TALLAHASSEE
– The Florida Wildlife Federation, Earthjustice and Environment Florida today
urged Florida’s
Public Service Commission to deny a request to build the largest new coal plant
in the United States
at the edge of the Florida Everglades.
“This proposed Florida Power and Light plant would spew
mercury and global-warming gasses into one of the most environmentally
sensitive places in the United
States – a place that taxpayers are spending
billions to clean up,” said Earthjustice attorney David Guest.
“Instead of allowing a huge new dirty coal plant, Florida should take the
lead from other states that are working to reduce electricity demand through
energy efficiency and alternative fuels,” said Manley Fuller, chairman of the
Florida Wildlife Federation.
New documents from the PSC show that Florida utilities have done essentially
nothing to reduce electricity demand over the past ten years. FPL spends a tiny fraction of what California’s
Pacific Gas and Electric spends on conservation and energy efficiency. By using
smarter technologies, Californians use less than half the energy that
Floridians do.
Instead of using available technologies to reduce
electricity demand, FPL wants regulators to let the company saddle its
customers with expensive, outdated, and dirty coal technology. Building an
expensive new coal plan will lock in high prices for utility customers, and
prices could grow higher if the government begins taxing carbon emissions. As
an expert told the PSC last month, FPL customers might have to foot the bill
for $120- to $400-million in annual penalties for emitting carbon dioxide from
the behemoth Glades plant.
Another chief concern is mercury deposition. Already, the
fish, panthers and other creatures that call the Everglades
home are dangerously contaminated with mercury. It’s a health risk to fish
there – in a place that was once one of the most productive fishing grounds
anywhere. The Glades plant would also spew nitrous oxide, which will further
degrade the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, and the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee
estuaries.
“Talk about cross purposes: While we are spending billions
to clean up Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, and the rivers, FPL is planning to
build a plant that would pollute them even more,” said Holly Binns of
Environment Florida.
Florida’s
leaders and citizens have finally begun forward movement on the issue of global
warming. According to a recent St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 poll, almost
three of four Floridians think state lawmakers should take immediate steps to
combat global warming. Seventy-one percent of those polled said they support
immediate legislative action to cut green house gas emissions.
“We applaud Gov. Charlie Crist’s new direction to reduce
global warming pollution and move toward better energy choices. It’s been a
long time coming in Florida.
The citizens shouldn’t allow FPL to take this expensive step backward to make
our pollution problems worse than they already are,” said Fuller.
The Public Service Commission heard testimony from the
public on FPL’s dirty coal plan in April. The commission is expected to make a
recommendation on June 5.
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