USA TODAY  WEDNESDAY  JANUARY 5, 2005
Wind turbines  talking toll on  birds of prey
Thousands of deaths at site  in Calif. spur group's lawsuit
By John Ritter
USA TODAY

ALTAMONT PASS, Calif, - The big turbines that stretch for  miles along these rolling, grassy  hills have churned out clean, re- newable electricity for two dec- ades in one of the nation's first  big wind-power projects.
But for just as long, massive  fiberglass blades on the more  than 4,000 windmills have  been chopping up tens of thou- sands of birds that fly into  them, including golden eagles,  red-tailed hawks, burrowing  owls and other raptors.

After years of study but little  progress reducing bird kills, en- vironmentalists have sued to  force turbine owners to take  tough corrective measures. The  companies, at risk of federal  prosecution, say they see the  need to protect birds. "Once we  finally realized that this issue  was really serious, that we had  to solve it to move folward, we  got religion," says George Har- die, president of G3 Energy.
The size of the body  count - conservatively put at  4, 700 birds - is unique,
sprawling, 50-square-mile site  in the Diablo Mountains be- tween San Francisco and the
agricultural Central Valley be- cause it spans an international  migratory bird route regulated  by the federal government. The  low mountains are home to the  world's highest density of nest- ing golden eagles.
Scientists don't know  whether the kills reduce overall  bird populations but worry that  turbines, added to other fac- tors, could tip a species into de- cline. "They didn't realize it at  the time, but it was just a really  bad place to build a wind farm,"  says Grainger Hunt, an ecologist  with the Peregrine Fund who  has studied eagles at Altamont.  Across the USA - from Cape  Cod to Southern California  - new wind projects,  touted as emission-free options  to oil- and gas-fueled power  plants, face resistance over  wildlife, noise and vistas. The
clashes come as wind-energy
demand is growing, in part be- cause 17 states have passed  laws requiring that some of  their future energy - 20% in  California by 2010 - come  from renewable sources.  Environmental groups, fans  in principle of "green" power,  are caught in the middle :
"We've been really clear aIl  along, we absolutely support  wind energy as long as facilities  are appropriately sited," says  Jeff Miller, Bay Area wildlands  coordinator for the Center for  Biological Diversity, which took  12 companies to court.
Wind energy is a tiny but  fast-growing share of U.S. ener - gy - 0.4%, up from less than  0.1% five years ago. Since No- vember, when Congress rein- stated a key tax credit for wind  producers, the industry is  poised to expand by as much as
a third this year, the   Wind Energy Association says.
In 2004, wind generated  enough electricity to power  1.6 million households, the as- sociation says. Altamont's tur- bines are the nation's No.2 pro- ducer. Few energy experts  think environmental concerns  will discourage wind develop- ment long-term because the  tradeoff is too appealing.
"When you opt for wind tur- bines, you don't opt for pollu- tion that harms children and  crops from fossil-fuel power  plants" says Dan Kammen, an  energy professor at the Univer- sity of California-Berkeley.
But windmills - derisively  dubbed by some as "toilet  brushes in the sky" - draw fire  when they're planned in areas  prized for pristine landscapes :
Cape Cod groups are fighting
what they calI visual pollu- tion from 130 turbines, each  taller than the Statue of Liberty.  Fishermen fear loss of prime  fishing grounds from the USA's  first offshore project.
Rep. Nick Rahall,  asked the Government Ac- countability Office to study the  effects more windmills would  have in the Appalachians. Re- search found that existing tur - bines killed up to 4,000 bats on  Backbone Mountain last year.
 
Source American Wnd Energy Association: G3 Energy

~ In the Flint Hills of Kansas,  the Audubon Society worries  that windmills could despoil  views in one of America's few  remaining stands of native tall- grass prairie and harm habitats  of migrating prairie birds.
  Acting Gov. Richard Codey  last month ordered a 15-month  wind-power moratorium on  the New Jersey shore, where  the desire to preserve Atlantic  views has collided with plans  for offshore turbines near
By Karl Gelles. USA TODAY

Ocean City and other sites.  Altamont Pass bird kills have  been known for years, but tur- bine owners and federal reg- ulators ignored them except to  urge more research, says Miller  of the Center for Biological Di- versity. But a California Energy  Commission study in August  found bird fatalities much high- er than had been thought and  laid out steps to limit them.
At the same time, 20-year- old county permits were up for
--
renewal, and the U.S. Fish and  Wildlife Service decided to  crack down. "Twenty years has  just been too long to resolve  this problem," says Scott Heard,  the agency's chief Northern  California enforcement agent.  Fish and Wildlife can prose- cute those responsible for kills  under federal laws that protect  eagles and migratory birds.
The center's lawsuit was  withdrawn but filed again in  November because the wind  companies' bird-protection  plan was "not a serious at - tempt" Miller says. The center  is appealing Alameda County's  approval of new permits.
The state study's key recom- mendation would be for  companies: replace old tur- bines with fewer, larger-capac
ity modern ones, relocate them  away from favorite bird haunts  and build them more than  twice as high so blades rotate  above the birds' flight paths.  Environmentalists want 3- year permits that can be re- newed only if companies show  progress. The comparues, citing  financial pressures, have pro- posed at least 13-year permits  and want their own timetable  for installing new turbines.  Alameda County is trying to  broker a deal. "We can't put  them out of business by telling  them to take out aIl their old  turbines," says assistant plan- ning director Steven Buckley.  Turbine owners say Alta- mont's 4,000-plus windmills  are outdated and eventually  will be replaced by 1 ,000 or  fewer new ones. G3 Energy, a  small Altamont operator, is re- placing 180 obsolete turbines  with 38 larger ones.
Others are more cautious.  FPL Energy, Altamont's biggest  operator with 2,000 turbines,  wants the study's findings test- ed. "Certainly the turbine own- ers hope fewer. taller turbines  reduce collisions." says FPL  spokesman Steve Stengel. "But  there has not been research  done to verify that."

By Martin Kilmek for USA TODAY
Illustration 3 - Potential killer: A flock of birds flies past a non-operating wind turbine in the hills of Altamont  Pass in Alameda County, Calif. Turbines in the area have killed eagles, hawks and owls.