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Slicers and Dicers Asking For Even More Immunity

I thought slicers and dicers already had complete immunity when it came to indiscriminate killing of eagles, migratory birds, and bats. Maybe not.

Sent in by a reader this story from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

A controversial wind farm proposed near Red Wing plans to ask for federal permission to legally kill eagles, making it one of the first in the nation to participate in a new federal strategy aimed at managing the often-lethal conflict between birds and turbine blades.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials say they urged the developers of AWA Goodhue Wind to seek the new permit because the deaths of an unknown number of eagles and endangered golden eagles will be inevitable once the 50-turbine project is up and running.

The process for such "incidental take" permits was devised in 2009 as a compromise between the demand for clean energy from the growing number of wind farms and the rising concern over the estimated hundreds of thousands of birds and bats that they kill every year. [Hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by wind turbines every year. Compare this to six ducks killed in the past five years due to the oil activity in the Bakken.]

The 18.75-square-mile site in Goodhue County is home to a number of nesting eagles, and many more migrate through the area every year. There also have been sightings of two rare and endangered golden eagles, which come down from Canada to winter along the Mississippi River bluffs in southeastern Minnesota.

To get a permit, the company must provide a detailed plan designed to minimize the impact on protected species, project how many are likely to be killed each year, and keep track of the outcome. [Big deal: a detailed plan.]

Keep track of how many eagles are killed? Impossible. The nocturnal varmints will dispose of the carcasses.

I wonder how many faux environmentalists will attend the public hearings to voice their outrage? I assume none. After all, these are wind towers. 

Meanwhile, it is a criminal offense punishable by hanging for killing a single duck in an oil patch waste pit. Well, maybe not hanging.