Wind farms are 'surprisingly controversial,' report says by Margot Roosevelt

A National Academy of Sciences report today criticized "the lack of any truly coordinated planning" in the rapid growth of wind farms across the country, and called on federal, state and local governments to pay more attention to the effects of turbines on wildlife and scenic landscapes.

Wind currently provides less than 1% of the nation's electricity. But it is the fastest-growing alternative to fossil fuel-produced power, a major source of global warming.

In the past six years, U.S. wind capacity has more than quadrupled. And by 2020, the federal Department of Energy predicts, it could offset as much as 4.5% of the planet-warming carbon dioxide that American utilities would otherwise spew into the atmosphere.

But wind, the report notes, "is surprisingly controversial...not everyone considers (turbines) beautiful," and they can kill birds and bats. The effects on wildlife have diminished considerably since California built the nation's first wind farms, clusters of small turbines, in the 1980s.

Today's larger models cause far less damage, and, the report notes, birds may be more likely to die colliding with vehicles or buildings than with turbines.

California has nearly completed new guidelines to reduce the impacts of wind farms on birds and bats, but few other states have addressed the issue. Julia Levin, policy director for Audubon California, endorsed the report's findings, noting that, "In some parts of the country, wind power may increase more than ten-fold, yet we don't know what the cumulative impacts of that will be on wildlife."

The report's call for more research on the environmental effects of wind farms and for cost-benefit analyses of individual projects comes as Congress is considering an extension of tax credits for wind development.

At a House subcommittee hearing this week, the American Bird Conservancy called for any new tax credit to be tied to requirements that developers minimize the impact on wildlife.

Voluntary guidelines are being ignored by the wind industry, while between 30,000 and 60,000 birds are killed by turbines a year, according to the Conservancy's Michael Fry, a member of the National Wind Coordinating Committee, a government and industry task force.

The congressionally-mandated report was drafted by a group of academics assembled by the National Research Council, an arm of the Academy.