Some say generators kill too many raptors
When it comes to wind power, few places are more productive — or more deadly to birds — than the Altamont Pass, a gusty stretch of rolling hills about 30 miles west of Modesto.
At a time when demand is rising for greener energy sources, the Altamont has become one of the nation's leading producers of wind power, generating about 820 million kilowatt hours of pollution-free electricity each year — enough to satisfy the needs of 120,000 homes for a year.
But the Altamont, where more than 5,000 windmills line the hilltops, has also become a death trap for thousands of migrating birds that get chopped up in fast-rotating turbine blades as they fly through or hunt for prey in this mountainous region between the San Joaquin Valley and the Bay Area.
An estimated 1,700 to 4,700 birds are killed each year in the 50-square-mile Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area. Of those fatalities, between 880 and 1,300 are federally protected raptors such as burrowing owls, redtailed hawks and golden eagles, according to a study released last year by the California Energy Commission.
Windmills vs. wildlife advocates
"Altamont is killing more birds of prey than any other wind farm in North America," said Jeff Miller, a wildlife advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Incredible numbers of raptors are being killed there, and it's hard to believe it's not having effects on the populations."
The relentless bird killings have provoked a fight between the windmill operators and environmentalists who were once reluctant to take on an industry that provides an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels blamed for air pollution and global warming.
Wildlife advocates have taken legal action to force the turbine operators to reduce the carnage. They have sued nine companies that run wind farms there and appealed Alameda County's decisions to renew the turbine operating permits without requiring measures to reduce bird collisions.
An Alameda County judge this week allowed the lawsuit to move forward, and the case could go to trial late this year or early next year.
Alameda County's Board of Supervisors is expected to decide this week whether to force the turbine operators to adopt measures to curb bird deaths, such as closing for winter or scrapping the most lethal turbines.
"This industry has always wrapped itself in the mantle of green power and has sought to use the environmental benefits of wind power as an excuse for not doing anything about the environmental harms it causes," said Rick Wiebe, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diver-sity, one of the plaintiffs.
The windmill owners agree that something must be done to protect the birds. FPL Energy, which runs about half of the Altamont's turbines, has already taken down about 100 of its most deadly windmills and replaced another 169 with 31 larger, high-tech towers, spokesman Steven Stengel said.
Going out of business?
But Stengel argues that requiring more extreme measures could put the wind farms out of business.
"There's a balancing act here," Stengel said. "We have to be able to reduce the bird mortality and at the same time allow the turbine operators to operate in an economically responsible manner."
Wind has become one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy, expanding about 20 percent annually over the past five years, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Last year, U.S. wind farms had the capacity to generate 6,740 megawatts of electricity. Another 2,500 megawatts is expected to be added this year.
While that's still less than 1percent of the nation's electricity supply, the U.S. Energy Department wants wind to make up 5 percent by 2020. And states have passed laws to ramp up use of renewable sources such as wind, biomass and solar power.
In California, where the federal government has proposed dozens of new wind power projects, regulators want 20 percent of the state's electricity to come from renewables by 2010.
While environmentalists support wind energy, they worry the Altamont's bird kill problem is hurting wind's environmentally friendly reputation.
"Allowing the taking of these protected species is giving a black eye to the wind power industry," said Michael Boyd, who heads Californians for Renewable Energy. "Wind is a good option, but you got to locate it appropriately and design it appropriately for the environment you're putting it in."
On the Net: www.awea.org; www.biologicaldiversity.org.
By TERENCE CHEA
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
