AP is reporting that the Obama administration is considering new rules that would allow wind farms to kill eagles with impunity:
Eagle deaths have forced the Obama administration into a difficult choice between its unbridled support for wind energy and enforcing environmental laws that could slow the industry's growth.
Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, in an interview with the AP before his departure, denied any preferential treatment for wind. Interior Department officials said that criminal prosecution, regardless of the industry, is always a "last resort."
"There's still additional work to be done with eagles and other avian species, but we are working on it very hard," Salazar said. "We will get to the right balance."
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has proposed a rule that would give wind-energy companies potentially decades of shelter from prosecution for killing eagles. The regulation is currently under review at the White House.
The article notes that oil companies have been handed enormous fines for killing wolves. This looks like an extraordinarily unevenhanded approach to the law. Coming on top of the revelation that the tax authorities in the US targeted Obama's political opponents one can sense something of a pattern emerging.
And not a pretty one either.