Thread: Environmental Law: Green groups cried foul over Endangered Species Act reforms

Green groups cried foul over Endangered Species Act reforms but ignored their own turbine body count

09/09/2026 // Cassie B. // 1.1K Views

Tags: bald eagles, biased, big government, Climate, climate alarmism, Ecology, Endangered Species Act, environment, ESA, gold eagles, green living, Green New Deal, green tyranny, insanity, lunatics, outrage, propaganda, wind energy

• Trump administration finalized Endangered Species Act reforms in July, narrowing habitat protections while critics call it a rollback.
  
  
• NextEra subsidiary ESI Energy paid over $8 million and got five years probation for killing at least 150 bald and golden eagles at its wind facilities.
  
  
• Federal incidental-take permits let wind operators legally injure or kill protected eagles as a routine cost of turbine operation.
  
  
• California is now offering up to $1.5 million in grants to protect golden eagles from turbines in the Altamont Pass and Tehachapi wind areas.
  
  
• Critics argue environmental groups condemn wildlife harm from fossil fuels while staying silent on similar deaths caused by wind energy.

The same environmental groups that condemned President Donald Trump's revisions to the Endangered Species Act have remained conspicuously silent about the federally permitted killing of bald and golden eagles by wind turbines, a double standard that exposes the movement's political priorities over genuine wildlife conservation.

The contrast came into sharp focus after NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy was ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution and serve five years of probation for killing at least 150 bald and golden eagles across 50 of its 154 wind facilities. The deaths, documented since 2012, occurred under federal incidental-take permits that allow energy operators to injure or kill protected birds as a routine cost of turbine operation.

Trump administration restores original intent of species law
The Trump administration finalized Endangered Species Act regulatory reforms on July 17, returning the law to what Trump described on Truth Social as "how it was intended to be." Interior Secretary Doug Burgum framed the changes as commonsense adjustments based on "gold standard science" and local input.

The reforms roll back a Biden-era blanket rule that automatically treated threatened species as endangered, requiring customized protections instead.They also allow federal officials to exclude areas from critical habitat designations when economic or national security costs outweigh the benefits, provided the exclusion doesn't cause extinction.

Critics warned the changes would gut protections. The Center for Biological Diversity announced the action "guts protections for threatened wildlife," while Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles called it "un-American."

Vijay Jayaraj, a research associate at the CO2 Coalition, noted the administration invoked Justice Antonin Scalia's 2012 reading of the statute, which rejected regulators' expansion of "harm" to include habitat modification, calling it "a terrible interpretation" of congressional intent.

Wind energy kills eagles under federal permission
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues incidental-take permits authorizing operators to injure or kill eagles as a foreseeable consequence of turbine operation. A 2024 rule streamlined the process, creating general permits for qualifying projects.

NextEra Energy Resources CEO Rebecca Kujawa defended her company's record, stating in April 2022 that "building any structure, driving any vehicle, or flying any airplane carries with it a possibility that accidental eagle and other bird collisions may occur." Of the 150 documented deaths, 136 were "affirmatively determined" to be caused by turbine blade strikes, according to the Justice Department.

California now offers up to $1.5 million in grants to protect golden eagles in the Altamont Pass and Tehachapi wind resource areas, funded by the ESI Energy settlement. The state is funding research on collision risks and habitat usage to improve deterrents.

Biologists say golden eagle mortality at wind facilities is difficult to track and likely undercounted; an Emory University report from 2023 suggested up to three golden eagles die per year at a single wind farm. Federal law protects golden eagles under multiple statutes, yet turbines continue operating in their migration corridors.

Activists choose sides by fuel source, critics charge
Jayaraj argued the selective outrage reveals a movement that "chose sides by fuel," treating identical wildlife deaths differently depending on whether they resulted from hydrocarbons or renewable energy. When the administration ordered a review of offshore wind leasing, the same groups that objected to the ESA revisions called the pause an assault on the planet.

The double standard extends offshore, where federal harassment authorizations allow wind developers to disturb — and potentially kill — whales during seismic surveying and pile driving. Dead humpbacks turned up on New Jersey and New York beaches during the survey period, and groups that would normally demand investigations into a single oil spill offered little explanation for the deaths. North Atlantic right whales now number in the low hundreds.

"Wildlife deaths caused by hydrocarbons were a moral travesty," Jayaraj wrote. "Identical deaths caused by subsidized wind and solar became an acceptable trade, a transition cost, a footnote to 'saving the world.' That is a political program wearing conservation as a costume."

For all their alarm over the ESA reforms, the movement has yet to explain why a turbine blade gets a pass that a pipeline never would.

Sources for this article include:
WattsUpWithThat.com
FWS.gov
Forbes.com

Green groups cried foul over Endangered Species Act reforms but ignored their own turbine body count – NaturalNews.com

Trump Administration Further Guts Endangered Species Act Implementation With Two New Rules

2 minutes

Sierra Club5 Comments

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is finalizing two new regulations that will undermine the implementation of federal protections for wildlife under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the nation’s cornerstone conservation law.

One rule rescinds the longstanding blanket 4(d) rule, ending the practice of automatically extending key ESA protections from killing, injury, and harassment to newly listed “threatened” species.

A second rule aims to impede designation of critical habitat by curbing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s discretion regarding when to exclude areas from protection based on non-biological factors like economic considerations.

The decision follows another recently finalized decision by the Trump administration to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” under the ESA, as well as recent actions proposing to weaken protections for grizzly bears and finalize substantial cuts to designated critical habitat for the Canada lynx. Taken together, the moves aim to reduce protections for imperiled plants and animals and make it easier to prioritize development over the conservation measures that have safeguarded America’s wildlife for more than 50 years.

In response, Ben Greuel, Sierra Club’s Wildlife Campaign Manager, released the following statement:

“The administration’s decisions continue a steady attempt at dismantling the Endangered Species Act’s longstanding protections for America’s wildlife. By removing automatic protections for newly threatened species and attempting to compel exclusion of areas from critical habitat designations based on non-biological considerations, the administration is making it harder for imperiled wildlife to survive and recover. Weakening these safeguards only makes the difficult work of conserving imperiled wildlife even more challenging.”

Sierra Club is reviewing the administration’s actions and evaluating all available options to ensure faithful implementation of the Endangered Species Act’s strong protections for imperiled wildlife and the places they depend on.