Wind operator fined $35M for 150 eagle deaths, setting $29,623-per-bird precedent

In a Wyoming courtroom, a wind energy company and the federal government arrived at a figure that will long define how America accounts for the death of its national symbol: $29,623 per eagle. ESI Energy, a subsidiary of NextEra, pleaded guilty to killing at least 150 bald and golden eagles across a decade of operations without ever seeking the permits the law required — permits that competitors bore the cost and delay of obtaining. The resulting $35 million settlement, the largest of its kind against a wind operator, does not resolve the deeper tension it names: whether putting a price on a p