Golden eagles need new law to protect them from wind turbines
By
David Wojick
|
June 20th, 2026
With a seven-foot wingspan. the golden eagle is the flying monarch of the range. Primarily a western bird, they frequently feed on range rodents making them useful as well as majestic. But wind turbines are taking an ever-increasing toll. A 2025 study — “Estimated golden eagle mortality from wind turbines in the western United States” — estimates that the number killed by wind turbines doubled from 2013 to 2024. A major tagging study in Wyoming by biologist Mike Lockhart found that spinning wind turbine blades killed more golden eagles than all other human causes combined. The range states from Texas to North Dakota together have over 50,000 operating wind turbines with many more coming.
There is a huge loophole in the law when it comes to wind machines killing eagles, and Congress needs to close it. Wind turbines can legally kill other birds, but eagles have special protection under the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. On paper, a wind facility has to have a permit to kill an eagle, but, as things stand now, it is far cheaper to pay the fine for killing an eagle without a permit than it is to get a permit. So, a lot of wind facilities are simply not getting permits. Thus, the eagles are not getting the protections the permits call for.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) enforces the Eagle Protection Act. They recently fined two wind facilities for killing an eagle without having a permit. In each case, the fine was around $15,000. This is much less than it costs to get and operate under a permit.
To begin with, the permit application fees start around $26,000 for a simple facility, much more for complex ones. But the permits also include a number of relatively expensive activities which adds a lot to the cost. These include surveying the area slated for wind towers so as to avoid eagle nesting sites. It also includes ongoing monitoring and reporting kills, which can be used to modify turbine operations to reduce the kill rate.
https://www.cfact.org/2026/06/20/golden-eagles-need-new-law-to-protect-them-from-wind-turbines/
