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US Issues 30-Year Eagle-Killing Permits To Wind Industry
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Lindsay Abrams reports at Salon that the Obama administration is offering wind farms 30 years of leeway to kill and harm bald and golden eagles. The new regulations, which were requested by the wind industry, will provide companies that seek a permit with legal protection, preventing them from having to pay penalties for eagle deaths (PDF). An investigation by the Associated Press earlier this year documented the illegal killing of eagles around wind farms, the Obama administration's reluctance to prosecute such cases and its willingness to help keep the scope of the eagle deaths secret. President Obama has championed the pollution-free energy, nearly doubling America's wind power in his first term as a way to tackle global warming. Scientists say wind farms in 10 states have killed at least 85 eagles since 1997, with most deaths occurring between 2008 and 2012, as the industry was greatly expanding. Most deaths — 79 — were golden eagles that struck wind turbines. However the scientists said their figure is likely to be 'substantially' underestimated, since companies report eagle deaths voluntarily and only a fraction of those included in their total were discovered during searches for dead birds by wind-energy companies. The National Audubon Society said it would challenge the decision."
If you took down every single wind mill in the world tomorrow, humanity would not really even notice for most part. At worst, we may have to start using some of the mothballed coal/oil/gas plants to compensate.
And even "I'm so high I think I can walk across oceans" level of babbling would probably not try to claim that wind power is a "question of survival of human civilization".
>When we burn fossil fuel, we increase the amount of C02 level in the atmosphere, triggering what is called by many "Global Warming".
Mythical. Hasn't been any "warming" for over 15 years.
>When we don't want to burn fossil fuel, and turn to Nuke, we end up having radioactive waste that can last very very long time.
Because we're too damn stupid to reprocess it and use it over again like the French.
>And when we turn to the wind, the birds (including the eagles) ending up having to pay.
Yep, and there's no practical way to prevent it. But because liberals are in love with "green" energy, this will continue.
>A much more simple way is to cut down on our wasteful lifestyle.
Here comes the "Sit home in the dark and freeze" solution.
>Do we need to turn our home into a greenhouse every winter ?
Naw, we can dial the heat down to just enough to keep the pipes from freezing, and see how many more people catch pneumonia.
>Do we need to turn the same house into an igloo every summer ?
Naw, nobody really _needs_ air conditioning, just ask all those old people that die of the heat every summer 'cuz they can't afford the electricity for it.
>And to those "electric car" fanbois, listen up. Do we really need electric "CAR" ? I mean, do we need a VERY HEAVY VEHICLE, even if they are electrically driven, to get us from point A to point B ? Look at the weight of the electric cars. They are NOT THAT MUCH DIFFERENT from the fossil-fuel cars, weighting more than 1 ton. What is the average weight of a human being ? 50/60 kilo? Why do we need something that weight A FUCKING TON to deliver something that weight 50/60 ton ?
Because the safety nazis, almost as bad as the envirowackos, have declared that cars have to be able to crash at the speed of light and nobody gets so much as a headache over it. That's why the Geo Metro of decades ago, with a 3 cylinder engine and a very light weight, was getting 49 mpg without any batteries, and cars today that weigh like Mt. Everest don't get that much. We should pair up an envirowacko with a safety nazi, and hang both with the same rope from a lightpole. Then repeat until the problems go away.
Decrease my quality of life? Listen up, loserboy: I'm not to decrease my quality of life one iota. You just try, I will have your whole life decreased to ZERO. Bend over backwards and shit on your own face, thinking about devolution means seriously considering extinction. The answer is more tech, not less. You don't like it? Suicide and mulch yourself.
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.