New Legislative Provision Would Hamper Efforts To Produce Wind Energy, Say Advocates
New legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives intended to protect migratory birds would significantly impair growth of the wind industry, critics warn.
New legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives intended to protect migratory birds would significantly impair growth of the wind industry, critics warn.
The provision is in a bill introduced by Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) in the House Natural Resources Committee that the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) says would “essentially outlaw the generation of electricity from new wind power plants in the United States and even phase out power production from existing wind turbines.”
The provision, Subtitle D of H.R. 2337, would:
- Bar any new wind power project until new Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rules are issued – a process likely to take years – and require FWS certification of every turbine
- Require all existing turbines, even small residential units, to cease operating 6 months after issuance of new FWS rules until they are “certified,” an unwieldy bureaucratic process applying to many thousands of turbines that, again, will take years
- Make it a crime, punishable by a $50,000 fine or a year in jail, to construct or generate electricity from an unapproved turbine, even for home use
- Undermine state and federal efforts to promote renewable electricity generation and subvert the growing movement to reduce global warming pollution
The legislative proposal follows on the heels of a May 3 report from the National Academy of Sciences that states, among other things, that “Clearly, bird deaths caused by wind turbines are a minute fraction of . . . total anthropogenic bird deaths – less than 0.003 percent [three of every 100,000] in 2003.”
And the wind industry is already helping to fund groundbreaking collaborative research programs on bats and grassland birds to develop a knowledge base that would allow intelligent and effective conservation measures, according to AWEA. Existing evidence suggests that fossil fuel-fired electricity generation, not covered by H.R. 2337’s requirements, has far greater wildlife impacts, says AWEA.
“Wind energy requires no mining or drilling for fuel, no fuel transportation, no hazardous waste disposal, and no water use; and wind energy generates electricity without toxic pollutants like mercury, without greenhouse pollution, and of course without the conventional pollutants that cause smog and acid rain,” says Gregory Wetstone, AWEA Senior Director of Government and Public Affairs. “Is this really an energy sector Congress should close down, for environmental reasons?”
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