by David Wojick at CFACT
About 15 years ago, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that the Golden Eagle population could not withstand an increase in human caused mortality. But there was a great queue of proposed wind projects that wanted FWS permits to kill these eagles under the Eagle Protection Act, which would certainly increase the kill rate.
In response, the FWS created an offset program in which eagle deaths due to power pole electrocution would supposedly be reduced by an amount equal to the increased deaths due to wind turbines. We now know that this offset program has completely failed as there has been no reduction in electrocution deaths.
The likely cause of this failure is that the FWS uses an electrocution death rate that is extremely incorrect. As a result the number of power poles that have been made safe is just a tiny fraction of what it would take to create the desired offset.
The FWS should issue no more wind power eagle kill permits until this issue is resolved. Accurate power pole death rates need to be determined. Given there are over a hundred million poles in America, the offset numbers may be so high that the program is not feasible. In that case wind development must stop.
Here are some technical basics. In 2016 FWS published detailed guidance and assessment of the electrocution offset program,…
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