Sign our alert and lodge your comment now!

A new proposal could allow wind energy companies to kill or injure up to 4,200 bald eagles a year. Wind turbines already kill hundreds of thousands of winged animals each year in the United States alone; from bats, to small migratory songbirds to larger birds of prey, including bald and golden eagles. Companies do not even have to report the number of eagles killed in their deadly rotors.

There is no need for turbines to carve up wildlife.

Perhaps the most viable solution to both energy and bird deaths are vertical wind turbines. A recent study by Stanford Professor John Dabiri showed that vertical wind turbines can create more energy than the traditional wind turbines and have very little impact on wild animals who surround them.

“Of all the companies that are out there operating these [vertical turbines], there have been no reported bird or bat strikes,” Dabiri said. “This is for two reasons: one, of course, they’re closer to the ground so they’re not going to be necessarily in the flight corridor. But they also have this rotation around a vertical axis which has a very different visual signature than the very fast moving blades of a conventional wind turbine.” There is a lot of interest in these kinds of turbines, but because they haven’t been perfected, companies have yet to buy them in mass quantities.

Other proposed suggestions for improving wind turbines for birds include painting the turbines a different color, putting turbines in safer locations, as well as using radar and GPS to track potential groups of birds that may be heading towards a wind farm and slowing down or switching off turbines to allow animals to pass.

Dead eagle allowances are not the answer.

Click here to read more and take action.