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House Passes Provision to End All Migratory Bird Protections in the United States (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter kilian
- Start date
locustella
Well-known member
This is absurd. What is the reason ?
Jon Turner
Well-known member
Here's another very good reason for all you folks on the other side of the pond to be sure not to vote Republican in the next election. The stuff I read about their 'way forward' is really frightening. A truly dreadful thing to vote for - let me guess, is the gun lobby anything to do with it?
Peter C.
...just zis guy, you know?
Not from what I could gather, no ... it was more the "let's not pay any taxes for law enforcement/libertarian/Tea Party" lobby that seems to be, ah, gunning for this.
Of course, there is just a wee bit of overlap there....
jmepler
It's just a flesh wound.
From what I see this is a push from the "clean" energy producers. Industries that "inadvertently" kill tens of thousands of migratory birds every year.
Congressman Duncan has also sponsored this bill giving the wind industry a free pass to kill migratory birds....it wasn't my intent to kill a bunch of eagles, therefore it doesn't matter that my wind farm did just that.
Mike
Congressman Duncan has also sponsored this bill giving the wind industry a free pass to kill migratory birds....it wasn't my intent to kill a bunch of eagles, therefore it doesn't matter that my wind farm did just that.
Mike
John Cantelo
Well-known member
I think it's broader than this and is part of a Republican desire to 'protect' pretty much all and any industries from being restrained in any way by government. Of course it's dreadful, but if a couple of Kochs are the first victims then it may do some good .....
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Did nobody see this coming?
John
John
This may answer your theories,
(Quote taken from the first link in the comments section):
'A friend contacted Congressman Duncan regarding the MBTA legislation. His response was:
"Thanks for reaching out. As you know, there are always two sides to every story so here's mine. First off, you may not know this about me but I consider myself an outdoorsman. In my personal capacity I have helped raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for groups like the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, and the SC Waterfowl Association. Right now, if a migratory bird is accidentally killed by a solar panel or a wind turbine, the result could be a felony conviction for the property owner. This is a major concern for people wanting to invest in these types of energy. Sometimes DoJ prosecutes, sometimes they don't. As a result there's been a lot of uncertainty regarding the law. The Obama Administration has indicated that they are open to rewriting the rules to better explain what constitutes an accidental avian death but not begun this process. My amendment leaves the Migratory Bird Act intact, but basically gives us a "time out" on enforcement until better rules can be written. I support the intent of the Migratory Bird Act, I just want to make sure innocent civilians are not unjustly prosecuted."'
Jimmybirder
Well-known member
Ah yes - the green energy brigade. Their motto should be "you have to kill nature to save it". A dangerous bunch of hypocrites steadily destroying wilderness areas across the world with sprawling useless wind farms. You can be sure the same crowd are at the same thing this side of the pond when it comes to the EU birds and habitats directive
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Jimmybirder
Well-known member
Gun lobby etc. have had plenty of joy under Obama's watch with the gutting of the Endangered Species Act etc.
FYI, the Lacey Act and the Weeks–McLean Act which later became the Migratory Bird Treaty Act were the work of Republicans. So were the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, as well as the creation of the US Fish and Wildlife Service which gives us all our national wildlife refuges. Finally, based on IRS data, republican charitable donations to the environment are 17% more than democrats. I cannot find a comparable list of democrat accomplishments for wildlife and the environment. Please don't think I feel democrats don't care...they do...we all care, and we all do what we can.
bkrownd
Well-known member
Huge exaggeration there. If "a migratory bird" is accidentally killed by my rooftop solar panels (or window or car grill etc) I don't see much chance of suffering a felony conviction. Change "a migratory bird" to "tens of thousands of migratory birds" and it's much harder to be sympathetic to the offense. "Accidental" becomes "forseeable", and inaction becomes willful negligence.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
It appears that the smoking gun has been found by the Audubon Society which has obtained documents linking Duke Energy (the largest electric utility in the USA with a net income of $2.7 million) to this amendment. Duke’s renewable energy division was prosecuted under the act in 2013 and fined over $1 million for causing the deaths more than 150 protected birds at two wind farms in Wyoming. The Justice Department decided that Duke had “failed to make all reasonable efforts to build the projects in a way that would avoid the risk of avian deaths by collision with turbine blades, despite prior warnings”. Subsequently they contributed $23,000 to Duncan’s political campaigns and began campaigning against the law which they had broken. It seems clear that whoever Representative Jeff Duncan claims he's working for, it's not the American people …...
bkrownd
Well-known member
It says Duncan is a Republican Representative from South Carolina, so Republicans in his district in South Carolina are who he's presumably "working for". That being the case, I suspect most of them are pretty happy with this.
MJB
Well-known member
It's probably one of the few things with which they're happy, given the US Supreme Court's very recent decisions on housing discrimination, the Affordable Care Act and equal marriage!:t:
MJB
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