Until the settlement announced Friday with Duke Energy Corp. and
its renewable energy arm, not a single wind energy company had
been prosecuted for a death of an eagle or other protected bird
— even though each death is a violation of federal law, unless a
company has a federal permit. Not a single wind energy facility
has obtained a permit.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based company
pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at its
Top of the World and Campbell Hill wind farms outside Casper,
Wyo. All the deaths, which included golden eagles, hawks,
blackbirds, wrens and sparrows, occurred from 2009 to 2013.
"Wind energy is not green if it is killing hundreds of
thousands of birds," said George Fenwick, president of the
American Bird Conservancy, which supports properly sited wind
farms. "The unfortunate reality is that the flagrant violations
of the law seen in this case are widespread."
There could be more enforcement. The Fish and Wildlife
Service is investigating 18 bird-death cases involving
wind-power facilities, and about a half-dozen have been referred
to the Justice Department.
Wind farms are clusters of turbines as tall as 30-story
buildings, with spinning rotors as wide as a passenger jet's
wingspan. Though the blades appear to move slowly, they can
reach speeds up to 170 mph at the tips, creating tornado-like
vortexes. Eagles are especially vulnerable because they don't
look up as they scan the ground for food, failing to notice the
blades until it's too late.
"No form of energy generation, or human activity for that
matter, is completely free of impacts, and wind energy is no
exception," the American Wind Energy Association said in a
statement.
The case against Duke Energy and Duke Energy Renewables Inc.
was the first prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
against a wind energy company. The Obama administration has
championed pollution-free wind power and used the same law
against oil companies and power companies for drowning and
electrocuting birds.
"In this plea agreement, Duke Energy Renewables acknowledges
that it constructed these wind projects in a manner it knew
beforehand would likely result in avian deaths," Robert G.
Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice
Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in
a statement.
Duke has a market capitalization of nearly $50 billion.
"We deeply regret the impacts of golden eagles at two of our
wind facilities," Greg Wolf, president of Duke Energy
Renewables, said in a statement. "Our goal is to provide the
benefits of wind energy in the most environmentally responsible
way possible."
A study in September by federal biologists found that wind
turbines had killed at least 67 bald and golden eagles since
2008. Wyoming had the most eagle deaths. That did not include
deaths at Altamont Pass, an area in northern California where
wind farms kill an estimated 60 eagles a year.
An investigation in May by The Associated Press revealed
dozens of eagle deaths from wind energy facilities, including at
Duke's Top of the World farm, the deadliest for eagles of 15
such facilities that Duke operates nationwide.
