Well, so much for "Pickens Plan"! You have to ask yourself: "How many more insects (especially skeeters) would there be without bats?"

I am very fond of bats and quite distressed to hear of these troubles. Wind turbines just don't ultimately seem to me to be the answer and as far as Pickens goes - I think he is just trying to turn something free into something he can make an ...er... "windfall" profit on.

WS,

You'll be interested in this group if you haven't heard of them: http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp

Actually, he's trying to take control of the water supply in the Dallas, TX area

Interesting. I love hearing cool things from Canadian sources.

But how many bats do they kill? How many birds? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Are wind turbines still a relatively good alternative source of energy?

I'll watch the clip, however, I thought I'd ask quickly. Are the bats living in the towers? Does it have something to do with air pressure differences inside/out?

Interesting, thanks for posting.

cheers

R

I don;t think bats live in the towers. The just live in an area where they hunt near the towers. And some bats have a huge feeding range. For example, Bracken Cave has an estimated 20 million mMexican Free Tail bats in it. According to USGS, they travel up to 150 miles a night to hunt(At speeds up to 60 mph).

As near as I can tell from the video, bat lungs are very easily damaged. The low pressure area caused by turbines causes their lung blood vessels to leak and the bats die.

Hope that helps.

(USGS: http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/Bioeco/mftbat.htm )

( BCI: http://www.batconservation.org/content/Mexicanfreeinfo.html )