Do wind turbines kill bats?
The threat to bats has turned out to be a problem the industry can’t deny. FPL Energy ended access to its facilities after independent research documented that thousands of bats were killed in just a couple of months at one location and that this pattern of mortality was being seen at other sites as well. To divert attention from this outrage and their lack of action to remedy it, FPL Energy announced in January 2006 that it would fund some bat conservation projects. That effort will not, however, mitigate the harm they are causing, let alone justify or reduce it. A revealing story comes from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, which constructed a 1.65-megawatt wind turbine in September 2004 out in the middle of a corn field two miles from campus. In October 2005, the Winona Daily News described a tour led by project director Rob Lampa. Lampa told the group that they had seen no sign of a single bird or bat death since the turbine was switched on. But as they were leaving, one o
