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USA TODAY
1/5/2005 3:23 PM
Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey
By John Ritter, USA TODAY
ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. — "The big turbines that stretch for miles along these rolling, grassy hills have churned out clean, renewable electricity for two decades in one of the nation's first big wind-power projects.
But for just as long, massive fiberglass blades on the more than 4,000 windmills have been chopping up tens of thousands of birds that fly into them, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other raptors.
The size of the annual body count — conservatively put at 4,700 birds — is unique to this sprawling, 50-square-mile site in the Diablo Mountains between San Francisco and the agricultural Central Valley because it spans an international migratory bird route regulated by the federal government. The low mountains are home to the world's highest density of nesting golden eagles."
Here we are four years later and who is listening? The information above is not new. And it is ongoing. Meanwhile a whole lot of birds are biting the dust thanks to this insane push for "wind power." Not to mention the visual blight the turbines create. The so called 'environmentalists' have a huge hypocrisy problem. While they jump up and down and yell about "green" energy solutions, they are creating nothing more than fat bank accounts for themselves and their chosen few suppliers of this 'so called' "green" energy. They try to make you believe that they are on the side of wildlife and how the planet will collapse in short order if you don't buy into their schemes. The sorry thing is that they are stealing your taxes to support their very flawed agenda. By creating a false crisis, a lot of fat cat politicians and schemers are getting rich producing nothing of value from your hard work.
This Informative Article from the National Center for Policy Analysis
An excerpt here: "How many dead birds equal a dead fish equals an oil spill?" Ten thousand cumulative bird deaths from 1,731 MegaWatts of installed U.S. capacity is the equivalent of 4.4 million bird deaths across the entire capacity of the United States electric market (approximately 770 gigawatts). A 20 percent share of U.S. capacity, a figure that the American Wind Energy Association put forward some years ago in congressional hearings (see above), would equate to 880,000 cumulative bird deaths. Calculated on an average operating basis, the number would rise severalfold."
And this:
Other Environmental Drawbacks
"A distinct air emission problem of wind capacity is created when a new project is built where there is surplus electric generating capacity. Since large wind farms require thousands of tons of materials, virtually all of the air emissions associated with the electricity used to make these materials (such as cement or steel) must be counted against the air emissions "saved" once the farm comes on line and displaces fossil fuel-generated output. For example, a recently announced Zond wind farm of 40 to 45 effective megawatts is composed of 150 wind turbines weighing 35 tons each or just over 10 million pounds. The entire electricity requirement for these materials (cement, steel, fiberglass, etc.) must be estimated before assigning an air emission factor. To calculate a net emission savings, that factor must be subtracted from the air emission reduction once the wind project comes online."
The sad thing for me is twofold. First, I love birds. If I could grow wings, I would. Second, I know people who think they are friends of birds, who belong to "Bird Watching" organizations, yet who voted for this President and his "Green Energy" nonsense. I guess they don't realize it when they are at odds with their own goals and mindlessly vote for the "feel good" agenda. I wonder how the brain can disconnect from logical consequences. I am having a very hard time suffering these fools.
