There's a lot more windmills than oil pits. THose numbers for the windmills seem a little low.
For the record: An Interior Department spokeswoman said a recent United States Geological Survey published in peer-reviewed scientific journals estimated the number could be as high as 689,000 bird deaths a year caused by wind turbines, not including Alaska and Hawaii. Including all 50 states and taking into account the growth of the industry as well as increased blade size, “the number could very reasonably be about 750,000,†a spokeswoman said. She did not provide an actual copy of that report.
https://www.axios.com/fact-checking-zinkes-bird-death-claim-1520379825-0dbede05-9934-42f6-988b-58c9e3fbe280.htmlBy contrast,
Based on Forensics Laboratory and USFWS field data, oil pits currently cause the deaths of 500,000-1 million birds per year. Although law enforcement and industry efforts have produced genuine progress on this issue, oil pits remain a significant source of mortality for birds in the United States.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6805311_Avian_Mortality_at_Oil_Pits_in_the_United_States_A_Review_of_the_Problem_and_Efforts_for_Its_SolutionAvian Mortality at Oil Pits in the United States: A Review of the Problem and Efforts for Its Solution
November 2006Environmental Management 38(4):532-44
DOI: 10.1007/s00267-005-0201-7
SourcePubMed
Frankly, although I realize it is a large industry and covers a lot of different production situations, when the USFWS was gunning for operators in the Williston Basin, they found a whopping seven birds in over 6000 sites. (and wanted to prosecute, hold industry chiefs for several oil companies personally responsible, subject to jail time and fines into seven figures, over seven birds, an action dismissed in Federal Court)
This total number appears to be grossly inflated to me based on my experiences in ND and MT, and does not seem to be in accordance with observations made in WY, UT, CO, NV, or SD either. My experience in Texas is limited to a small part of the Permian Basin, so I really do not think that gives me much room to speak to that state. The 900,000 active oil and gas wells would have to each be killing a protected bird annually,and many of those wells are gas wells which have no oil pit. Production facilities in the states I mentioned are commonly under BLM (Bureau of Land Management) jurisdiction and open pits aren't common. Instead during drilling, closed systems are required for oil based drilling fluids, and produced oil or water is kept in tanks which are not open. Because of activity, deck gratings, active solids control equipment, etc., birds are highly unlikely to land on mud tanks on a drilling rig. Some do succumb to H2S gas, gut the scenario offered is a La Brea Tar pit model of landing in oil thinking it was water and not being able to fly out.
