If a hunter kills a bald eagle, he can get a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Likewise, oil companies are liable for tens of millions for any spill that harms our wildlife. But what happens when a green-energy wind turbine slashes a bird to bits?
Absolutely nothing.
The Associated Press revealed that even as wind turbines kill an estimated 573,000 birds a year — including many bald and golden eagles — the Obama administration refuses to lift a feather to enforce federal laws protecting the birds.
“The result is a green industry that’s allowed to do not-so-green things,” reports the AP. “It kills protected species with impunity and conceals the environmental consequences of sprawling wind farms.”
Because wind power is a preferred pet of the green movement, the government is allowing it to get away with things that other companies cannot. The effective result is that the White House is creating two sets of laws: a harsh one for the oil and electricity plants that provide the majority of energy in the nation, and a loving one for its preferred class of wind-energy farms.
One electric company paid $10.5 million for killing 232 eagles at its plants. But the same company runs wind farms that have killed at least 20 more eagles — and it hasn’t been fined or prosecuted for that. In fact, the administration has yet to fine or prosecute a single wind farm for such killings.
“What it boils down to is this: If you electrocute an eagle, that is bad, but if you chop it to pieces, that is OK,” a former Fish and Wildlife Service official fretted to the AP. With spinning blades that can reach speeds up to 170 miles at the tips, the birds don’t have a chance.
And now the EPA is working on regulations that would give wind companies 30-year permits to run turbines and kill many eagles with impunity. Regulatory changes involving oil companies would require months or years of reviews of their environmental impact. But the EPA is fast-tracking all that for their windy friends.
Given the Solyndra mess, the failure of the promised 5 million environmentally friendly jobs to materialize and the double standards with wind farms, clearly there’s only one protected species in Washington today: any industry calling itself green.