Canada triggers pause on Migratory Bird Regs in US

Here where I live on my Ring doorbell app I see coyote spotted, coyote spotted, THEN my cat ran away, my cat ran away posts.
HMMM
Ken
 
I remain unaware of any international treaty where the enforcement responsibilities are deemed to fall to the individual states. USFWS is charged with protection of the species mentioned from various mortality vectors. The previous administration attempted to limit the scope of that oversight. Why this thread originated. AS I stated identifying the threat without any subsequent effort being made to communicate the scope and degree of that threat to the Public at any level of frequency is not reasonable, effective or responsible oversight. Press releases are not a major cost ticket item.

Only one of us opted to extrapolate beyond the scope of the data and conclusions derived from the study.on painting turbine blades. I suspect that this is why hypothesis testing remains a cornerstone of the scientific method.
 
I don't know how many of you have been to the very large wind sites across the US. I have. At one time I was the US Wind Energy business Manager for a company I worked with. These things are massive, the latest ones they want to install are 600' tall or so or equal to a 40 story building. I've been at the large sites in western MN/eastern South Dakota and can state unequivocally that they are killing massive amounts of birds. The numbers being reported are not accurate and it is pitting the green energy folks against the audubon type folks Truly interesting to watch.

Painting turbine blade black will be a tough sell to blade manufactures unless they are painted a very light color. Dark colors heat up the blade and cause the lifetime of the blade to diminish due to excessive heat.

And authorizing the killing of feral cats will cause other troubles for hunters. My relatives farm in SD and have found their farm cats (not feral) shot out in the fields where they let pheasant hunters chase that wiley bird. One group of hunters were even "kind enough" to bring the "feral cats" back to the farmhouse showing their smarts to rid the land of these cats who are destroying pheasant hunting. Because of this, no more hunting allowed on their land. And they aren't the only ones. Enough people do it, and thousands of acres of private land will be closed to hunting.

Just presenting the other side.

Mark
 

It's no laughing matter, but the wind turbines from what I have read are a failure in ice cold Texas. Thoughts and prayers for those without power and heat.


Up here in nasty weather, some are turned off and others not. Blades have been known to break off, and those things are Huge.

A friend had a wonderful home and large property, peaceful and quiet in the country. Several wind turbines were built nearby. The constant sound they make, and the large shadows they cast in daylight became unbearable. Home prices went high during Covid, they sold and moved elsewhere.

Everything comes at a price. Nature has little or no say in the matter, but for how long?
 

I've been at the large sites in western MN/eastern South Dakota and can state unequivocally that they are killing massive amounts of birds.
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Unfortunately we are between a bird killing energy rock and a hard place. USFW estimates that 140k-500k birds are killed a year by wind turbines in a year, they also estimate that 500k-1M birds are killed a year in oil pits and evaporation ponds. Both numbers are thought to be understated. Hydro power presents it's own problems as well as the solar farms. (I personally favor nuclear technology.... but that's way off topic). Unfortunately, there is no solution that doesn't have an impact and all the different camps are too dug in for anybody to try and forge a 'reasonable' path forward.


Re. Cats. .... it's crazy, there is a ramp I use that if get there really early I'll on occasion find people already there and they're not there to beat me to a spot.... they are there to feed the Feral cats!

but the wind turbines from what I have read are a failure in ice cold Texas
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I know it's off topic: but just to clarify, it's not really a failure of the technology, its a calculated cost/benefit risk that was taken and lost. Wind turbines can and do operate reliably in arctic regions. Also, it wasn't just a problem of wind turbines (for which output was reduced by about half), but also for the natural gas plants which couldn't operate when their uninsulated gas pipes froze, as well as a nuclear plant which came off line due to frozen pipes. These forms of energy production can be utilized in colder climates, but they need to be built and operated with the anticipation of such temperatures, i.e. insulation, types of lubricants, materials, etc... (even if it only occasionally occurs). Even then, these things do happen on a smaller scale in the US all the time, but since Texas operates their own grid to avoid federal regulation, they are not connected to the rest of the country and can't tap into power from other regions. BTW. I think, but am not sure, that this isn't the first time this has happened to Texas, may have happened twice before.

By the way, I'm no expert on any of the above, just had a few stray bits of info in my head... so feel free to take it with a huge grain of salt.

Apologies if this post has taken the discussion too far off topic.
 
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Not to derail this completely but all credible reports out of TX, including by ERCOT, are that the main cause of the grid failure was natural gas plants going offline due to the lack of winterization.
That plus their lack of connectivity to the rest of the US grid.
Wind power going offline had a negligible impact.
 

Wind power going offline had a negligible impact.[/quote]

Carl, is this because it's contribution to the total was small too?
 
My understanding is it is two fold why it was negligible
1) Wind Power only accounts for 21%-23% of power generation in TX
2) The wind farms didn't go completely off-line, they only lost about 50% of output


ERCOT says that their plan for extreme winter events expects wind energy to only provide 7% of anticipated demand.

The biggest impact was due to Natural Gas (at ~46% of power gen in TX) getting hit hard from freezing gas lines.

In addition, ALL forms forms of power generation were hit (Coal, Nuclear) due to freezing components, frozen pipes, etc.... (E.g. one nuclear reactor was taken completely off line due to needed piping systems freezing up)

Solar was also impacted, but it is only about 2% of production, so really negligible either way.

So the biggest hit was Natural Gas, but a little bit from everything else added up.

At least that is what is being reported by ERCOT as of now
 
From what I understand, wind power is much lower percentage of the total power supply, especially relative to natural gas and other thermal power.
That said, even the wind turbines down there are apparently not winterized like the ones up north.
Overall, it was a system-wide failure.
 
Yep.
Frozen gas lines in Texas also ended up causing power outages all over Mexico when the line pressure dropped off.
 
I have seen public awareness campaigns associated with feral cats--the wrong way!

I used to work at a company where there was this gal who belonged to (and had posters at her desk promoting) an association that had at its mission protecting and preserving free-ranging/feral cats. I never spoke with her about it, but my guess is that she was totally clueless about the great harm that feral cats do to native species (mostly but not limited to songbirds). She and some other people built houses for and fed these cats at the woods on edge of company property. The cats were known to come into our manufacturing/office buildings at night (or whenever weather was really cold). The icing on the cake was when some guys arrived in their office cubicles area one morning and kitty had left a surprise for them in a pile on the middle of the carpeted floor. Our Facilities Manager was pretty disgusted with that. I was tempted to "eliminate the problem" but decided that since I was close to retirement/leaving I would not rock the boat.

I agree 100% it would be good to see public awareness to get rid of feral cats, but the way the world is trending it is probably not going to happen.
 
I am all in favor of the pause and maintaining the balance between Gov't and industries be them green or not. The Mallard numbers in the East continue their 10 + year slide. Finding and correcting the reasons for it will be beneficial for all species hopefully.

The task force meeting is in a month ,I am looking forward to some positive data
 
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