The government estimates that approximately 440,000 birds are currently killed each year by collisions with wind turbines. The massive expansion of wind power in the United States will likely result in the deaths of more than one million birds each year by 2030. Wind energy projects are also expected to adversely impact almost 20,000 square miles of wildlife habitat.

ABC filed the petition because it is clear that the voluntary guidelines the government has drafted will neither protect birds adequately nor give the wind industry the regulatory certainty it has been asking for. Voluntary guidelines have been in place since 2003, and yet preventable bird deaths at wind farms keep occurring. This includes thousands of Golden Eagles that have died at Altamont Pass in California and recent mass mortality events that killed more than 500 songbirds in West Virginia.

ABC supports wind power when it is bird-smart. ABC’s petition seeks to bring wind power into harmony with the law, as well as with the needs of the migratory bird species that the law is designed to safeguard. The petition states that properly sited and operated wind energy projects may be an important part of the solution to climate change, a phenomenon that poses an unprecedented threat to species and ecosystems. However, poorly sited and operated wind projects pose a serious threat to birds, including birds of prey such as Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, hawks, and owls; endangered and threatened species, such as the California Condor and Whooping Crane; and species of special conservation concern, such as the Bicknell’s Thrush, Cerulean Warbler, Tricolored Blackbird, Sprague’s Pipit, and Long-billed Curlew.

ABC’s petition proposes a model rule that would allow the government to consider impacts of wind farms on all bird species, as well as bats and other wildlife. This proposal contrasts sharply with the voluntary guidelines that allow the industry to police itself and continue to disregard harm to birds and other wildlife.