Wind Energy Company to Pay $1 Million in Bird Deaths
EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS
November 22, 2013
The article deals with Wind power company that is responsible for the death of protected birds. The company that is responsible, Duke Energy Which was charged with killing 14 golden eagles and dozen of other birds at two wind projects in Wyoming since 2009 Paid $1 million fines for the justice department as the first criminal case against wind power company. Birds are often killed when they collide with the wind turbines, meteorological towers and power facilities associated with wind power projects, so Duke Energy is making an effort to reduce it by installing new radar technology to detect birds and using field biologists to look for eagles and determine when turbines need to be shut down or not.
The reason I chose this topic is because it's really interesting how something planned to be positive for the environment can also hurt other parts of ecosystem as well as the environment. The company didn't mean to cause harm for the birds but they are harmed anyway. Even though the company paid fines for it's deed, they still need to decrease or find some kind of technology to take care of it before hand like they are doing now. On the article Professionals state that as long as there are wind projects, it's unavoidable that there will be death of birds even though the numbers will vary so companies who are responsible for this kind of projects should decrease the number of birds that are victims of their doing or install a machine or something that keeps the bird or the humans to be careful before anything happens. But given that it's for the good of an environment in my opinion than dismissing the whole project I think a way to make it better should be discovered.