Energy Efficient Area Proves Costly for Birds

Jul 11 -ALTAMONT -- Daily Breeze

When it comes to wind power, few places are more productive -- or more deadly to birds -- than this gusty stretch of rolling hills 50 miles east of San Francisco.

At a time when demand is rising for greener energy sources, the Altamont Pass has become one of the nation's leading producers of wind power, generating about 820 million kilowatt hours of pollution- free electricity annually -- enough to power 120,000 homes for a year.

But the Altamont, where more than 5,000 windmills line the hilltops, has also become a death trap for thousands of migrating birds that get chopped up in fast-rotating turbine blades as they fly through or hunt for prey in this mountainous region between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley.

An estimated 1,700 to 4,700 birds are killed each year in the 50- square-mile Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area. Of those fatalities, between 880 and 1,300 are federally protected raptors such as burrowing owls, red-tailed hawks and golden eagles, according to a study released last year by the California Energy Commission.

"Altamont is killing more birds of prey than any other wind farm in North America," said Jeff Miller, a wildlife advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Incredible numbers of raptors are being killed there, and it's hard to believe it's not having effects on the populations."

The bird killings have provoked a fight between the windmill operators and environmentalists who were once reluctant to take on an industry that provides an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels blamed for air pollution and global warming.

Wildlife advocates have sued nine companies that run wind farms there and appealed Alameda County's decisions to renew the turbine operating permits without requiring measures to reduce bird collisions.

A Superior Court judge this week allowed the lawsuit to move forward, and the case could go to trial late this year or early next year. The county Board of Supervisors is expected to decide next week whether to force the turbine operators to adopt measures to curb bird deaths, such as closing for winter or scrapping the most lethal turbines.

The windmill owners agree that something must be done to protect the birds. FPL Energy, which runs about half of the Altamont's turbines, has already taken down about 100 of its most deadly windmills, said spokesman Steven Stengel.

But Stengel argues that requiring more extreme measures could put the wind farms out of business.

"There's a balancing act here," Stengel said. "We have to be able to reduce the bird mortality and at the same time allow the turbine operators to operate in an economically responsible manner."