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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Protection of Wildlife Urged Amid Wind-Power Expansion

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Thursday, January 31, 2019   

ALBANY, N.Y. – Conservationists say the push to expand clean, renewable energy sources is a top priority, but it needs to be done in a way that protects wildlife.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Green New Deal proposes more than doubling large scale, land based wind farms and almost quadrupling the state's procurement of offshore wind.

Jim Murphy, legal advocacy director at The National Wildlife Federation, says the switch to renewable energy is critical to combat climate change that threatens all life on the planet, but planners should locate onshore wind farms primarily in developed areas such as agricultural land and avoid wilderness that provides habitat for wildlife.

"You want to avoid flyways, areas where you get a lot of animal movement, particularly birds and bats, and then you want to make sure that siting doesn't unnecessarily fragment habitat," he explains.

Murphy adds that operational and technological advances now make it possible to reduce the risks to species such as eagles and bats that may be at risk of flying into wind turbines.

He notes that offshore wind development also poses risks to bird species as well as sea turtles and marine mammals. But offshore wind farms also have proven to benefit some aquatic life by forming artificial reefs.

"The Block Island wind operation, just in the couple of years it's been on line, has attracted a lot of wildlife,” he points out. “It's a great fishing ground already. It's already serving as a habitat structure."

Murphy says siting wind farms far from shore can minimize the impact on birds.

While clashes between environmentalists and the fossil fuel industry have been difficult and often dramatic, Murphy has found the developers of renewable energy to be receptive to concerns about its potential impact.

"By and large, from the industry to the state regulators to the federal regulators, concerns about wildlife rise to the top, and there's generally a desire to do something to ensure that wildlife is protected," he states.

In 2017 there were approximately 54,000 land-based wind turbines in use in the United States, generating enough power for 27 million homes.


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