Senate COVID Report: “Historically Unprepared”
December 8th, 2022
Documentation of Trump Administration’s abject failure in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in over 1,090,000 deaths in the U.S., over 14,500 deaths in Minnesota (that’s nearly the population of Red Wing).
Yet this, after publication of the Senate committee report:
Incidental “take” permits are history – 2 year anniversary
December 25th, 2019
That’s an eagle who’d been feasting on the carcass in the foreground as I drove across 110th in Freeborn County. There’s a nest off to the right (west) a bit that the Freeborn Wind developers and Dept. of Commerce don’t want to acknowledge. Wind projects are supposed to be a ways from eagle nests and foraging grounds.
A CNN article today raised this issue today, near the 2nd anniversary of a tRump administration “clarification” that stated that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act does not prohibit incidental takes.
From that CNN post:
According to emails obtained by the Times, when the Michigan Department of Natural resources emailed the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service seeking clarification if it could cut down trees, they were told “The recent M -Opinion also removes the prohibition to removing trees with active nests as long as the intent of the action is the cutting of the trees (in this case for timber harvest).” The agency did lay out potential ways to limit the damage done to the birds and nests, but noted those actions were “strictly voluntary.”
So it looks like taking down trees with nests in them would be OK for right-of-way clearing, or removing “hazard trees” by wind project?
Wind and transmission projects in this area often, if not always, have required eagle take permits (how many Decorah eagles died due to transmission lines? Four, I think!). But with the tRump administration “deconstructing the administrative state” at every turn, well, guess what was issued? Open season on migratory birds. It’s the 2 year anniversary of removal of protections:
From this memo
For the reasons explained below, this Memorandum finds that, consistent with the text, history, and purpose of the MBTA, the
statute’s prohibitions on pursuing, hunting, taking, capturing, killing, or attempting to do the same apply only to affirmative actions that have as their purpose the taking or killing of migratory birds, their nests, or their eggs.
Yes, you heard that right, as of December 22, 2017, federal policy, interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, requires an take permit only for those activities that have the PURPOSE of “taking” a bird covered under the Act. So we won’t be seeing take permits required for wind and transmission projects.
And yet despite that policy turn around, he says things like this last week at “Turning Point.” He probably doesn’t even know that incidental takes are not an issue for wind projects:
But FYI, bird takes have dropped dramatically in technology changes since the days of the Altamont Pass small turbine bird blenderizers. With larger, slower blades, spaced further apart fewer birds die. But some do! Particularly an issue if turbines are installed in migratory pathways, or foraging areas. Hence the need for a take permit, for siting away from bird areas, an attempt to put a limit on kills. That bird kills have been lowered doesn’t mean there’s reason to eliminate the take permits, no reason to eliminate prohibitions. WHY?
HHS Inspector General also scrutinizing tRump
March 25th, 2017
How many investigations on Trump, his campaign, and his administration are now in the works? Well, here’s another!
The Inspector General of Department of Health and Human Services has opened an investigation into Trump’s “decision to stop paid advertisements and temporarily suspend other outreach efforts directed at Marketplace enrollment in the final days of the 2016-2017 open enrollment season.” What that means is that tRump stopped advertising and outreach for registration for Obamacare.
Here’s his letter acknowledging the investigation:
When the Inspector General gets going, that’s something to take seriously. There was no authorization to stop advertising, already paid by Obama administration, nor was there authorization to stop free social media/email notice to folks of the deadline. The tail end of the open enrollment period is always when there are the most sign-ups, and reaching people in that time frame is crucial. Failing to advertise, stopping outreach, works against filling the pool to spread the risk. Some call that sabotage. Yeah, that sounds apt.
One more thing to nail tRump and his administration on, it just keeps piling up.