By now people are getting up to speed on how intrusive living next to wind turbines is.
 
Besides the fact that you can’t store their power and are butt ugly, wind turbines kill birds. They’ve been known to take out eagles. Enviros have filed lawsuits. Bird lovers have brayed. Papers have been waved. Environmental lawyers have racked up billable hours.

Now for the first time, the Feds are proposing issuing a new permit to allow a proposed central Oregon wind farm to kill eagles. From US News & World Report here:

The Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday released a draft environmental assessment that would allow West Butte Wind Power LLC to kill as many as three protected golden eagles over five years if the company fulfills its conservation commitments. 

This has never happened before:

It’s the first eagle “take permit” application to be received and acted on by U.S. Fish and Wildlife under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. (“Take” means to kill, harass or disturb the birds, their nests or their eggs.)

I’m sure part of this acknowledges that eagles are not in short supply anymore since the original ruling to protect them was made in the 1940’s.  But the caveat is this:

The permit, if ultimately issued, stipulates that there must be no net loss to breeding populations of golden eagles from the wind farm project. That means for every protected bird permitted killed, developers must contribute to conservation efforts for breeding them.

Some bird lovers are happy that wind turbine operators must now take out a permit to mitigate bird loss.

Kelly Fuller, wind campaign coordinator for the American Bird Conservancy, praised West Butte for being the first company to apply for one. She described the latest development as “precedent-setting…”

I’d like to think this may be a step in the right direction but I’m not holding my breath. It sounds like the enviros have insinuated themselves yet again in the process of energy production–as faulty as it is.