Day Old News, But For Those Who Missed It: Oil Companies Not Liable for Migratory Bird Deaths -- Judge -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here to Grand Forks Herald:

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that oil companies cannot be prosecuted for the deaths of a half-dozen ducks in waste disposal pits, saying prosecutors went too far in applying a law meant to protect migratory birds.

The deaths of the birds, which mistook the pits for water ponds and were covered in oil waste, were an "incidental or unintended effect" of oil production and could not be compared to hunting or poaching, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland ruled.

The story line not told: this clears the way judicially for wind turbines to kill whooping cranes.