The Audubon Society is upset with a US Department of Interior decision to allow wind farm operators to obtain permit extensions allowing accidental bird death or injury for up to 30 years. Interior says the permit extensions provide regulatory certainty to wind developers, but Audubon thinks the move fails to balance “the need for conservation and renewable energy.” [Los Angeles Times]

In one of her first articles for the New York Times, Coral Davenport highlights a study showing at least 29 large Republican-friendly companies – including ExxonMobil – bake carbon prices into their long-term strategic financial plans. The piece focuses on the diverging views regarding climate change and potential mitigation measures between Republican lawmakers – reluctant to tax or otherwise price carbon emissions – and major companies that accept such regulation as inevitable. [New York Times] As a side note, Breaking Energy reported that Exxon factors a carbon price into its strategic planning in July, 2012.

RWE cancelled its giant UK offshore wind farm known as the Atlantic Array due to mixture of technical challenges and adverse market conditions. Forbes claims the decision was mostly predicated on UK government uncertainty with regard to renewable energy subsidies. [Forbes]