Wednesday, October 19, 2022

It's not easy being green

Wind energy company fined $35M for killing hundreds of bald eagles:

An American wind energy company has admitted to killing at least 150 bald and golden eagles, most of which were fatally struck by wind turbine blades, federal prosecutors said. 

ESI Energy pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) after eagles died at three of its facilities in Wyoming and New Mexico, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

Nice going, Greens.  If the rest of us even pick up an Eagle feather from the ground we can go to prison, but your corporate buddies just cop a plea and, the cost to electricity rates, and go back to collecting their subsidies.

I'll believe that the Greens are serious when they insist on prison time for this sort of thing.

(via)

11 comments:

Ruth said...

off topic, but: have you seen the latest press release from Signal? Can you suggest an alternative app for android? I'm not interested in using two different apps.

Aaron C. de Bruyn said...

That they're dropping SMS support? Signal is for secure messaging, not texting.

June J said...

Where are all the animal rights people on this? Where are the anarchists who deface/destroy things that harm animals?

Useless hypocrites.

SgtBob said...

Not to worry. Big tech has an AI that will turn off windmills when laser thingys pick up big birds in the area, so says the Wildlife Society. Story doesn’t say if AI will turn windmills back on.

Old NFO said...

And they'll just charge their customers more to make up for the fine... sigh

Aesop said...

Prison time would lead to the removal of every wind turbine in the country overnight.


I'm waiting for the downside.

matism said...

Never forget that, if you're a "Native American", you can get FedGov permission to kill a bald eagle.

Gerry said...

If you want to take a trip into a wormhole, ESI is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc.
Total worth of better than $18 billion dollars.

Even with the dip in stock prices, I think they will meet payroll on Friday after paying the fine.

McChuck said...

"Laws for thee but not for me."

blogger said...

Ruth and Aaron, Signal has a good blog post explaining the what/why about ending SMS for Android. The app will still work on Android, but they've ended SMS support because we've known for ten years or so that SMS is inherently insecure.

Matism, it's really not that simple. Many tribes (including mine) have Eagle Aviaries, and get the feathers that they need from that. Here's some info (including some videos) on the subject.

- Borepatch

HMS Defiant said...

Here in Ohio we have a wonderful place, "Back To The Wild" which takes injured animals and heals them and then restores them to the wild. They have some animals that cannot be returned to the wild due to the severity of their injuries. One is a Bald Eagle that is totally blind and lame due to flying into the path of a train. It sits on a little tree and suns itself. I asked the guide if they collect her feathers and she said "yes, but we have to turn them over to the government since it is illegal to take feathers from bald eagles." Another synoptic look into the idiocy of government.