Wind Power Kills Thousands of Birds

(Altamont, California) Sometimes it seems virtually impossible to satisfy the environmentalists.

From Inland Southern California:

At a time when demand is rising for greener energy sources, the Altamont Pass has become one of the nation's leading producers of wind power, generating about 820 million kilowatt hours of pollution-free electricity annually enough to power 120,000 homes for a year.

But the Altamont, where more than 5,000 windmills line the hilltops, has also become a death trap for thousands of migrating birds that get chopped up in fast-rotating turbine blades as they fly through or hunt for prey in this mountainous region between the San Francisco Bay area and the San Joaquin Valley.

An estimated 1,700 to 4,700 birds are killed each year in the 50-square-mile Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area. Of those fatalities, between 880 and 1,300 are federally protected raptors such as burrowing owls, red-tailed hawks and golden eagles, according to a study released last year by the California Energy Commission.

"Altamont is killing more birds of prey than any other wind farm in North America," said Jeff Miller, a wildlife advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Incredible numbers of raptors are being killed there, and it's hard to believe it's not having effects on the populations."

So, the environmentalists are now suing the energy companies to stop the wind turbines from killing birds after having successfully forced the energy companies to start using wind turbines for electricity generation. Understandably, the environmentalists are puckered because they've succeeded in jerking themselves in a circle and proving once again that it's impossible to have a society and environment functioning harmoniously while eliminating all risk.

[Update 07/08/05] Yesterday, the Alameda County supervisors agreed to a plan to replace all existing wind generating units with something that doesn't kill as many birds. The time frame has been set at 13 years to reduce the bird kill by 50 percent. For now, the environmentalists and animal lovers appear to be satisfied. I personally don't think that their complacency will endure and predict that there will be new protests and lawsuits within 5 years.