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A Mega
Environmental Disaster in the Making?
Will FPL’s Future Coal Plant Speed Up
Global Warning?
Protestors Think So
By Cynthia Archbold
Scott Perry protests FPL’s plan to put a coal power plant
near
the
The
amount of carbon dioxide emissions would be more than any new power plant in
the country, she says.
“Imagine
the Ritz under 10 feet of water!” That’s what one sign, held by among those
protesting coal plants and global warming, said. Another sign warned that “Coal
Kills.”
It’s
not every day that international protestors take to the streets of Key Biscayne
to warn about new threats of global warming coming from plans to build coal
power plants.
But
that’s what happened Wednesday in front of the Ritz-Carlton.
About
a dozen environmentalists came to protest the Coaltrans
Convention, a meeting of top coal industry leaders to discuss building more
coal power plants in the
“The
pressure needs to be on FPL [Florida Power & Light],” says Scott Perry, a
He
says pollution from
He
and other environmentalists say coal power is outdated and devastating to the
environment.
But
FPL’s slogan is coal is “the right choice for right now,” and according to its
Web site, is cheaper and easier to obtain than natural gas.
Moreover,
Not
enough, however, to satisfy environmentalists who oppose FPL’s plans to build a
coal-fired power plant about 125 miles north of Miami on Lake Okeechobee near
Moore Haven in Glades County.
FPL
wants to build the plant right on top of the Everglades, just as the national
park is about to undergo the biggest environmental cleanup in the nation,
according to Susan Glickman, consultant for the
Natural Resources Defense and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
FPL’s
huge, 1,960-megawatt coal-fired power plant, providing electricity to 650,000 homes, would be the kiss of death for the
The
amount of carbon dioxide emissions, 16 million tons each year, would be more
than any new power plant in the country, she says.
Why
haven’t we heard much about it? Glickman answers: “FPL went to
On
“I
can understand why this would be very appealing to people in
Glades
County Manager Wendell Taylor says FPL’s power plant proposal is “the first of
its kind in the world.” He says, “If
information comes out that it’s bad for the community, that it’s dirty, we
won’t support it.”
Two
years ago, FPL’s efforts to build a similar plant in St. Lucie County so
outraged citizens that they persuaded their
Now
St. Lucie commissioners are urging their counterparts in Glades to do the same.
Glickman
says conservationists will fight FPL every step of the way, if need be all the
way to the governor’s office.
“And
I believe Governor Crist and his cabinet will find
that a giant old-style coal plant is
not in the interests of the people of
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