January 04, 2019

Syncrude fined $2.75M for 31 bird deaths (but green energy wind turbines get a pass)

Sheila Gunn ReidRebel Host | The Gunn Show

In 2015, thirty-one blue herons were found dead or dying in a tailings pond at the Mildred Lake mine north of Fort McMurray. As a result, Syncrude was charged with failing to properly store a hazardous substance under Alberta law and faced federal charges under the Migratory Birds Convention Act.


After more than three years of litigation, Syncrude has agreed to pay a fine amounting to nearly $89,000 per bird.

Birds are expensive when they’re killed by energy projects - but not all energy projects.

Today I'll take a look at the bird and bat deaths in Alberta over a seven month period in 2015, using the wind energy industry's own data.

Based on those numbers, and if the same rules were applied, I found that the wind energy industry would owe $940M in fines.

Wouldn't it be great if the slap chop blades of renewable energy were subject to the same penalties as other other energy projects when birds meet an untimely death?

Actually, hold that thought.

The public can’t afford the expensive green energy subsidies that would be needed to help wind companies pay those fines!

Comments
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commented 2019-01-05 07:22:05 -0500 · Flag
Areas good for wind choppers are also the routes used by migratory birds.
The law suit over the woolly mammoth that fell in the tar pit is on going. The neanderthal cave man should have fenced off the pit and covered it with a roof.
Several mammoths killed during the annual migration are to be roasted at the local fire pit today.
commented 2019-01-04 22:32:45 -0500 · Flag
Good point Dirk Kanis… If the law can be “selective” about which mode of bird and bat deaths is to be “fined”, then why not let hunters near wind farms be “selective” about which targets they just happen to zero in on?… And anecdotal information from across Canada indicates that is indeed what is going on….
commented 2019-01-04 20:36:07 -0500 · Flag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc4QTqslN4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSJZSLs6U34

I am an avid bird watcher. …and I live in one of the most active flight paths of migratory birds in all of North America….seeing flights of Canada geese of forty or more birds is almost a daily event….and when I see them…I think of Tibet (or that family of Nepalese imigrants displaced by the earthquakes who live next door to my dear friend)…when they see the swans fly over like that they shout “LA GYELO” (Heaven is victorious)…when their landlord left them a turkey for christmas…they mistakenly assumed it was a goose and declined to cook and eat it until I explained to them that it was a big dumb meat bird that cannot fly…;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Pk5YMkEcg

The unjust double standard that Skeila shed light on here is not lost on me.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn defined tyrany as being ruled by those who have no fear of God in Heaven.
commented 2019-01-04 19:45:31 -0500 · Flag
Good point, Sheila. Wind turbines kill so many birds and bats each year. If Syncrude gets fined, why not other energy producers. Fair is fair, right? I posed the same question to my NDP MLA but I’m sure he’ll ignore my letter.
commented 2019-01-04 19:44:03 -0500 · Flag
I’d say we should go target practice on those windmills to protect the birds.
commented 2019-01-04 18:56:18 -0500 · Flag
Another good topic, well done Sheila. Seems like what is good for the Goose ain’t always good for the Gander. Birds all have two wings and most of them use them for flying. If they fly to a polluted pond and die the Devil called oil will have to pay but if they fly into a turbine they go to bird heaven for free. Perhaps the politicians are trying to save the taxpayer money…….Smells like Motley Notley to me.
commented 2019-01-04 18:55:18 -0500 · Flag
Sheila, all good enviroweenies know that those are facts are from those evil capitalist conservatives. The “true” facts are that green energy is holy and righteous … praise be to Gaia … and anyone who disagrees is obviously a racist, bigoted, transphobic, Islamophobic, naturaphobic Nazi.