Florida fights global warming...but pushes for more coal-fired power plants too

This is the year that Florida's business and political leaders have all lined up to declare their concern about curbing carbon emissions that lead to global warming. Gov. Charlie Crist calls climate change "one of the most important issues" facing the state.

Yet at the same time, Florida's utilities have proposed building six new coal-burning power plants to serve Florida's growing population, in places ranging from rural Taylor County in the Big Bend area to a spot near Lake Okeechobee.

Today the Public Service Commission will vote on whether to approve the most controversial of the proposed coal plants: a pair of 980-megawatt facilities that FPL wants to build in Glades County. The $5.7-billion Glades Power Park, to be built 70 miles from Everglades National Park, is intended to provide power for 650,000 homes.

Even Gov. Charlie Crist "does have reservations regarding the proposed Glades Power Park Plant, especially with respect to its location and emissions," spokesman Thomas Philpot said.

But Public Service Commission officials say concerns about hurricanes disrupting the natural gas supply as well as the volatile cost of gas have prompted them to ask FPL and other utilities to diversify their fuel supply -- and that has led to a return to coal.

"I don't believe in the U.S. or in Florida we can move forward without coal," FPL's Rayburn Butts told the Climate Change Conference last month, "although coal is a larger emitter of carbon gases than other fuels."

For an in-depth look at how Florida is grappling with this contradiction, click on:

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/05/Business/State_of_energy.shtml

--Craig Pittman