Florida Weighs Clean Energy, Coal Plants
A day after Florida Governor Charlie Crist called for global warming solutions and decreasing the state’s dependence on outside energy sources in his first State of the State Address, the Florida House Energy Committee passed its first bill – to promote coal-fired power plants.
The bill gives tax breaks to “integrated gasification combined cycle” – or IGCC – coal plants. IGCC is a process that turns coal into a synthetic gas that is burned with regular fuel to make electricity. The power companies say it is cleaner than traditional, pulverized coal.
Susan Glickman of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said that IGCC is an interim step towards cleaner energy, but that lawmakers should focus on energy efficiency and cutting global warming emissions. Others like the Sierra Club say that moving towards a clean and efficient energy system should not include burning more dirty coal. From the St. Petersburg Times:
As the fourth most populous state in the nation, Florida has a responsibility to reduce its emissions. Despite possessing some of the nation’s best natural energy resources — forest, farmland and climate — the state woefully lags most of the rest of the country.
But all is not dark in the Sunshine State: Governor Crist has proposed a major increase in funding of $68 million for alternative energy, and the Florida Energy Commission has been created to advise the Legislature on a clean energy policy that’s less dependent on foreign oil.
March 15th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Florida COULD make signigicant step in slowing global warming IF we all act now!
Yesterday in the Florida Senate, the Environmental Preservation & Conservation Committee could have taken a big step in helping to stop global warming. Instead, they voted on a bill which promotes IGCC, more coal burning, allows TECO (Tampa Electric) and others to pass the costs of IGCC on to their rate-payers, and amazingly does not require carbon sequestration - at all.
Further, the companies will be “fast-tracked” on permits, and can recover claimed costs of IGCC even if they decide to back out without installing the equipment.
What sounded like a good idea to some: that IGCC is less polluting, still requires the use of massive amounts of coal - a resource that is not found anywhere in Florida. Coal has to be transported to Florida by barge, rail, and truck, creating MORE greenhouse emissions. Burning coal in Florida by any process is a totally counter-productive way to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
The Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club is the only environmental group speaking against this IGCC bill in the Florida Legislature. The Nature Conservancy, Florida Wildlife Federation, Florida Audubon, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and NRDC, all spoke in favor of the bill. Interestingly, NRDC has accepted funds to promote IGCC nationwide. (TXU’s IGCC deal was recently brokered by NRDC and Environmental Defense, settling on and allowing 3 new coal fired power plants which the companies did not previously have permits for - a case of well-funded, co-opted environmental groups helping to fast track cfpp’s).
Please write to Gov Charlie Crist at
Charlie.Crist@myflorida.com
and tell him that we need to move completely away from coal in Florida. After all, this is the SUNSHINE STATE. Perhaps a smarter idea would be to require that existing coal fired power plants be retrofitted for IGCC now, and then faze them out completely with smarter, rapidly developing new solar, wind, ocean current, and renewables options. Florida does not need to build any new coal fired power plants. IGCC is a ruse being played upon the people by the coal companies.
Carbon sequestration is not a viable option in Florida - but solar, conservation, renewables, smart metering, ocean current, and some wind (off the east coast) are viable options -and must be encouraged and enacted now. Tell Charlie, he’s listening!
Gov Crist is making a great effort in reducing Florida’s dependence on oil, promoting renewables, encouraging solar, but is being badly tricked on IGCC. The process is not yet commercially available, and carbon cannot be “sequestered” by burying underground due to the Floridan Aquifer’s ease of contamination. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, carbon capture should be required by any industry in Florida which creates it.
For the latest information on these bills going through Florida’s legislature you can look up House bill 549 and Senate bill 1202 on
http://www.florida.sierraclub.org/tracker
You can also send comments to the legislators on these bills at
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov
and
http://www.myfloridasenate.gov
thank you,
Joy Towles Ezell
hopeforcleanwater@yahoo.com
June 30th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
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