Green windmills: disaster for birds and bats
WSJ | Nov. 7, 2019 | www.wsj.com
In response to the letter of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Richard Schrader (“Cuomo’s Right About Limiting Gas Pipelines,” Nov 1): The first law broken by ideologues is the law of unintended consequences.
The NRDC supports the couple dozen or so wind turbines on mountain tops in and around Sanford, N.Y.
This is even though three bat species have just been placed on the New York state’s “special concern” list, even though the most recent Cornell University study concluded that the bird population of the U.S. is in serious decline, even though the Sierra Club publication Desert Record has set out in detail the serious detrimental health effects of infrasound from wind turbines on wildlife and humans, even though the town of Sanford won’t receive one kilowatt-hour of electricity from the wind turbines, even though the eight-square-mile project will clear-cut forests on top of the mountains, even though the project will be on a major migratory bird route and the unique scenic divide of the head waters area of both the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers.
The project seeks a “kill permit” for eagles, other birds and bats. Yet Mr. Schrader believes that “all arrows are now pointed in the right direction.”
Perhaps the NRDC needs a new compass.
Christopher Denton
Elmira, N.Y.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/11/11/green-windmills-disaster-for-birds-and-bats/