Wind farms, key to clean-energy efforts, threaten birds and bats – Chicago Tribune*

Illinois is the fifth-largest state for wind energy, and produces about 7 percent of the United States’ wind energy, according to the American Clean Power Association. “More than half of the (bat) species in the U.S. are either declining or at some risk of decline,” said Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International. “Wind energy is the leading cause of mortality for our long-distance migratory species. And that mortality rate is worryingly high.”