A Legislative Favor For FPL, Since Progress Already Got One And TECO Is About To?

My column last Tuesday talked about how the Legislature was going to give Tampa Electric Co. the same kind of advantages for a proposed coal-gasification plant that it gave last year to nuclear power plants. Chiefly among these is the ability to bill customers in advance for costs related to the new plant.

In that column, I joked bitterly that since Progress got its bill last year, and TECO was getting one this year, it would be Florida Power & Light's turn next year.

But maybe I was off by a year. If you look at pages 60-61 of this proposed amendment to Senate Bill 996, which is coming up today in a Senate committee, you'll see that the amendment changes the bill's language to give the same advantages to any "advanced technology coal power plant." The bill is on the committee calendar for Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations, which meets at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday in Room 309 Capitol. I am told the amendment might not be heard today, but will still be floating around out there...

Now, check out this March 15 article by my colleague Craig Pittman about FP&L's plans for a $5.7-billion "advanced supercritical pulverization" coal-fired power plant near the Everglades -- the site of which, itself, is the subject of a lawsuit.