It’s always fun to witness moments when the Democratic Party realizes it cannot have its cake and eat it, too.  The New York Times is reporting a new federal rule that grants wind farms 30-year permits allowing them to “lawfully kill bald and golden eagles.”

A good ol’ fashioned progressive fight pitting conservationists on one side versus the renewable energy standard bearers on the other; Sierra Club founder John Muir versus global warming profiteer and alarmist Al Gore.  It almost makes us wish we had saved our seat-cushion change to buy tickets to that cage match instead of spending it on our life-sized Reagan replica made of sharp Wisconsin Cheddar.

The Grey Lady gets a quote from David Yarnold, the President of the National Audubon Society, you could slap on the pay-per-view teaser:

“A 30-year permit is like a blank check.  It basically says you can go operate these wind turbines and kill as many eagles as happen to die.”

With an estimated 10,000 to 500,000 birds dying every year right now as it is, and the current U.S. energy plan predicting it will need as much land as New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts combined to meet its wind energy goals, this fight has only begun.

You know what doesn’t kill 10,000 to 500,000 birds a year? Fracking.  Obama would be wise to broker peace between conservationists and renewable energy evangelists so the factions can re-focus on their common target: screwing over the average, hard-working Coloradan.