What Is Killing U.S. Birds?

President Trump is continuing his years' long crusade against wind turbines. In the past, Trump has claimed that they diminish home property values, cause cancer, “kill all the birds” and "drive the whales crazy". This week, statements by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum made headlines, in which he said that there was "not a future" for offshore wind under the current administration. The fight around five U.S. offshore wind projects halted by the federal government at the start of Trump's current term meanwhile continues. The New York Times last week reported on high-level, coordinated efforts to step up attacks on the projects in question and the industry as a whole.

Wind turbines have not been found to diminish home values of nearby properties by any significant amount or cause cancer. According to numbers taken from relevant scientific studies on the topic, cats are a much bigger scourge to the bird population than wind turbines. Estimates places the number of U.S. bird deaths at the paws of cats at between 365 millions and 2.4 billion. Collisions from wind turbines killed a much smaller number of birds also in comparison to the damage done by glass buildings and other structures that birds often collide with. Wind turbines were responsible for an estimated 140,000 to 680,000 bird deaths while other collisions killed between 373 million and almost 1 billion.

As the wind power industry grows and expands, its relationship to the environment is coming under more intense scrutiny. While the link between wind turbines and different types of bird populations, particularly apex birds, is understudied, there is some evidence that turbines can hurt those populations. Hawaii, home to many endangered species, has taken extra steps to protect species that could be vulnerable to wind energy. The state requires all potential wind projects on both private and public land to have permits and conservation plans for bird and bat population. Hawaii also documents animal mortality data from independent, third-party experts, with some wind farms subjected to steep fines for killing any federally protected birds.