President Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of wind turbines’ fatal effect on birds was confirmed again in dramatic and symbolic fashion with the gruesome death in Minnesota of the country’s iconic symbol — an American bald eagle.
The University of Minnesota is facing a penalty of more than $14,000 after it was discovered that a green energy initiative funded by the Obama administration was responsible for killing the bird at its Eolos Wind Energy Research Field Station in Dakota County, according to Fox News Digital.
According to the outlet:
Photos obtained by Fox News Digital show the moment a University of Minnesota wind turbine struck the bald eagle, dismembering it into three pieces and leaving a bloodied carcass on the floor below.
The violation notice says the university violated the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act by killing the eagles without what is called an “incidental take permit.” As such, the university is facing a proposed civil penalty of $14,536 for illegally killing what one Department of the Interior official called a “national treasure.”
The bird was discovered by technicians in pieces, with its lower torso and tail found first but it’s head and wings not discovered until more than a month later.
The wind turbine project received its funding as part of a $35 billion investment in green energy pushed by President Barack Obama early in his first administration in 2009, according to the outlet.
President Trump, long a critic of the wind turbines, famously sparred with then candidate Joe Biden on the subject in their 2020 debate, saying wind energy was not only expensive, “It kills all the birds.”
The President has repeated the claim of bird deaths many times since — to the consternation of critics who have said this is only “a pretext for attacking the wind industry.”
Department of Interior spokesman Matthew Middleton told Fox News Digital that under President Donald Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the department “is enforcing the law to protect these iconic birds and demand accountability from an industry that has jeopardized these protected species.”
The Minnesota incident is not exclusive to that state. In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued fines of a total of $32,340 for two eagles killed by Ørsted turbines in Nebraska and Illinois.
“America’s bald eagles are a national treasure, not collateral damage for costly wind experiments,” Middleton also said. “Wind companies will no longer get a free pass as this administration safeguards bald eagles and advances energy policies that prioritize affordability and strengthen America’s economy.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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