Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Ooopsie!


Found in picture dump at Theo's.

Also; wind power is exempted from laws protecting eagles and other birds from incidental death as a result of the operations; exemptions not granted energy producers using oil, natural gas or coal.
Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder why he is “targeting” oil and gas companies by prosecuting them for the unintentional death of birds. The senators said on the Senate floor Wednesday that they sent Holder a letter asking him why he is prosecuting oil and gas companies for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) by killing birds, yet he is not going after wind energy companies.

“This is not even handed enforcement of the law,” Vitter said. “What that is, is targeting one type of energy producer.”

Vitter said that the MBTA was only intended to go after the intentional killing of birds, not unintentional acts. He said Justice pursued an MBTA case against three oil and gas companies for the death of just seven birds.
“Oil and gas producers are being targeted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” Vitter said. “This wasn’t about trying to kill these birds, it was about a completely incidental killing of these birds … but that’s not what criminal sanctions under this law are about … owning a cat could be subject to criminal prosecutions if this precedent is set.”

Vitter pointed out that wind energy producers kill far more birds than oil and gas companies, but that all of the bird deaths have been unintended. He also said that as far as he knows no wind energy companies are being prosecuted for the killing of birds.

“These are important matters,” Alexander said. “The rule of law is one of the fundamental characteristics of this nation and the Department of Justice is enforcing a law against oil and gas companies and not wind energy companies.”

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