Environment Florida just stopped Florida Power and Light from building a massive, polluting coal-fired power plant on the banks of Lake Okochobee in the Everglades. Pretty exciting, in that it's the campaign that I've devoted my whole life to for the past month and a half.
posted by stridewideman @ 5:39 PM
5 Comments:
congratulations stridey, but your link is broken.
Here:
Miami Herald
Posted on Tue, Jun. 05, 2007
FPL's S. Fla. coal-plant plans killed
BY MARC CAPUTO
State regulators just unanimously ruled against Florida Power and Light's request to build a new coal-fired energy plant in South Florida, saying it wouldn't provide a ''cost-effective'' electricity source.
Environmentalists hailed the 4-0 decision by the Public Service Commission as a stand against global warming and the pollution that would have been produced by the twin-unit 1,900-megawatt plant to be built in Glades County, near the Everglades.
''This has been shot out of the water,'' said David Guest, a lawyer with the group Earthjustice, which fought the plant. 'FPL put on a full-scale case for five days, with boxes of paper and witnesses and data and studies, and we gave our side that it wasn't needed. And the commission just said: `No' ''
But FPL pointed out that the bottom line of the PSC decision was the bottom line ---- cost ---- and that it had little to do with the so-called ''clean-coal'' technology of the proposed plant. In the end, the commission was concerned that the price of coal could be unstable in the future if Congress decides to add layers of regulation, and therefore costs, on coal use because it produces so many global-warming greenhouse gasses.
FPL fretted that the PSC's decision virtually ignored the fact that natural gas, which fires its power plants now, is increasingly expensive and is highly unstable, considering the cost spikes after the 2005 hurricane season.
''Since we filed our testimony in February,'' Armando Olivera, president of FPL said in a written statement, ``the price of natural gas has gone up by more than 13%. This suggests electricity prices will be higher in the future than if the coal plant were approved.''
FPL said today's decision almost ensures the company will build more natural gas-fired plants to meet Florida's growing energy needs. A company spokesman didn't say whether FPL would appeal the decision. It can ask the PSC within five days to reconsider, appeal to the Florida Supreme Court or file an entirely new petition that could take months to wind through the process.
PSC Chairwoman Lisa Polak Edgar noted in a written statement that the board ''recognizes the need for fuel diversity'' but it couldn't ignore ``the additional costs and risks of the project.''
Topping the risks: Mercury, which has contaminated the Everglades for years, and carbon carbon dioxide, a currently unregulated gas linked to global warming. FPL had estimated Glades would emit some 200 pounds of mercury and as much as 14 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. In letters to the PSC, Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades National Park, had questioned FPL's air-quality analysis and raised concerns about increased atmospheric haze and sulfate and mercury loading in Everglades marshes. Levels of mercury in the Everglades, which have declined in recent years in the Everglades, can harm fish and wildlife and have forced health warnings against eating many species of fish. Though 70 miles from Everglades and 40 miles from Big Cypress National Wildlife Refuge, the Moore Haven site fell within a park-protection zone requiring stringent federal air-quality standards. Kimball said FPL had been working to address the park's concern about emission modeling but the PSC decision could make the talks moot.
''This is good news in terms of our remaining concerns about impacts to Everglades National Park,'' Kimball said. The PSC was the first hurdle FPL had to clear to build the plant, which would have gone online in 2013. Even if it had been approved by the PSC, the ultimate decision on the plant's fate would have rested with the state Cabinet and Gov. Charlie Crist, who has expressed concerns about the cleanliness of coal and global warming.
''The credit goes to Governor Crist,'' said Holly Binns, with the group Environment Florida. ``The PSC's own documents show that nine out of 15 times, natural gas is less expensive than coal.''
congrats, mr. wideman. did you get to hang out in the everglades?
Later this summer, I will endevour to not be eaten while I enjoy the River of Grass.
way to go SWM (and all of your fellow enviro-crusaders). I remember how good the hard fought victories feel.
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