Obama Regime Seeks to Allow Killing Bald Eagles

Up until now, it has been a federal crime to kill a bald eagle inside the United States, without a difficult to obtain permit. But now, Obama officials are moving ahead to expand decriminalisation of the act of killing the US national bird. The regime has never cared for patriotic symbols, of course. But the reason for the impending open season on bald eagles has more to do with carbon hysteria and promoting unreliable and intermittent forms of energy, than with any latent anti-American tendencies residing within the administration.

The USFWS [US Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of the US Department of the Interior] explains at FederalRegister.gov:

We have reviewed applications from proponents of renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar power facilities, for programmatic permits to authorize eagle take that may result from both the construction and ongoing operations of renewable energy projects. During our review, it became evident that the 5-year term limit imposed by the 2009 regulations (see 50 CFR 22.26(h)) needed to be extended to better correspond to the timeframe of renewable energy projects.

Current law allows permitting for “programmatic” killing of bald eagles, which “is recurring, is not caused solely by indirect effects, and that occurs over the long term or in a location or locations that cannot be specifically identified.”

The USFWS notes that permits “may authorize lethal take that is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity, such as mortalities caused by collisions with rotating wind turbines.”

According to the regulation, measures will be taken to attempt to minimize bald eagle mortalities, and additional actions may be authorized if mortalities exceed “anticipated” levels. USFWS began investigating numerous bald eagle deaths associated with wind turbines in early 2012.

Without the proper permit, the killing of a bald eagle is a federal crime. _Foundry_via_GWPF

The killing of bald eagles in order to permit the overbuilding of an unreliable, intermittent, exorbitantly expensive and wasteful form of energy production, is a double crime to many Americans. Not only is the Obama administration cynically facilitating the killing of a national symbol. They are doing so in the name of an expensive and heavily subsidised form of energy which will only destabilise the power grid, without providing any tangible benefit.

Inept leadership is bad enough. Unfortunately, the Obama regime is far worse than merely inept. It is becoming devotedly destructive.