Fox News has taken a sudden interest in environmentalism – now that the culprits are wind farms. In a recent article, FoxNews.com laments the “grizzly deaths of nearly 500 songbirds” at the hands of a wind farm in West Virginia. Even though facts show that far, far more birds die from oil pits, coal development, and climate change.

Fox would have you believe that the wind-energy industry is a corporate fat-cat living off of a “double standard:” reaping government protection and exception to fines for destroying the planet, whilst the innocent oil industry is hauled into court for harming wildlife. 

For an expert opinion, Fox turned to Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Energy Policy and the Environment, a charming-sounding think tank funded by ExxonMobil which has questioned climate change.  Bryce claimed that wind farms in California are causing bird “carnage.”

The article also cited complaints about “decreasing property values and health problems” from residents near an upstate New York wind farm. Fox did not bother to note reports that this health myth has been debunked.

At the end of the article there’s this breathtaking hypocrisy, blatant pandering to the oil industry, and lack of shame.

Critics say it’s time for the industry to stand on its own or call it quits—having benefited not only from the production tax credit but a de facto grant of immunity from federal prosecution under some of the country’s oldest wildlife laws.

Yes, it is high time the wind industry started standing on its own and taking responsibility for damage to wildlife, much like the oil industry does – not.