Bald Eagle, USFWS

The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act makes it a crime to kill eagles. However, some industries, such as the energy industry, kill eagles during their normal operations, (e.g., wind turbines and power lines). In 2009, the federal government published rules that enable them to grant permission to kill eagles under some limited circumstances. Using impartial science, the government had concluded that they shouldn’t grant permits for longer than five years “because factors may change over a longer period of time such that a take authorized much earlier would later be incompatible with the preservation of the bald eagle or the golden eagle.”

The factors that made 30-year take permits irresponsible and infeasible in 2009 still apply. The government still doesn’t know how many eagles there are, much less how many there will be in 30 years, so cannot predict what level of eagle “take” won’t threaten their recovery over such a long period. In addition, in the case of wind energy, there are no proven methods for reducing eagle take once a facility is operational, short of turning off and removing the wind turbines.

You can read more about this proposed rule change here.