My dad worked as a general counsel for a power company for a long time, and he told me they basically had a budget for how much they'd pay in violations of the Endangered Species Act related to bird deaths around their wind turbines.
You dad (or, more likely: you) is full of shit. Penalties don’t work like a tax on misbehavior. If you are constantly being fined, you would face the loss of your license to operate.
There was foreknowledge on the company's side that it would be an issue, but not expedience in trying to resolve it (hence the notion of it being budgeted as a potential expense). It still took years for anything to happen over the issue. My dad wasn't directly involved in this case (they have many many lawyers), but it was something he was aware of enough to mention at the dinner table, especially after it started getting press coverage. Sort of an "Ugh, the company is in trouble again, why can't they just do the right thing" type of gripe.
