It also allowed the operators of the wind farm to bypass state aesthetic impact regulations by eliminating just one of the 10 wind turbines that now sits atop what Lerner said used to be a picturesque vista overlooking Newfound Lake. The board, a subcommittee of New Hampshire’s Site Evaluation Committee, is made up of government officials from the state’s Public Utilities Commission, Department of Transportation, and Department of Environmental Services. When it was proven that a 1,700-acre wind farm in Antrim, New Hampshire, was violating noise limits, the governor-appointed board charged with ensuring compliance of wind farms allowed TransAlta, owners of the wind farm, to switch to average decibel readings instead of holding them to the maximum threshold alliance under state law.
Lori Lerner, founder of New Hampshire Wind Watch, told The Epoch Times that the government has shown a transparent bias in favor of wind farms even when they’re blatantly breaking the law. “The fishing industry supports strong action on climate change, but not at the expense of the ocean, its inhabitants, and sustainable domestic seafood,” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based group. The group mostly represents the fishing industry. Interior Department and other federal agencies for approving the construction of thousands of offshore wind turbine towers on 65,000 acres of federal waters off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, a nearby island.
In January, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), which represents the fishing industry, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for approving the offshore wind farm. The residents filed the suit against the U.S. Residents on Nantucket, an island in Massachusetts, are currently in court battling a 2,000-wind turbine farm slated to be constructed in the breeding area of 400 endangered North Atlantic right whales. (Jolinne Surrette, Fisheries and Oceans Canada) Offshore wind farms have also been blamed for killing marine life. “ reaped federal production tax credits for generating electricity from wind power at facilities that it operated,” while killing multiple eagles “without legal authorization” and without “paying restitution or compensatory mitigation,” the DOJ stated in its lawsuit against the company. However, Lieberman said it wasn’t for killing the eagles, but for failing to get the proper permits to do so. Department of Justice under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The charges, which include three counts of criminal liability, were brought against the Florida-based company by the U.S. The company entered its guilty plea on April 5, the same day it was sentenced. Last month, the largest operator of windmill farms in the United States was ordered to pay $35 million in fines, mitigation measures, and restitution fees for killing 150 endangered American bald eagles.Īs part of a plea deal, ESI Energy, a subsidiary of electric utility giant NextEra, dodged federal criminal charges and instead was convicted of misdemeanors for killing bald eagles in eight states-Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, North Dakota, and Michigan.
“It’s a long litany of incentives that make it very profitable and attractive to the government,” said Lieberman, “even if the wind energy isn’t very viable” and even if isn’t generated very efficiently.Īnd “even if there are things like bird kills which, under any other circumstances, environmental activities would be up in arms over.” The largest wind farm operator in America has had to pay $35 million for killing 150 endangered American bald eagles. (Teri Virbickis/Shutterstock) That’s the view of Ben Lieberman, senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who recently told The Epoch Times that the federal government allows wind farms to desecrate the environment because it profits hugely from them and uses them as an excuse not to tap into domestic oil reserves. Windmill farms are wreaking havoc on wildlife and people who live near them, causing a growing division among environmentalists about them.