Wind Farm Operators Ordered to Protect Birds

Alameda County officials voted this week to force Altamont Pass windmill operators to take action to reduce bird fatalities in one of the nation’s most productive wind power regions.

The Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 Thursday to renew 29 permits covering more than 3,600 wind turbines in the pass, which has become a death trap for thousands of migrating birds that collide with fast-rotating turbine blades.

The wind farm operators will be required to shut down the turbines for at least two months each winter, eliminate the 100 most lethal ones and replace all of them with more-efficient, less-deadly towers before the permits expire in 13 years.