Have you ever been to a so-called “green” energy generation facility? Recently several members of Deep Green Resistance visited the Spring Valley Wind Project, a set of 66 turbines, each nearly 400 feet tall and rated to produce 2.3 MW of power.

This set of wind turbines in Spring Valley, NV has destroyed the land around their bases, brought in aggressive invasive species such as cheatgrass (the BLM’s idea of “restoration”), and we even found a dead hawk or owl at the base of the very first turbine we visited.

The first fucking turbine.

According to Basin and Range Watch, many more birds have been killed at the site, including Kestrels, Cliff swallows, Horned Larks, Blue-gray gnatcatchers, MacGillivray’s warblers, Rough-legged hawks, and Golden Eagles. At least hundreds of bats have been killed as well, as this site is located only a few miles from a roosting site for the Brazilian free-tailed bat of continental significance.

Materials for these turbines were first strip mined, then assembled in Utah and China, then shipped around the world to Spring Valley. When these turbines stop working, they will be demolished. According to representatives of Pattern Energy, none of the materials will even be recycled (not that recycling is a solution), and only the first five feet of the 30-foot deep concrete foundations will be removed.

There’s nothing green about wind energy. It’s the same corporate industrial energy free-for-all with similar horrific consequences for the natural world.