Perhaps the poorest investment in America today is wind energy. It’s unreliable, expensive, inefficient, provides very little bang for the buck, is environmentally a disaster (even though supporters claim otherwise), and is a visual blight on the landscape. Therefore we can only conclude that there are reasons beyond simple alternative energy sources and saving the planet that prompts people like Obama to fantasize over windmills.
We also have come to realize that windmills are a killing machine, annihilating close to half a million birds a year, some of them being endangered species. As more wind turbines are being erected each year and locating them in “wind tunnels” (the same wind currents migrating birds use), the number of dead birds is sure to rise.
Consider a recent permit that has been applied for by 19 energy developers to kill endangered whooping cranes in order to plaster wind turbines from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico right directly in the path of migrating cranes and other birds.
This permit, called an Incidental Take Permit, is a provision under the Endangered Species Act, that will allow for an undefined number of protected species to be killed…..”incidentally” through other actions such as trapping, where on occasion an endangered species may get caught in a unintended trap.
But is the Incidental Take Permit intended to be applied to such items as building bird-killing windmills? And what of the hypocrisy as well as the inconsistent administration of the Endangered Species Act?
According to the linked-to article above, Dan Ashe, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Director, said “wind energy is crucial to the nation’s future economic and environmental security, which is why the agency is paving the way for a renewable energy project with an undetermined number of wind turbines generating an unidentified amount of electricity along the 200-mile-wide corridor.”
That’s flat out a lie. What Mr. Ashe should have said was that Mr. Obama is indebted to all the wind energy developing companies that paid him lots of money to get elected and this push for the poorest energy investment known to mankind is payback for their initial investment, much at the expense of taxpayers.
It certainly appears that when it comes to government, under the rule of any regime in Washington, that it depends on whose investments and special interests are at stake as to how and when the Endangered Species Act will be implemented.
Obviously this administration has no problem with killing an unspecified number of whooping cranes and other birds to promote their agendas and return favors. After all, we must bear in mind that we have another presidential election coming up next year, so the table is being set.
There is a long list of events where certain protected species have been “protected” at the expense of humans’ right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But where those in power, who have a special vested interest, that protection may dwindle in order to further their agenda.
If this country insists that it still wants to use an outdated and abused Endangered Species Act, then at least administer the thing equitably.
Tom Remington
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