Silence of the lambs:US government authorized killing of endangered bighorns in path of wind project

[Liberty Belle]

Source: East County Magazine

May 19, 2012 (Ocotillo) -- In a precedent that has horrified wildlife experts, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has authorized the “take” (meaning harassment, displacement or even death) of 10 endangered Peninsular Bighorn Sheep – five ewes and five lambs.

The decision comes after federal wildlife officials were provided photographic evidence that the endangered animals were seen in recent weeks on the site of the just-approved Ocotillo Express wind energy facility—a presence federal officials and the project developer have long denied.

Mark Jorgensen is the retired Superintendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which shares a five mile border with the Ocotillo Express wind project now under construction on adjacent public property owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). He is horrified at the decision to allow the killing of the sheep on land that until recently was designated as critical bighorn habitat.

Mark Jorgensen, retired Superintendent, Anza-Borrego Desert State ParkJorgensen calls the decision “astounding”, adding that the USF&W “is charged with protecting this endangered population—and it is not showing any leadership in safeguarding the [Endangered Species Act] ESA.”


Read more: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9732

---

I am sick over this. I sent the USFSW and BLM photos proving the endangered sheep were on the project site or right at the boundary. They included radio tracking tags clearly readable, with numbers. I thought this would save the sheep and stop the project.

Instead, Salazar ordered take permits to kill them!

This is after the BLM cut the designated critical habitat area in half, for no good reason, with no science -- just to accommodate a private corporation taking public land.

I've written a letter to President Obama. He is the only one with the power to stop this. Please contact the White House and ask him to either halt the project, or at least reverse the "take" permits so that they can't just wantonly slaughter these beautiful endangered animals.

[XemaSab]

1. Would you care to cross-post this to E/E?

[Liberty Belle]

2. Good idea. Done!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112715306

Also at this link I included links to contact CA Senator Barbara Boxer, who chairs an environmental committee in Congress. Maybe she could introduce a bill to outlaw the take permits at big energy projects for endangered species, which is the first time our country has every allowed such a thing. Also contacting the White House, since the President could ask Secretary Salazar to reverse the take orders.

[XemaSab]

3. Excellent

[TownDrunk2]

4. Good old Salazar, what a piece of

And in the face of betrayal by our elected officials we are forced to remain civil.

Yes, that's the way to do it DU isn't it?

[FailureToCommunicate]

5. WTF? I guess I don't fathom how critters and wind towers are incompatible.

[Liberty Belle]

7. There are many ways that turbines impact wildlife negatively.

They are scraping the desert bare to build this one, literally destroying burrowing owl burrows (I've got photos of that, too). The turbines are massive - 450 feet tall with blades each having the sweep of a football field, each with a 50 foot diameter foundation that goes down many feet. It clearly destroys anything that lives in the ground.

They produce noise that can frighten animals away and also infrasound, sounds waves that you don't see, but that can harm the body. The USF&WS has produced a paper on the damage infrasound can do to animals specifically. At high enough levels it can cause organ damage or even death--and there are no setbacks for wildlife, so they can go right up to the turbines in areas that aren't fenced. Infrasound can interfere with some birds and animals ability to communicate, too. Humans near wind facilities often complain of pain in their ears, chest pressure, heart palpitations and headaches from the inaudible infrasound waves, as well as audible noise that never goes away. Noise descriptions range from a whooshing sound to louder helicopter type sounds that don't go away.

The turbines can also produce stray voltage. Ground current has been known to kill cattle and goats. Long term exposure causes childhood leukemia rates to double. A wind farm in Campo, CA has stray voltage measured at 1,000 times normal in a nearby tribal hall and church, where residents are getting very ill. The tribe has asked the government to do a health study. There have been some mass die-offs of livestock near wind farms. There is also blade shadow/flicker and then the construction activities to build the facilities. As they build larger and larger turbines, the problems increase, too.

This article has many links documenting harmful impacts of wind turbines and infrasound on animals: http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/9615

Each turbine base is 50 feet wide. This is a 2,400 acre site being disrupted. In theory sheep can wander between turbines but it's doubtful they would do so with all that noise and vibrations. At this particular site, the poor sheep have already been chased down from higher ground due to a power line construction and yet another wind facility slated to go in, where some wind testing towers are being put up. This Ocotillo site lies in between the other wind site (McCain Valley) and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park so it clealry interrupts connectivity for the sheep who normally migrate between the two areas.

There are only about 950 of these very endangered animals left in the whole United States--all in this one area.

Wind turbines are also brutal on birds and bats, where high kill rates have been observed at many wind facilities. Bats lungs actually explode from the air pressure changes. Birds get torn apart when they fly into the blades - thousands of gold eagles at the now infamous Altamont Wind Farm in northern California. The industry has tried to claim it reduced kills there by taking out some turbines and putting in bigger turbines farther apart. But biologists tell me the killing still goes on - they've stopped measuring out as far so they miss the birds just outside the perimeter. Volunteer biologists are finding some of the bodies.

These are not green when put into wildlife areas that are supposed to be set aside as protected preserves.

There are also some anecdotal reports of very high miscarriage rates in livestock near turbines - also cows whose milk production is greatly reduced. Are these safe near expectant women? We don't know because our government hasn't bothered to require studies before allowing them to be built near homes, schools, etc. We are all giant guinea pigs here.

[FailureToCommunicate]

16. I know that seems bad, but so is this

(But it's in somebodies else's back yard...Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Jersey, California, San Diego...)





We all use gas and power, but only some have to live near the sources.

[Liberty Belle]

17. It doesn't have to be a choice between one nightmare vs. another.

I certainly don't wish that mess on anyone.

But wrecking another area isn't the answer either, if there are saner alternatives.

For instance if a region can slash its use of fossil fuels through conservation plus a shift to locallly generated solar for the majority of its power needs, why shouldn't that be allowed as an alternative to a wind facility?

[FailureToCommunicate]

21. Thank you for the effort to raise awareness of this.

My impressions of wind power had been positive after seeing miles of huge turbines in the empty plains of eastern Colorado, as I drove across the US.

[jwirr]

6. This sounds stupid to me. I saw the wind turbins in IA and they farm right around them. It did not

look like any animals could harm them at all.

[Liberty Belle]

8. How big were the turbines?

See post above outline some serious problems at many wind farms.

Some issues are controllable. A properly built wind farm should not emit dirty electricity/ground current. But many are not properly built. There have been mass kills of cattle and goats near wind farms, likely due to dirty electricity.

There are videos I've seen of farmers in Wisconsin and other places who reported major problems with livestock. Some take a while to develop. Long term impacts of low level dirty electricity is well documented to increase cancer, for example.

What you're not considering here though is habitat destruction. This is a desert area, and the project is on top of an earthquake fault. So they are scraping the desert bare and building turbines with 50-foot-wide bases. There is no forage for the bighorn sheep and it disrupts their travel from two habitat sites on either side, on of which is also seeing a wind farm built.

The endangered bighorn numbers are already declining due to human encroachment on their habitat, a freeway, poisons in the environment and other problems. We should be protecting their very limited remaining habitat area. If you knew this particular region you would understand. The sheep live in the rocky mountain crags on either side of this project but must cross that desert area to get from place to place for water in the dry seasons.

I am afraid that many of them are going to die.

[Kali]

22. link to mass livestock deaths please

in fact other than the bird deaths that are well documented, could you please cite ANY sources for all these claims you are making? dirty electricity, ground electricity, sound waves you can't see (WTF? you can;t see ANY sound waves) etc etc

and while you are at it, can you link the documents filed for the taking of the sheep as well...

[Liberty Belle]

24. This article has links to several sources on mass livestock deaths near wind farms:

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9615

This story has been updated with links to the actual federal documents authorizing the bighorn sheep takes:
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9732

Here is a link to the article citing Dr Millman, author of Dirty Electricity, who submitted evidence of high stray voltage at the Manzanita reservation: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9439

Chart of ground current measured on the Manzanita reservation:

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9439

Note as an update to this, a Manzanita tribal consultant testified Friday at San Diego's Planning Commission that many members of the tribe are ill, believe it is due to the turbines, and have asked for a federal health study. They are seeking a moratorium on new wind energy near their reservation until the health impacts can be assessed. http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9742

Photo of cows found dead near a Wisconsin wind farm:



What more do you need to see? The evidence is mounting around the world that these things can be dangerous. I'm not saying every cow is in danger. Obviously the ground current is something that shouldn't occur. But it too often does. And long term, exposure from infrasound is quite definitely dangerous to health; even the USF&WS says so. Link to their report is in the first story I cited.

I did mean to say that infrasound is sound you can't HEAR, not see.

Worth noting that we can't see xrays or UV radiation but it still hurts us; in the same way infrasound that we can't hear can do damage. It causes vibrations that go through walls, flesh and bone. It's what at high levels causes harm to whales from military sonar. And interestingly yesterday, the military announced it wants a limit to wind farms in desert areas because the infrasound interferes with radar! http://www.pe.com/local-news/topics/topics-environment-headlines/20120520-mojave-desert-military-wants-to-limit-wind-development.ece

[Kali]

27. Thanks for the reply.

While all but one of your links go to the same media source, I did try to find to some legitimate data by following the links related to livestock issues in the first link you gave. I am on dial-up so the goat farmer on you tube will have to wait a while, but so far I'm not seeing much documentation here. Both it and most of the links seem to be opinion pieces. It would be nice to read some real firsthand information. I couldn't find anything related to the dead dairy cows in Wisconsin, but perhaps I just missed it due to my slow dial up and the confusing lack of real source material. Not sure why you are forcing me to go through that magazine (do you have some affiliation?) rather than just providing the links directly.

Herds experience these things periodically, so I would like to at least know what happened to neighboring herds/flocks. If one farmer has a problem and the others around him/her do not that makes it a pretty questionable claim. Even if several have problems I would want to know if others in the area, but not near the wind farms have similar issues. My first guess is a common transmissible disease rather than a mysterious anecdotal account of some technological issue. Not saying it couldn't be, but I would think if it were a real source of livestock problems we would have a HELL of a lot more anecdotes. People do take a long time to notice general wildlife effects, a bit less for dramatic and "popular" wildlife (birds of prey, sea mammals), but when $$$ and livelihoods are affected by these things the rate of observation, complaints, and documentation tends to go way up. The fact that there haven't been many says to me the reported livestock issues are probably something else.

Oh and "Dr. Nina Pierpont at Johns Hopkin University School of Medicine" (from your first link) should probably be listed as "Dr. Nina Pierpont, a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine-trained M.D." as I couldn't find anything showing she was otherwise affiliated with them. Her work on human symptoms related to the low-frequency noise (not just wind turbines) seems better than any of the info on livestock. Might be better to cite something from her book rather than a letter to the editor sort of thing, however.

Wish I had more time to check the other stuff you gave me but my main interest (and personal experience) is the livestock issue. I didn't see much useful info, so not going to spend effort on the rest right now. Documenting claims seems a little weak here. Too sensational for my tastes.

Which leads to my request for the "take" documents. Your OP subject line blares about KILLING endangered sheep. Implying some human is going to go and shoot them or something. In the document itself is an estimate of possible impact to 5 ewes in their lambing habitat. Not much data available for the actual presence OR the potential impact - the whole thing is a lot of rather vague conservative/generous conjecture. It is NOT a situation where animals will be directly killed or even captured and relocated. It is the POSSIBLE affect on a few lambing ewes. The sensational subject line and hysterics in the article serve only to shut off real dialog and discussion.

Here is the full taking statement on the bighorns (since this is a public document and not a copyright situation, I am quoting more than 4 paragraphs) http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/elcentro/nepa/ocotilloexpress.Par.35308.File.dat/ROD%20Appendix%20A-BO.pdf (pgs 48 and 49) :

AMOUNT AND EXTENT OF TAKE

Peninsular Bighorn Sheep

The anticipated level of incidental take for Peninsular bighorn sheep is based on the number of individuals seen within 600 yards of proposed turbine sites, and the value of associated habitat. If the anticipated level of incidental take is exceeded, it will trigger reinitiation of consultation. Take of Peninsular bighorn sheep is exempted as follows:

As described in more detail below, the Service anticipates that up to five adult ewes and five lambs could be taken as a result of the proposed action. Take is anticipated due to behavioral avoidance of portions of currently occupied home ranges, including lambing and rearing habitat, which are within the I-8 Island and within 600 yards of the nearest turbines. As discussed in the Effects of the Action section, behavioral responses of bighorn sheep to various human activities can take different forms depending on the activity and inherent variation in the behavior of individual bighorn sheep. As also discussed, sheep demonstrate varying levels of habituation to infrastructure and reoccurring disturbances. The effects of wind turbines and associated human activities on bighorn sheep have not been studied and empirical evidence is lacking. However, given the sensitivity of bighorn sheep to other forms of human disturbance, we conclude that turbine presence is reasonably certain to represent a modification or degradation of habitat likely to significantly impair essential behavioral patterns pertaining to breeding, feeding, or sheltering.

As described in the Effects of the Action section, bighorn ewes have particular habitat and nutritional requirements during the period surrounding parturition, when they also demonstrate increased sensitivity to disturbance. Operation of the proposed wind farm would create increased human disturbance and vehicle access, a novel source of low-frequency noise, and visual disturbance in the form of tall structures, moving blades, and flickering shadows. If the ewes closest to the turbines shift their home ranges to avoid associated disturbances, their existing lambing areas would likely be in the territory abandoned. Loss of lambing and rearing habitat from project disturbance and the increased energy expenditure needed to find new lambing areas farther from the proposed project would disrupt reproductive behavior and may lead to reproductive failure for the year. If ewes give birth in suboptimal habitat, lambs and ewes would also be exposed to increased risk of predation, increasing the risk of death or injury to the ewes and their lambs in the first year of turbine operations. As discussed in the Effects of the Action section, the perpetuation of increased risk of death or injury depends on the relative habitat value of new lambing and rearing areas, and ewe habituation to turbine presence.

As described in the Effects of the Action section, experts have recommended a 400 to 1,200-yard buffer between activities associated with urban development and bighorn sheep lambing areas. Since we are not aware of more definitive information, we have based our analysis on the concepts underlying expert recommendations. Due to uncertainty in how sheep would respond to wind turbines, we reason that an intermediate value within the recommended range may be most appropriate. In accordance with past practice and species biology, we choose 600 yards as a likely buffer distance of behavioral avoidance during the period when ewes select lambing areas, seclude themselves and their lambs, and are particularly sensitive to various forms of disturbance. Near the proposed project site and within the action area, Helix Environmental Planning observed four adult ewes and one lamb less than 600 yards from proposed turbines 24 and 25 (Helix 2011). In addition, tracks and scat less than 1 month old were observed 355 yards from the nearest proposed turbine location in the same vicinity as the observed sheep. In a Peninsular bighorn sheep report associated with the Sunrise Powerlink Project, one ram, one ewe, and one lamb were reported as using the same area (Davenport Biological Services 2011). Numerous individuals of unknown sex and age, including a single sighting of 14 sheep, have been observed south of this area. However, this location was about 740 yards from proposed turbines and is separated topographically from the two sightings described above. This information, along with that presented in the Environmental Baseline section, indicates numerous bighorn sheep are using the general area bordering the project site, and that a subset of these sheep have portions of their home ranges within 600 yards of proposed wind turbines 24 and 25. Based on the fact that ewes generally are more sensitive to disturbance than rams and that a minimum of five ewes have been documented within the 600-yard disturbance buffer zone, we estimate that the proposed project could significantly impair essential behavioral patterns of five ewes, potentially resulting in the injury or death of the ewes and/or their lambs. As each ewe typically has one lamb a year, and gestation rates are high, we assume five ewes would correspond to five lambs.

No take of Peninsular bighorn sheep is anticipated or exempted for actions associated with the proposed restoration of Carrizo Marsh in the State Park.

There are a number of pages of further observational, monitoring, and reporting requirements as well.

There are a LOT of serious issues that need addressing in regards to these large-scale "green" energy projects, including the affects on wildlife, livestock, humans, watersheds, habitats, viewsheds etc etc etc. Shrieking that endangered animals have been authorized to be killed does a huge disservice to the actual discussion and science that needs to be done. I suppose getting people riled up enough to actually pay attention is a good enough reason for some to act this way but it sure isn't very good journalism. It is activism rather than informing.

[magical thyme]

28. thank you for this. they expect some ewes *may* move away from the turbines

interrupting one lambing season.

Big difference between that and suggesting they are going to kill 5 ewes and their lambs.

[Liberty Belle]

32. They have no place to go, magical thyme.

The other side of the freeway is where yet another wind farm is going in. They are basically trapped, poor things, already terrified and running onto the freeway from power line construction and the wind farm at Tule will start soon, too. Other terrain in the area is not suited for sheep no rocky hills, just or developed areas. It's truly a travesty.

[magical thyme]

34. Then document the ewes and lambs running into the freeway

Since that could cause a car accident, which local officials will care about.

Kali is right. The OP thread title is totally misleading, and the pseudo-scientific nonsense contained in the OP's linked articles do the subject a huge disservice.

[Liberty Belle]

35. The Imperial Valley Press had a story on the bighorn running on the freeway.

They don't have an online edition. The story quoted CHP. I have also had a photographer of ours take photos of the sheep right next to the freeway, and a reader also sent us her eyewitness account of sheep on I-8.

I also heard on scanner traffic recently that bighorns in the area shut down work on Sunrise Powerlink temporarily. No question that they are there.

And I don't believe the title is misleading. A "take" order includes harassment up to and including killing. It is an unprecedented order in the case of endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep.

[freshwest]

11. I saw them in west Texas my last visit, clustered on mesas standing above the valley floor.

A large dairy in one community I know well put them in and are happy that they will now be going off grid. They have thousands of acres of land and needed power for their walking sprinklers to grow fodder for their herds, run refrigerators for their milk, etc. I didn't see any cows near the bases of the turbines, but then most of these outfits have a lot of land for either beef cattle or dairy cows. They didn't report any problems there, but I'm talking about a lot of acreage

That is an area rich in wildlife but not rainfall, so these are all dry land farms and ranches. The locals were very happy to get the work fabricating the towers and transporting them. Those areas are virtually without people at this point, many homes sitting vacant as their owners left to the big city for work. Not because of foreclosures, since there were never many houses, no subdivisions, etc. But that was always the case there, and it's only increased as the younger generation no longer want to deal with drought, poor prices for their products, etc.

[Liberty Belle]

18. If a community wants the wind facility, I'm not opposed to it.

There probably are some areas where the ranches or farms are large enough to accommodate wind turbines and still have ample areas for cattle.

It's all about smart siting.

[freshwest]

20. I think the privatization of the BLM land is a big issue. There is no land in CA that is not very

Valuable, as far as i know. There simply isn't enough for such a large population. This is going to keep changing things and people have to make changes. I am personally overwhelmed seeing the increase in population in this country in my lifetime. I have few words to describe what is happening now and I don't know if anyone has seen anything comparable.

I think that CA did defeat some initiatives that sought to roll back their progressive environmental standards in 2010, that even Schwarzenegger lobbied against. He said they were being funded by out of state interests and oil companies. Although this is a park, the state has no doubt made demands and whatever power is generated will go to Californians. It doesn't make the situation any better for those who don't want this thing near their homes, or the wildlife.

[slackmaster]

9. Ugh, how horrible. I've been going to Anza-Borrego since about age 14 and have NEVER seen a bighorn.

I've seen plenty of deer, and coyotes on several occasions. Hundreds of rattlesnakes. A couple of bobcats. I've had a Kangaroo rat crawl into my sleeping bag with me to get out of the rain. I've shaken scorpions out of my boots in the morning. I've had a Bewick's wren hop onto my foot while my friend and I looked down and laughed, clutching our beers. I've had roadrunners dart through my campsite.

But I have NEVER seen a bighorn sheep in the wild. Or a mountain lion. Only prints and scat.

[freshwest]

13. It's been 30 years since I visited there. I walked a pathway near the springs with friends.

The park is over half a million acres with many areas for these animals to live so going after these animals seems extreme, if that's actually going to happen there. I hate the privatization, but that's been going on in all parks since the land was taken from the natives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anza_Borrego

[Liberty Belle]

19. A lot of people are seeing them where they normally haven't frequented before.

I know 4 people who saw them on or next to I-8 in the past month.

You don't have to be a rocket science to see that they are stressed and their habitat encroached on severely. I've wondered if there may be some ground current coming off that Powerlink that's forcing them out down to lower grounds. It's not just McCain Valley. The Powerlink is in the boulder-strewn mountains all around Jacumba, too.

[JDPriestly]

10. What I don't understand is why we are focusing on wind power when

the focus should be (as it was in Germany) on putting solar panels on the roofs of everyone in Southern California.

No parking lot in Southern California should be without solar panels. Some big company should come in, rent the roof space and put the panels in. The company could take all the profits, all the income.

I don't understand why the solar energy here is not being harnessed. Are they afraid that earthquakes could destroy the panels?

It's really strange to me.

[freshwest]

14. I had an ex work for a summer on solar farms in southern California many years ago. There is a lot

Of solar power generation in CA, from the rooftop variety to more commercial outfits. Just as on most of the west coast. There were complaints about solar panels being put in the parks and it was not done. I suspect that CA is not rich in private land anymore for such projects and they are going into public lands to take advantage of what in the commerical mind, is an under-utilized resource. I think we are seeing the results of overpopulation and will see more of this.

There are still some of the old style of windmills in use where I once lived, that did a great job of pumping out groundwater very slowly without electricity, but that culture is dying out. It's not easy to find a person to maintain these or get parts as they did in the past. Those were much slower, and you had to disconnect the rod when the wind was too fast, and had to go out and protect them from freezing in the winter. So they were a daily sort of thing, providing water for both the home and the animals. This is a power grid mentality going on here, not the off the grid, independent way of doing things that people are doing on the individual level that only benefit their family or company.

I don't like to see this, but I'm getting old. Many of the changes in this country and around the world as the world's population has increased so much disturb me. In a few generations people will not remember this, and my visions of open skies and spaces will be gone in many areas. Every time I travel somewhere I haven't been for a few years, I'm shocked. An old saying goes, 'You can't go home again.' Welcome to the future.

[JDPriestly]

31. I'm with you freshwest when it comes to remembering old fashioned windmill

and wishing for a less densely populated world.

People who are having large families today are just fooling themselves. The children of those large families are going to struggle to survive in an overpopulated world. And, of course, many of those with large families are Republicans who believe in "freedom." But freedom as they think of it will not be possible in an overcrowded world.

So many fools.

[slackmaster]

15. I agree with you. It's some kind of dumbassery.

[Liberty Belle]

25. Simple: There's no profit for big energy companies if we put solar on roofs and go off grid.

It takes political willpower to do what's right instead of what the lobbyists and big campaign donors want.

These wind companies are mostly owned by BIG OIL companies. Pattern Energy, building the Ocotillo wind farm, has a sleazy history that includes a joint venture partnership with the Carlisle Group - Pattern's parent company, Riverstone, and its CEO paid $50 million collectively in fines to settle a public pension FRAUD case in New York filed by the NY Attorney General.

Read more about Pattern's tawdry history here: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9431

Iberdrola, the other wind company in our area, also has oil and gas interests. I haven't researched the rest; perhaps someone here has.

BP now has a solar division that is trying to build a solar farm here, too.

These are not companies started by the earth-loving Birkenstock-wearing crowd -- these are giant oil and gas corporations that don't care about exploitation of the environment or people.

As for earthquakes? Panels here have withstood quakes. The turbines are far more dangerous.

Pattern is building its turbines on top of the Elsinore Fault, which the USGS says has an 89% chance of producing a 6.0 quake or higher within 50 miles of this site in the next 50 years and a 23% chance of a 7.0 quake or higher. The site is on sand over an aquifer (water) on a site seismologists say is capable of liquefaction. Read the questions Pattern refuses to answer on this topic:

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9303

Simply put, it's dangerous as hell to put turbines 450 feet tall or more close enough to roads to squash cars flat if they fall over. If these things fall apart in a big quake the blades can also fly off. Blades have been known to be hurled a mile or so. We had one locally travel that far. THESE BLADES WEIGH 11 TONS EACH. They are putting them within 500 feet of roads and half a mile from homes. They are death traps waiting to happen. And what happens if there's a worker up in the nacelle at the top when the big one hits?

[Kali]

30. large scale solar has many issues as well

water use being one of the big ones. PV doesn't use as much as other forms, but it is less efficient.
there are always pros and cons for any action. scale often brings down costs but at the same time tends to create corporate control of resources.

[Hawkowl]

12. Yes! Obama will help!

Riiighhttt. It's a good thing Republicans aren't in charge, can you imagine how much worse things would be?

[4th law of robotics]

23. Why did the sheep need to be killed for a windfarm?

[magical thyme]

29. they are not going to be killed

they are not even going to be moved.

As a result of the turbines, they *may* decide to migrate to new territory, in which case they *may* not breed for one year.

[Liberty Belle]

33. They have no place left to go.

The lambing area is going to be surrounded completely by wind farms on the north and west, to the south is the border fence and to the east, just sand.

You shouldn't make such statements when you haven't seen the terrain. These are the last suitable habitat areas in the vicinity.

There are some rocky hills in Anza Borrego state park but the wind farm in Ocotillo will effectively make it very difficult for sheep to get across that area anymore, forcing them to stay in the southern and western portion of their habitat where another wind facility is soon coming in, also on BLM land. Nobody is paying attention to the cumulative impact of these things.

[Rhiannon12866]

26. What exquisite animals and the little one is adorable!

This is just criminal!