   
      
   Protecting the eagles has become a “challenging situation,” especially    
   when it comes to wind turbines, said Julia Ponder, a professor and    
   associate dean at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University    
   of Minnesota, whose research focuses on raptor medicine and surgery.   
   “I’d love it if it were black and white, but it’s not,” she said.   
      
   While wind turbines can harm eagles and other birds, they are also    
   an alternative form of energy that is cleaner than fossil fuels,    
   which are contributing to a warming of the planet, she said.   
   The tips of a wind turbine’s blades can spin at about 200 mph,    
   fast enough to immediately kill any bird, Professor Ponder said.   
      
   A 2013 study found that between 140,000 and 328,000 birds are killed    
   each year in the United States at monopole turbines.   
      
   Roberto Albertani, a professor of mechanical engineering at    
   Oregon State University, said in 2017 that he and his team had    
   devised a system that sought to make wind turbines safer for eagles.   
   It called for using cameras to determine if the birds were approaching    
   the blades, triggering on-the-ground inflatable tubes, or “wind dancer”    
   figures, like those often seen at car dealerships, to scare the birds    
   away, Professor Albertani said in a presentation last year.   
   Eagles appear to be “annoyed by anthropomorphic figures,” he said.   
      
   Prof. Ponder said some researchers were looking into using audio    
   signals to keep the birds away from turbines. Others are working    
   on detection systems that would shut off a turbine when eagles    
   approach — a measure that could be effective, but costly, for    
   power companies.   
      
   “These are really complex questions,” she said. “And we have to work    
   to find the right questions to ask, and the answers to them.”   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/us/bald-eages-dead-wind-farms.html   
      
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