Speaking of . . . Birds versus wind turbines revisited In a report released Nov. 27, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service solidified a rollback of federal bird protections — namely those pertaining to wind turbine-related deaths. Nearly 140,000 to half a million birds die per year from turbine collisions, according to that department’s own “most comprehensive and statistically sound estimates.” According to the Fish and Wildlife Service and recent studies, industry operations kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of approximately 7 billion birds in North America. Internationally, major investments and research have been devoted to the topic. For example, as we reported last September, one Norwegian wind farm says it painted its turbine blades black and reduced bird deaths by 70%. The red-tailed hawk is one Suffice to say the federal governof the main species of birds ment has sent mixed messages on susceptible to death by the bird death issue in the past, and wind turbine blade. — U.S. Fish & Game photo it remains unclear where priorities lie. The Trump administration, for example, once submitted bird deaths as a reason to limit more wind power investment. Regardless, it warrants a raised eyebrow when your leaders echo similar discourse to Charlie Kelly from “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia,” who once contended that “bird law in this country is not governed by reason.” — Charlie Barks EA
Calendar
• January 19-20, 2021 — Motor & Drive Systems Conference, Virtual. TWST Events, www.motoranddriveconference. com. • February 1-3, 2021 — A3 Business Forum, Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, Orlando, Fla. Association for Advancing Automation, www.a3automate.org/ events/a3-business-forum-2021/. • February 23-24, 2021 — ATMO VTS. 2.0, Virtual. Shecco, www.atmo-marketplace.com. • March 10-12, 2021 — CWIEME Shanghai, Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, Shanghai, China. Hyve Group, www. cn.coilwindingexpo.com/en. • April 13-15, 2021 — DesignCon, co-located with Drive World and Embedded Systems Conference, San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, Calif. Informa Markets, www.designcon.com. • May 17-20, 2021 — Automate, Cobo Center, Detroit. Association for Advancing Automation, www.a3automate.org.
• June 1-2, 2021 — ATMOsphere Europe, Venue TBD, Brussels, Belgium and Virtual. Shecco, www.atmo.org/ upcoming-events/atmosphereeurope-2021. • June 7-10, 2021 — Cleanpower Expo, Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, Ind. American Wind Energy Association, www.cleanpower expo.com. • June 22-24, 2021 — CWIEME Berlin, Messe Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Hyve Group, www.coilwindingexpo.com/ber lin. • June 27-29, 2021 — EASA, Fort Worth Convention Center, Fort Worth, Tex. Electrical Apparatus Service Association, www.easa.com/convention. • October 16-20, 2021 — WEFTEC, McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill. Water Environment Federation, www.weftec.org. • October 18-21, 2021 — Experience POWER, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Tex. Access Intel, www.w.electricpowerexpo.com.EA Edited by Selena Cotte
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