Saturday, January 7, 2012

First Wind Turbines -- And Now "Safe Passage" -- The Government Is Out to Kill The Few Remaining Whooping Cranes

I cannot make this stuff up.

There is a solution to protecting whooping cranes from wind turbines, but the government has put a stop to that. The solution to protect young whooping cranes is called "safe passage." It is very, very similar to the underground railroad of the 1860's. The government tried to stop that "safe passage" also.

This is incredible.

Link here.
Ten young whooping cranes and the bird-like plane they think is their mother had flown more than halfway to their winter home in Florida when federal regulators stepped in.

Now the birds and the plane are grounded in Alabama while the Federal Aviation Administration investigates whether the journey violates regulations because the pilot was being paid by a conservation group to lead the cranes on their first migration instead of working for free.

FAA regulations say only pilots with commercial pilot licenses can fly for hire. The pilots of Operation Migration's plane are instead licensed to fly sport aircraft because that's the category of aircraft that the group's small, open plane with its rear propeller and bird-like wings falls under. FAA regulations also prohibit sport aircraft — which are sometimes of exotic design — from being flown to benefit a business or charity.
Has this administration gone nuts?

Thank goodness for the Drudge Report.

5 comments:

  1. So far, one writer has written to tell me he/she supports the government in this situation.

    Time for the government to shut down the whooping cranes, apparently, if pilots don't play by the rules.

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  2. Enjoy your site and I access it everyday for the Oil related info.

    The other political stuff just fuels and confirms the inner flames of the 15% on the right and 15% on the left. If you are in one of those groups your guy can do no wrong and their guy can only do right.

    I (and the other 70%) fall in the middle and like some republican and some democratic positions.

    Ultimately you cannot convince anyone of anything they do not already believe - any chance you could just go back to the purpose of the site and limit the flames?

    Thanks for your work as I am out in Idaho and use it for information regarding my mineral interests.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As I've explained in earlier posts, my contract requires that not less than 10 percent of my posts have to deal with more than just the Bakken.

    I have made one concession: I try to warn folks in the headings/subject line if a post has absolutely nothing to do with the Bakken. Folks that come to this site strictly for information about the Bakken should avoid any posts that "have absolutely nothing to do with the Bakken."

    I sometimes forget to label some posts, and for that I apologize.

    By the way, I did a poll on whether I should continue with rants/raves, and it was a 51/49 split, or something like that. A very tiny majority (less than 55) agreed with you; I should stop with the non-Bakken stuff.

    Oh, one last thing: it is interesting you chose to select this particular post to suggest I need to stay with the Bakken. In fact, this is one of my pet peeves and it is directly related to the Bakken. The faux-environmentalists will "crucify" the oil companies if one duck is harmed in their waste pits; but these same folks have no qualms with wind turbines in a eagle/hawk nesting area in Minnesota.

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  4. Perhaps anonymous could learn to do research on subjects they have a financial interest in. It's not hard to do once you learn it but the learning curve is tough.

    Just to show how clueless the government is, whooping cranes cannot read a GPS or a custom mobile smartphone app listing a existing and proposed windmills. The ultra-light can steer clear of of the bird-killing machines.

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  5. That same "anonymous" sent another post regarding my thoughts on the FAA, but due to nature of post (language) and complete inanity, I chose not to post it.

    You have it exactly right with my thoughts re: "safe passage."

    What a great answer to helping some birds navigate safely and the FAA stopped it due to nature of funding and not due to safety.

    ReplyDelete