Wind farms deliver an Exxon Valdez-sized massacre of birds every year
COMPARE and contrast oil and wind power:
The American Wind Energy Association says 500 birds are killed by wind turbines every day in the USA:
The National Wind Coordinating Collaborative, a collaboration of government officials, conservationists and industry representatives, more accurately estimates, based on actual data collected from over 100 wind farms nationally, the loss to be 200,000 birds annually.
That’s just in the US.
When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska, how many birds were killed? The Anchorage Daily News put the number between “90,000 and 270,000”.
The Assessment of Research Needs for Wind Turbine Rotor Materials Technology by Committee on Assessment of Research Needs for Wind Turbine Rotor Materials Technology, National Research Council says eind power is “environmentally benign“.
The birds are not doing well which ever way you look at it. But who pays for so much death? The GreenHellBlog wrote on August 17, 2009:
ExxonMobil pled guilty to killing about 85 protected waterfowl, hawks and owls in five states over the past five years. The birds died from exposure to the company’s natural gas well reserve pits and waste water storage facilities.
JunkScience notes:
ExxonMobil paid $3.1 million for the deaths of 85 birds in 2009. On that scale, the wind industry should pay $7.3 billion annually.
But they’d surely just pass it on to the consumers, adding any cost to your bills…
Photo 1: This Red Necked Greb is covered in oil resulting from a spill on Friday, March 24, 1989, when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound about 25 miles from Valdez, Alaska. This bird found Thursday, March 30, 1989, on Knights Island, about 35 miles from the spill, was taken by photographers to the bird cleanup center in Valdez.
Posted: 1st, April 2013 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
