Oregon Wind Farm Fined For Killing Golden Eagles
By Paul Homewood
h/t nzrobin
A Portland, Oregon–based wind-farm company, the second to be sentenced to fines for killing hundreds of protected birds in Wyoming with its turbines, will pay $2.5 million in fines, restitution and community service.
PacifiCorp subsidiary PacifiCorp Energy pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Wyoming on December 19 to violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act at two wind projects, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said. Among the dead were 38 golden eagles, and the carcasses—besides the eagles, there were 336 other protected birds—were stashed at the company’s Seven Mile Hill and Glenrock/Rolling Hills wind projects, the justice department said.
Besides the payments, the company has been put on probation for five years, the justice department said in a statement. During that time PacifiCorp Energy must put an environmental compliance plan in place to prevent bird deaths at its four commercial wind projects in Wyoming. In addition, PacifiCorp Energy must apply for Eagle Take Permits that both allow for unavoidable bird deaths and “provide a framework for minimizing and mitigating the deaths of golden eagles at the wind projects,” the DOJ said.
In addition to the golden eagles, hawks, blackbirds, larks, wrens and sparrows had perished in one of the 237 large wind turbines at the two Wyoming facilities between 2009 and 2014, the DOJ said.
“PacifiCorp Energy built two of its Wyoming wind projects in a manner it knew would likely result in the deaths of eagles and other protected birds,” said Sam Hirsch, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, in the statement. “PacifiCorp has taken steps to minimize the hazard, and with this plea agreement has committed to a comprehensive plan to continue such efforts in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to seek eagle take permits for each project, and to work to prevent future eagle deaths.”
The fine, $400,000, will go to the North American Wetlands Conservation Fund, which is administered by the federal government. In addition, the company will pay $200,000 in restitution to Wyoming, as well as perform community service by way of a copy.9 million payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a congressionally chartered organization “designated for projects aimed at preserving golden eagles and increasing the understanding of ways to minimize and monitor interactions between eagles and commercial wind power facilities, as well as enhance eagle rehabilitation and conservation efforts in Wyoming,” the DOJ said.
I wonder why the RPSB in this country are not pressing for the same action?
UPDATE
Just to confirm, while the company is Oregon based, the wind farm itself is in Wyoming.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
No doubt Munich RE will have assessed similar risks, and be able to offer Insurance at a value-for-money premium.
/sarc.
What about all the other wind farm owners, they are all just as guilty of ignoring wildlife.
Now that one has been successfully prosecuted they should be lining up all the rest where there is evidence against them.
Where is the public outcry over this?
I hope not only this wind farm will do what is needed to avoid killing more birds.
One has to wonder how buying “permits” is a functional policy. These are like the carbon offsets that wealthy folks/enterprises can purchase because they have been “bad” by jet setting around the earth. It is easy to be environmentally sensitive when you are rich. A carbon footprint is a carbon footprint- and a dead eagle is a dead eagle.
“I wonder why the RPSB in this country are not pressing for the same action? “
Perhaps because they’ve been paid not to?
“RSPB makes a killing… from windfarm giants behind turbines accused of destroying rare birds
The charity is making hundreds of thousands of pounds from wind power”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305197/RSPB-makes-killing–windfarm-giants-turbines-accused-destroying-rare-birds.html
I notice in the comments someone is saying cats kill birds. My response is: Show me a cat taking down a golden eagle and we can talk.”
Fact is cats do indeed kill birds, but not large raptors. Cat owners have a more fanatical lobby than wind—you can’t even kill a cat killing endangered birds in many places in the US. Cats get a free pass because they have the best lobby.
Seems that to save The Planet we have to slaughter the rare birds that live on it…now that really makes sense doesn’t it ?
The position of the Audobon Society on this was/is that global warming is far more dangerous to the survival of the birds than the wind turbines. They consider the turbines the lesser of two evils. It does not seem to matter to any of these groups that turbines do not save CO2 emissions. One supposes that as a charity, one much say whatever the donors want to hear, be it true or not.
Indeed, a very sad indictment on the whole ‘renewables’ agenda, CO2 being the new bogeyman with which to extract huge sums from the proletariat.
Saxonboy, a point I have made over on JoNova’s site. What, with beavers, squirrels, termites and trees creating environmental havoc, perhaps the only way to save the planet is to destroy all life-forms on it. That’ll learn ‘em!
Yes that is, I fear, the warmist’s ultimate goal, all based on unproven ‘science’. We are facing a Green Jihadist movement with subversive intentions, a sort of Green Slime.. The Gaians of the sixties have become a very powerful unchecked force, we are in trouble, no doubt about it.
First note: It’s not an Oregon wind plant, it’s a Wyoming one.
I’m not sure they can do anything, except shut down during periods of high eagle activity. I live near these wind plants and so do many, many eagles. There’s 11 turbines near the Platte River (different wind plant), where bald eagles fish. There is no possible way to keep from killing the birds short of turning off the turbines. Lately, it’s been zero wind or 60 mph wind, so nature is protecting the birds at the moment.
If you want to see what the Glenrock plant looks like (one referenced concerning the fine):
One wonders where the money to pay the fines will come from if the money to run the windfarms themselves are public subsidies…
Precisely, Alice-in-Wonderland ‘science’ funded by (ditto) funding.
It’s always the same guys that pay whatever the outcome!
As to UK, with their massive and very easily-led support base, just think what would happen if the RSPB did start a campaign against these stupid, expensive Green vanity projects.
No chance, of course, but wouldn’t that put the feline amongst the avians?
Now that would be something John ! he who pays the piper and all that.
Considering Duke Energy wrote off a loan to the DNC for the 2012 Democratic Convention, then the shareholders covered the cost, my guess is the shareholders pay.
eg2. Eagle-Killing Wind Turbine Company Fined copy Million 11/25/13
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/11/25/eagle-killing-wind-turbine-company-fined-1-million-152435
I see they linked to a similar court decision last year also in Wyoming
Yes, this is the second such fine on turbine owners in Wyoming. The plants are all in the same area, so it’s not surprising both were fined.
Before I’d just had fuzzy info to show pro Wind Activists
This example is proof & something concrete I can show them
To me this is proof level ..Proof a Wind Farm killed significant birds in number
* bodies : yep minimum 374
38 golden eagles + 336 other protected birds found stashed on the property
* proper court decision : yep
* damages awarded : $2.5 million in fines, restitution and community service.
* accident or negligence ? “PacifiCorp Energy built two of its Wyoming wind projects in a manner it knew would likely result in the deaths of eagles and other protected birds,” said DOJ
I would note that there is no way PacifiCorp did not know their turbines would kill eagles. They were built in an area where there was coal mine—where you could not disturb eagle nests ever. You had to stop blasting if you found an eagle’s nest. The coal company knew there birds were there. PacifiCorp did too. At the time they built the plant, there were no fines whatsoever. My guess is they gambled on that staying true with the current administration handing out free passes to “green energy”. They lost the gamble to a degree, but they have few choices in this and shutting down the turbines is the most likely. If it’s like everywhere else, the company still gets paid even when the turbines are down. If so, there’s really no down side except maybe bad publicity.
– Compare to 20 years of US FRACKING
* Where are the bodies ? yes where are they ?
* Where are the LOST court cases ?
* Court Damages awarded – zero
* Anything ? – yes some evidence corps have paid off the odd family & with nondisclosure agreements .. not much corroborating evidence or indication of magnitude.
And really plausible the corp had no guilt, but just afraid of high legal bills
* accident or negligence ? Are imaginable ..but any industry should be policed properly according to magnitude & cost risks.
Yes Stew but oil and everything that goes with it doesn’t fit the Greens anti capitalist / degrowth agenda. The Greens worship Mother Earth, nothing must hurt her…end of.
Consider this: This year they are rumored to be starting the 1000 turbine wind plant by
I-80 in Wyoming. One thousand turbines over something like 292,000 acres. This will kill hundreds of eagles and may drive out the sage grouse, which may then get listed. I don’t expect grouse to be listed until the billionaire in Colorado desecrates the Wyoming landscape with those turbines. Then they get listed and shut down oil and gas. Remember, a possible increase in global average temperature is more of a danger than a thousand spinning blades of death. And we’re unscientific ones?????
Hmm but in UK grouse don’t normally fly high enough to be at risk from turbines.
I’m sorry. I have should have explained better. It’s not being hit by the turbines—they will be “driven out”. Sage grouse do not live under tall structures, like wind turbines, because the birds fear predators will use the tall structures as perches. Sage grouse live in wide-open spaces. Also, there’s also some question as to whether the vibrations from the turbines will affect the birds. They live on the ground most of the time, preferring to walk rather than fly. Wind turbines reduce further the amount of land for the grouse to live on, along with rural subdivisions, oil and gas and anything else that reduces open spaces. No matter what the wind developers may claim. Turbines cause just as much land changes as oil and gas. And they’re permanent whereas drill rigs are not.
Excellent point R/C, large scale wind turbines may have many, as yet, unknown consequences to wildlife in general. Bird migration is not fully understood by us mere humans, it is quite possible that huge electricity wind turbines may interfere with birds, bats and even dolphins eco location systems by virtue of magnetic currents, low amplitude noise, high voltage currents etc, etc. And that’s without the physical threat posed by huge rotating blades. Avian and other wildlife species can easily be displaced, disturbed and threatened by this destructive form of renewable energy…sorry about length of post but we could be witnessing some very nasty unintended consequences very soon.
“RSPB Scotland” (not England) Objecting to specific offshore windfarm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-30785448
To be fair the RSPB (England) claim they don’t oppose windfarms in principle but negotiate with developers to minimise harm
“we ultimately object to about 6% of those we engage with, because they threaten bird populations.”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/27/wind-energy-myths-turbines-bats
Wow I hadn’t realised even the Guardian admit raptors face serious threat from Wind Turbines & bats face big problems
Carbon brief tries to offer 2 excuses http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/04/wind-farms-and-birds/
1. Cats kill many more birds – yes but they don’t kill eagles & raptors
2. More birds die from flying into windows
..Yes but every windfarm death is an unnecessary death as the powerplant they are supposed to replace is still sitting there running on standby .There seems to be no proper compelling evidence that CO2 has been reduced by windfarms
3. Carbonbrief forget to mention bat deaths
They quote an article claiming wind kills 20k pa andnuclear kills 330Kpa that comparison looks highly suspect to me
The Greens always refer back to the numbers game, only they can play God and decide who lives and who dies….humans included.
Wind advocates always count all birds. Try killing a condor and claiming it’s no different than a sparrow. They make no note of lifespans, reproductive rates, nothing. A bird is a bird. Of course, the ESA has different ideas, at least when it comes to oil, gas and average citizens.
The numbers quoted are not real deaths. They are generally all “counted” by a statistical algorithm and declared to be real numbers. These numbers “count” tractors running over bird nests (as if a horse and plow farmer would have stopped to move the nest before the horses stomped it), pesticides (thank you Rachel Carson), windows, cars, etc. Everything is just a made up number based on whatever criteria gives the best count, it seems.
Do not try the “count” method used by environmentalists when discussing wind energy or they will object. Only those on the enviro side can fabricate numbers and use unproven algorithms to “count” birds. It would be interesting if someone could run a statistical “count” on dead eagles based on turbine location, number of eagles in the area, general updrafts where the eagles hunt, etc.
Which means the bird deaths at turbines are actual dead birds. We know for a fact what killed them and that at least the number of bodies found represent real deaths. One article I saw indicated Pacificorp tried to hide the bodies of the dead birds. Many wind plants are on private land and they can easily dispose of the birds. So the dead bodies probably represent an undercount.
Bats are indeed overlooked. Which is interesting, since their deaths are often more gruesome (exploding lungs due to pressure changes). People also do not realize how many mosquitoes and other flying insects bats eat. As the bat population decreases, more and more pesticide usage will occur, which is just so “green”, right?
Arguing for wind turbines is pretty much an invalid argument completely lacking any resemblance to science or reality.
This showed up in my email this morning:
http://www.windaction.org/posts/41680-pacificorp-complaint-in-us-district-court-over-refusal-to-release-bird-mortality-data#.VLgBlUthe4k