About 15 years ago the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that the golden eagle population could not withstand an increase in human caused mortality. But there was a great queue of proposed wind projects that wanted FWS permits to kill these eagles under the Eagle Protection Act, which would certainly increase the kill rate.
In response the FWS created an offset program in which eagle deaths due to power pole electrocution would supposedly be reduced by an amount equal to the increased deaths due to wind turbines. We now know that this offset program has completely failed as there has been no reduction in electrocution deaths.
The likely cause of this failure is that the FWS uses an electrocution death rate that is extremely incorrect. As a result the number of power poles that have been made safe is just a tiny fraction of what it would take to create the desired offset.
The FWS should issue no more wind power eagle kill permits until this issue is resolved. Accurate power pole death rates need to be determined. Given there are over a hundred million poles in America the offset numbers may be so high that the program is not feasible. In that case wind development must stop.
Here are some technical basics. In 2016 FWS published detailed guidance and assessment of the electrocution offset program, which had already been in operation for a few years. It is called the compensatory mitigation program because the wind facility getting the eagle kill permit has to pay for the power pole refits that supposedly offset that facility’s kills.
The 2016 best estimate of the electrocution death rate was 500 eagles a year. The projected eagle kill rate increase from the steadily increasing number of deadly wind turbines is a FWS secret but it is privately estimated to be at least several hundred a year by now. If the offset program worked the electrocution death rate should have dropped at least an equal amount. In fact FSW requires it to drop even more.
But a major 2022 study found the electrocution rate to still be around 500 deaths per year. The 26 author study is “Age-specific survival rates, causes of death, and allowable take of Golden Eagles in the western United States,” Ecological Applications, January 2022 and it is here.
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.2544
The death rate did not go down after six years so the offsets did not work. Nor is there any reason to think they have worked since 2022 because the extremely low offset rate has not changed.
The number of power poles that must be made safe to offset each wind turbine death is the key number in the program. WFS uses 0.0036 deaths per pole. However I estimate that there are around 120 million power poles in America. Given 500 deaths a year that is a national average of about 0.0000042 deaths per pole.
The FWS number is a whopping 857 times the US average! On this simple account the number of poles that need to be made safe will be over 800 times the number presently being done. In that case it is no wonder the offset program does not work as the number of poles being made safe is trivial compared to what is needed.
Of course the reality is more complex but the offset number(s) need to be made scientifically accurate before the program continues.
It is also very strange that the FWS has not made a golden eagle population estimate since 2016, or at least not a public one. About 100,000 MW of wind power, well over 30,000 turbines, have become operational since 2016. FWS should be tracking the population impact.
The dire need to carefully assess the efficacy and feasibility of the electrocution offset program before granting any new eagle kill permits fits in with the President’s Executive Order on wind power. Here is the key requirement abstracted from that EO:
“Review of the Federal Government’s Permitting Practices for Wind Projects
Sec. 2. Temporary Cessation and Immediate Review of Federal Wind Permitting Practices.
- In light of various alleged legal deficiencies underlying the Federal Government’s permitting of onshore wind projects, the consequences of which may lead to grave harm, the Secretary of the Interior and the heads of all other relevant agencies, shall not issue new or renewed permits for onshore wind projects pending the completion of a comprehensive assessment and review of Federal permitting practices. The assessment shall consider the environmental impact of onshore wind upon birds.”
No new eagle death offset permits can be issued under the Eagle Protection Act until the compensatory mitigation program can be made to work, if it can be.
First published at CFACT.org.
