Wind Power And Birds—Did Obama Get It Right?

Trying to thread the needle and allow wind power to expand while minimizing damage to wildlife—including deaths to high-profile bird species like golden and bald eagles and California condors—the Obama administration today instituted new voluntary guidelines for project siting and development.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) said the guidelines on the hot-button issue, which take effect immediately, “provide a structured, scientific process for developers, federal and state agencies, and tribes to identify sites with low risk to wildlife, and to help them assess, mitigate, and monitor any adverse effects of wind energy projects on wildlife and their habitats.”

image via Shutterstock

While the voluntary guidelines don’t carry the big stick of mandatory regulation, they do come with a carrot: DOI suggested that developers found to be in violation of laws and regulations—whose turbines, for instance, kill a protected species—could potentially escape trouble if they can show “documented efforts to communicate with the Service and adhere to the Guidelines.”

In its press release announcing the guidelines, DOI included a statement of support from the head of Audubon, David Yarnold. He said the “federal guidelines are a game-changer and big win for both wildlife and clean energy.” Yarnold said that by “collaborating with conservationists instead of slugging it out, the wind power industry gains vital support to expand and create jobs.”

Support in some quarters, perhaps, but not in all. As part of DOI’s rulemaking process, the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) had asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a mandatory permitting system for the operation of wind projects and mitigation of their impacts on migratory birds.

ABC Wind Campaign Coordinator Kelly Fuller told EarthTechling today that the rejection of the group’s 109-page petition [PDF] was “completely cursory” and failed to argue with the legal or scientific analysis put forward.

As for the guidelines instituted, Fuller said in an ABC statement that they “will result in more lawsuits, more bird deaths, and more government subsidies for bad projects, instead of what America needs: true green and bird-safe wind energy.”

[source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Earthtechling/~3/wtuP-xzTK3E/]