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Justice Served (cats, windows not applicable) – Are you enjoying it?


From MasterThe source

By Robert Bradley Jr. – April 18, 2022

“ESI also acknowledged that at least 150 golden and bald eagles have died in total since 2012, across 50 of its 154 wind facilities. 136 of those deaths have been definitively determined to have been caused by the eagle being hit by a wind turbine blade. ” (Judicial, April 5, 2022)

For decades, the American Wind Energy Association (now part of Clean Electric Association of America) yes dismiss The “poultry mortality problem” is a bit different from the daily bird deaths caused by cats and windows. Sierra Club echo This argues in groundless wind growth states like Michigan.

There are two problems with this argument. The first day, millions of people die every year from the wind vane is too much to say that wind power is uneconomical and unnecessary. Taxpayers and birds can be spared with increased resource efficiency. (And imagine if an oil, gas or coal company tried to make that argument….)

Second, it’s an open secret is golden eagle are specific victims of industrial winds, which inspired a Sierra Club official to call the technology “Cuisinarts of the Air. “Six months ago, the National Audubon Association to sue Alameda County authorized an 80 MW wind project near San Francisco on the following grounds:

Alameda County has passed a badly planned project that they know will kill Golden Eagles and other birds in violation of state and federal laws and that will contribute to the continued decline of the Atlantic Ocean. golden eagle and other sensitive species….

[This] the area is also home to the largest wind resource site in the United States, where 5000 turbines were built over a 56 square mile site in the early 1980s without any environmental mitigation. Over the decades, the Altamont Pass has killed so many Golden Eagles that it is a ‘population pit’ for the species and is contributing to its overall decline in the area.

Avian mortality stories have long been documented by Jim Weigand (and others) at MasterResource in posts like:

Bald Eagle ‘appropriates’: Biden’s Interior Department defends high winds (Jim Wiegand: March 2, 2022)

AWEA’s Eagle Mortality Defense: Response (Jim Wiegand: August 31, 2015)

Avian deaths in Australia: Cover-up (Mark Duchamp: June 4, 2015)

Hide “Poultry Mortality”: Where ‘Green’ is Red (Part I: Altamont Pass) (Jim Wiegand: September 4, 2013)

Poultry mortality hidden: Where ‘Green’ is Red (Part II: Wolfe Island) (Jim Wiegand: September 13, 2013)

High Winds & Poultry Mortality (Part I: Identifying the Problem) (Jim Wiegand: March 14, 2013)

High Winds & Poultry Mortality (Part II: Concealing the Problem) (Jim Wiegand: March 15, 2013)

Shame on Big Wind for its open-air carnage behind a green facade. Shame about the Big Environment for the green pass. And this bird mortality is joined by wind turbines’ negatively affect the health of almost residentsas well as the energizing of long-distance and public service lines – again, all of which is unnecessary.

And so the joke:

“When is an environmentalist not an environmentalist? … When it comes to wind energy. ”

——————

This is the US Department of Justice Press Releasee (April 5, 2022), finger NextEra Power Sourceself-described as “a diversified clean energy company. ”

ESI Energy LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nextera Energy Resources LLC, was convicted of killing and injuring an eagle during its wind energy operations, for violating the Bird Treaty Act. migrate

ESI Energy Inc. (ESI) was convicted today in Cheyenne, Wyoming, of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim for the Department of Justice Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division and United States Attorney L. Robert Murray for the County of Wyoming.

ESI is a wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc. ESI owns other companies, many of which operate wind energy production facilities across the United States, including in Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, North Dakota, and Michigan, as well as other states.

ESI committed three MBTA offenses, each based on the documented death of a golden eagle from blunt force trauma resulting from a wind turbine blade impact on a specific facility in Wyoming or New Mexico, where ESI did not file an application. Apply for the necessary permits.

ESI also acknowledged that at least 150 golden and bald eagles have died in total since 2012, across 50 of its 154 wind facilities. 136 of those deaths have been definitively determined to have been caused by the eagle being hit by a wind turbine blade.

The court sentenced ESI, pursuant to a plea agreement, to a fine of $1,861,600, restitution of the amount of $6,210,991 and a 5-year probation period during which is subject to the Eagle Management Plan ( EMP). The EMP requires implementation of up to $27 million (during probation; more thereafter if a written extension is signed) in measures to minimize death and further injury to eagles, and pays a mitigating compensation for future eagle deaths and injuries of $29,623 per bald or golden eagle.

Within the next 36 months, ESI is also required to obtain permits for any inevitable eagle abductions at each of its 50 facilities when captures are recorded or in the case of four. The facility is not yet operational, as expected.

“The Department of Justice will enforce the nation’s wildlife laws to advance the purposes of Congress, including ensuring sustainable bald eagle and golden eagle populations, and promote fair competition for companies to comply,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice. “For more than a decade, ESI has been violating those laws, taking the eagles without applying or even obtaining the necessary permits. We are pleased to see that ESI is now committed to seeking such licenses and ultimately ending such violations.”

“Wyoming has abundant natural resources – including eagles and strong winds,” said Wyoming County Attorney L. Robert Murray. “Today’s sentencing demonstrates our commitment to the maintenance and sustainable use of our resources. It also ensures a level playing field for business in Wyoming and ensures recipients of federal tax credits are complying with federal law. ”

Edward Grace said: “The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has a history of working closely with the wind energy industry to identify best practices for avoiding and mitigating the impacts of wind energy. wind power facilities on land for wildlife, including eagles,” said Assistant Director of the USFWS Office of Law Enforcement. “This agreement holds ESI and its affiliates accountable for years of their unwillingness to cooperate with the Service and their blatant disregard for wildlife laws, and ultimately marks a baby way forward for the benefit of eagles and other wildlife resources is left to the administration of the Service.”

U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California said: “This prosecution and reparation will protect the ecologically important and ecologically important natural resources of the bald eagle populations and our golden eagle”. “California has been awarded more than $4.6 million under this plea agreement for the deaths of at least 92 eagles in the state caused by defendant and its affiliated companies.”

The MBTA prohibits the “catch” of migratory birds, including golden and bald eagles, without authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior. “Take” is legally defined to mean “to pursue, hunt, shoot, injure, kill, trap, capture, or gather” or attempt to do so.

Golden and bald eagles are also protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act), which, like the MBTA, prohibits killing and wounding eagles without a USFWS permit. The USFWS is only authorized to issue an eagle permit (ETP) when: (1) the prediction is appropriate for the conservation of golden and bald eagles; (2) it is necessary to protect interests in a particular locality; (3) the performance associated with, but not the purpose of, the activity; and (4) practically unavoidable. License applicants are required to avoid and minimize conduct as far as practicable, and to compensate for unavoidable acts.

According to court documents, the government’s position that ESI’s conduct violated both the Eagle Act and the MBTA, but the government’s acceptance of the company’s plea to only be charged with the MBTA was largely due to the ESI has agreed to license at 50 sites. and previous efforts to reduce and minimize eagle mortality.

The actions of ESI and its affiliated companies in Wyoming and New Mexico are carried out in a nationally recognized posture and are alleged to be the company’s policy of not registering an ETP.

According to the information filed in this case:

  • ESI and its affiliates have knowingly elected not to register or obtain any ETP for the purpose of ensuring the conservation of the golden and bald eagles, choosing instead to build and operate the facilities. facility that it knew was going to take the eagle, and in fact took the eagle without any permission to do so.
  • Because ESI did not seek any ETPs, ESI avoided any immediate federal obligations to avoid and minimize eagle behavior to the greatest extent practicable and to pay for the mitigation of eagle deaths.
  • Because a number of other wind companies (1) have changed their proposed practices as required to avoid and minimize the extent to which they are most practicable, (2) have applied to the ETP , (3) obtained ETP that in some cases was affected by the level of grabs due to ESI unapproved facilities, and/or (4) reduced eagles’ appropriation payments, ESI, by not doing these things, has gained a competitive advantage over those wind energy companies.
  • ESI and its affiliates have commenced commercial operations in the new facilities on a tentative schedule that includes power purchase agreement commitments and eligibility periods for credit lines. specific tax use for renewables, and with production volumes unaffected by the avoidance and mitigation measures that may have been required under the eagle license. ESI and its affiliates have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal tax credits to generate electricity from wind energy at the facilities it operates, knowing that many eagles will be killed and injured. without legal authorization and, in most cases, without paying compensation or extenuating compensation….

This incident has been investigated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Law Enforcement Office. Prosecution cases are handled by the Environmental Crimes Division of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice with assistance from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia. North of California.

Inference

Sierra Club’s Michigan Chapter Statuses, “Wind turbines can be scrapped when something better is available.” True environmentalists might add: We can’t wait that long.


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