In an era when global warming is increasingly seen as the number one problem facing the nation, and our president has said we are addicted to foreign oil, the last thing we need is legislation that would cripple the wind industry. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) , a man known for his support of large coal subsidies and who once said about coal “For so many, filthy coal is a dirty four-letter word, these individuals, I tell you, have their heads buried in the sand.” (via) has just introduced a bill (H.R. 2337 full text of bill .txt file) that would place enormous, wrong-headed restrictions on America’s growing wind energy efforts. If enacted, the bill would severely hurt farmers, ranchers and other landowners who have – or want to have – clean, income-producing, wind energy turbines on their property.

Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337, establishes onerous standards for siting, construction, monitoring, and adaptive management that must be satisfied by all wind projects to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts on migratory birds and bats despite the fact that wind turbines cause less than 0.003% of human-cause bird mortality.

The bill would impose:

Imprisonment and a $50,000 fine for placing a wind turbine on private property without first gaining approval from bureaucrats including the head of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Impose a heavy-handed “solution” where there is no significant problem:

• The bill claims to protect birds by placing onerous new regulations on wind turbines.
• Meanwhile, vastly more birds – on a scale of 10,000 to less than one – are killed by house cats and plate glass windows than by a single wind turbine.
• The bill completely ignores the most serious effects of continued reliance on traditional fossil fuels, human-induced global warming, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has associated with mass extinctions of species.

The main problem with this legislation is its vague and sweeping nature. I also think its unfair to regulate wind so harshly when coal and oil plants do not have to account for “the potential cumulative impact that a proposed wind project would have on such wildlife in combination with other existing or proposed wind projects.” (imagine if the word wind was replaces with coal). There is no way another coal fired power plant would ever be built if the cumulative effects of the project in combination with other plants was taken into account. If we took into account the thousands of coal plants being built all over the world we would quickly see that they pose an IMMENSE “risk to birds bats and other wildlife” not to mention human beings.

This legislation has the stink of the fossil fuel industry all over it *cough* coal *cough*, and should be taken for what it is, an attempt to halt a rapidly growing and vibrant industry that poses a great threat to big carbons financial interests. Coal companies are clearly worried that the wind industry is going to muscle in on their profit margins. It would be a foolish, and potentially fatal mistake if we continue to allow this country to go down the wrong energy path. We need renewable clean energy now! Tell Congress to oppose the Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337
Please email or call your Representative to request that he or she oppose the Subtitle D Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337.

What follows is a sample letter to get you started.

Oppose the Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337

I am writing to request that you oppose the Subtitle D Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337, sponsored by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), which imposes new certification requirements that would bring wind energy development across the U.S. to a grinding halt. Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337, establishes onerous standards for siting, construction, monitoring, and adaptive management that must be satisfied by all wind projects to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse impacts on migratory birds and bats despite the fact that the National Academy of Sciences has concluded wind turbines cause less than 0.003% of human-cause bird mortality. (This is at least one thousand times lower than the mortality associated with house cats.)

The Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337 is unnecessary, unworkable and unfair. Wind energy is no threat to birds relative to other human activities. H.R. 2337 would make it a criminal act to generate wind power energy after the bill’s unrealistic certification deadlines pass. Landowners and farmers could face jail or a $50,000 penalty for putting a wind turbine – of any size – on their private property without certification by the Director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The legislation singles out wind power for burdensome requirements and ignores wildlife impacts associated with other energy sources. The bill completely ignores the most serious effects of continued reliance on traditional fossil fuels, human-induced global warming, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has associated with mass extinctions of species. A widely reported 2004 international study found that up to one million species may be driven extinct by global warming by 2050.

I request that you oppose the Subtitle D Anti-Wind Energy Section of H.R. 2337.

Sincerely
your name

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