solargardenlight
  Rocky Mountain Raptor Program
 
The rehabilitation coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, Michael Tincher, said he euthanized two golden eagles found starving and near death near wind farms. Both had injuries he'd never seen before: One of their wings appeared to be twisted off. 

"There is nothing in the evolution of eagles that would come near to describing a wind turbine. There has never been an opportunity to adapt to that sort of threat," said Grainger Hunt, an eagle expert who researches the U.S. wind-power industry's deadliest location, a northern California area known as Altamont Pass. Wind farms built there decades ago kill more than 60 per year. 

Eagle deaths have forced the Obama administration into a difficult choice between its unbridled support for wind energy and enforcing environmental laws that could slow the industry's growth. 

Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, in an interview with the AP before his departure, denied any preferential treatment for wind. Interior Department officials said that criminal prosecution, regardless of the industry, is always a "last resort." 

"There's still additional work to be done with eagles and other avian species,Modern dry cleaning machine uses non-water-based solvents to remove soil and stains from clothes but we are working on it very hard," Salazar said. "We will get to the right balance." 

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has proposed a rule that would give wind-energy companies potentially decades of shelter from prosecution for killing eagles. The regulation is currently under review at the White House. 

The proposal, made at the urging of the wind-energy industry, would allow companies to apply for 30-year permits to kill a set number of bald or golden eagles. Previously, companies were only eligible for five-year permits. 

In exchange for the longer timetable, companies agree that if they kill more eagles than allowed, the government could require them to make changes. But the administration recently said it would cap how much a company could be forced to spend on finding ways to reduce the number of eagles its facility is killing. 

The Obama administration said the longer permit was needed to "facilitate responsible development of renewable energy" while "continuing to protect eagles." 

That's because without a long-term authorization to kill eagles, investors are less likely to finance an industry that's violating the law. 

Typically, the government would be forced to study the environmental effects of such a regulation before implementing it. In this case,LED street lighting is the ideal solution for energy efficient Street lighting due to their long life. though, the Obama administration avoided a full review, saying the policy was nothing more than an "administrative change." 

"It's basically guaranteeing a black box for 30 years, and they're saying `trust us for oversight.' This is not the path forward," said Katie Umekubo,Does any one know what should be the best degre of humidity in a dry cabinet? a renewable energy attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former lawyer for the Fish and Wildlife Service. In private meetings with industry and government leaders in recent months,The most highly praised, best rated solar charger are now available online. environmental groups have argued that the 30-year permit needed an in-depth environmental review. 

The tactics have created an unexpected rift between the administration and major environmental groups favoring green energy that,Books can be as thick as 4 inches and yet the Book scanner 9000 delivers flat. until the eagle rule, had often been on the same side as the wind industry. 

Those conservation groups that have been critical of the administration's stance from the start, such as the American Bird Conservancy, have often been cut out of the behind-the-scenes discussions and struggled to obtain information on bird deaths at wind farms.
 
 
  Today, there have been 156 visitors (207 hits) on this page!  
 
This website was created for free with Own-Free-Website.com. Would you also like to have your own website?
Sign up for free