Hi Everyone,

I strongly support alternative energy, but I also don't want it to negatively impact our bird populations!  Just like any industry, it needs to be regulated so that it doesn't hurt the very environment we hope it will benefit.  Just this past fall, I heard that 18 Connecticut Warblers were killed at a West Virgina wind farm when lights were left on all night.


Below: please take a moment to let the US Fish & Wildlife Service hear from the BIRDING COMMUNITY!

Jason Berry
Washington, DC


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Steve Holmer <>
To: "" <> 
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 7:41 PM
Subject: Action Alert: Support Bird-Smart Wind Development Petition

To: All Activists
From: Steve Holmer
Date: February 7, 2012
 
Action Alert: Support Bird-Smart Wind Development Petition
 
American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has petitioned the U.S. Department of the 
Interior to protect millions of birds from the negative impacts of wind 
energy by developing regulations that will safeguard wildlife and reward responsible wind 
energy development. The more than 100-page petition for rulemaking, prepared by ABC and the Washington, 
D.C.-based public interest law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal, calls for establishing a mandatory permitting system for the operation 
of wind energy projects and mitigation of their impacts on migratory birds. 
Now we are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to open a public comment period so that the public can weigh in. 
 
Please go to http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5400/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9510 to send your comment.   

Background
The government estimates that approximately 440,000 birds are currently 
killed each year by collisions with wind turbines. The massive expansion of wind power in the United States will likely result in the deaths of more than one million birds each year by 2030. Wind energy projects are also expected to adversely impact almost 20,000 square miles of wildlife habitat.
 
ABC filed the petition because it is clear that the voluntary guidelines 
the government has drafted will neither protect birds adequately nor 
give the wind industry the regulatory certainty it has been asking for. Voluntary guidelines have 
been in place since 2003, and yet preventable bird deaths at wind farms 
keep occurring. This includes thousands of Golden Eagles that have died 
at Altamont Pass in California and recent mass mortality events that killed more than 500 songbirds in West 
Virginia.
 
The petition is available online at: http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/collisions/pdf/wind_rulemaking_petition.pdf
 
ABC supports wind power when it is bird-smart. ABC’s petition seeks to bring wind power into harmony with the law, as well as with the needs of the migratory bird species that the law is designed to safeguard. The petition states that properly sited and operated wind energy projects may be an 
important part of the solution to climate change, a phenomenon that 
poses an unprecedented threat to species and ecosystems. However, poorly sited and operated wind projects pose a serious threat to birds, including birds of prey such as Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, 
hawks, and owls; endangered and threatened species, such as the 
California Condor and Whooping Crane; and species of special 
conservation concern, such as the Bicknell’s Thrush, Cerulean Warbler, Tricolored Blackbird, Sprague’s Pipit, and Long-billed Curlew. 
 
ABC’s petition proposes a model rule that would allow the government to 
consider impacts of wind farms on all bird species, as well as bats and 
other wildlife. This proposal contrasts sharply with the voluntary guidelines that allow the industry to police itself and continue to disregard harm to birds and other 
wildlife.
 
 
Steve Holmer
Senior Policy Advisor
American Bird Conservancy
202/234-7181 ext 216
202/744-6459 cell
 
www.abcbirds.org 
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