Wind Turbines Are Killing Bald Eagles—And China Is Cashing In
For more than a decade, Western governments have promoted wind energy as a simple answer to complex energy, economic, and geopolitical challenges. It was sold as clean, affordable, and strategically vital—capable of creating jobs, cutting emissions, and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources.
That message spread rapidly through climate summits, policy circles, and corporate sustainability plans. What did not receive equal attention was a sober evaluation of who ultimately benefited from this transition, or which environmental and strategic costs were pushed aside.
No country gained more from the global push for wind power than China. Rather than merely participating in the renewable-energy market, Beijing built and now dominates the industrial backbone behind it. Today, China controls more than 70 percent of the global wind-turbine supply chain and produces over 80 percent of the world’s rare-earth elements—materials essential to turbine generators.
Through state subsidies, directed financing, and export-focused industrial policy, Chinese manufacturers were able to undercut Western competitors. The result has been a growing dependence by the United States and Europe on Chinese-controlled supply chains for their own energy infrastructure.
This outcome was not accidental. While Western nations shuttered coal plants and tightened emissions rules, China expanded its coal fleet—adding roughly two new coal plants per week in recent years—to power factories producing “green” technology for export. Since 2010, the United States has retired more than 300 coal units, and Europe has imposed strict emissions limits, while China increased emissions to manufacture the wind components the West relies on to reduce its own carbon footprint. Western production declined as China’s industrial leverage grew.
Environmental consequences were also downplayed. Wind turbines require large land areas and disrupt local ecosystems, but their most visible impact is bird mortality. According to estimates from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wind turbines kill between 500,000 and 700,000 birds each year in the United States alone. Independent studies suggest the total may exceed one million annually when offshore installations are included.
Raptors—particularly eagles—are disproportionately affected. Federal data document wind facilities that kill dozens of golden eagles each year, losses that would trigger serious penalties in other industries. These outcomes are not random. Turbines are typically placed along ridgelines, prairie corridors, and coastal zones where wind is strongest—areas that also serve as major migratory routes. Developers and regulators acknowledge this overlap in planning documents, yet the information rarely reaches the public. Environmental impacts that would halt a fossil-fuel project are often deemed acceptable when associated with wind.
Operational limitations introduce further tradeoffs. In the United States, wind turbines typically operate at capacity factors between 32 and 35 percent, meaning they produce their rated power less than a third of the time. Because wind generation is intermittent, grid operators must rely on natural gas or nuclear power to maintain reliability, increasing overall system costs.
States that rapidly expanded wind capacity, including California and New York, have experienced double-digit increases in retail electricity prices over the past decade—far exceeding national averages. These costs extend beyond construction, as taxpayers also fund transmission lines, grid upgrades, and eventual decommissioning. Meanwhile, China profits from turbine exports while expanding its geopolitical influence through supply-chain dominance.
The central question is not whether cleaner energy should be pursued. It is whether Western governments conducted a clear-eyed assessment of the strategic, economic, and environmental consequences before restructuring their energy systems. In many cases, they did not. Policy decisions were driven more by political convenience than long-term strategy.
A credible energy approach would evaluate nuclear power, domestic manufacturing, wildlife protection, and grid reliability together. It would confront the contradiction of claiming climate leadership while importing energy hardware from a country increasing its coal consumption to record levels. Most importantly, it would acknowledge that large-scale wind development carries real ecological costs—particularly for migratory and protected bird species—that cannot be dismissed when they conflict with political narratives.
Wind energy did not deliver the transformation policymakers promised. Instead, it shifted industrial power toward China, imposed measurable environmental harm, and left Western nations with higher electricity costs and a more strategically vulnerable energy system.
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