Power Plant Siting Hearings Scheduled for this Summer.
The Power Plant Siting hearing for FPL is scheduled to take this summer and they have just announced the following dates for public comment sessions where non-parties can speak about Turkey Point Units 6&7 siting issues including the transmission corridors within Everglades National Park and along US1.Dates and places of meetings are:
Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Keys Gate Golf and Country Club, Banquet Hall
2300 Palm Drive
Homestead, Florida 33055
Tuesday, July 23, 2013, 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Miami Airport Convention Center,Room MACC1
711 Northwest 72nd Avenue
Miami
Thursday, July 25, 2013, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Miami Airport Convention Center, Room MACC1
711 Northwest 72nd Avenue
Miami
Impassioned crowd tells the National Park Service - Just Say No to FPL!
An impassioned standing-room-only crowd told park managers and aDepartment of Interior attorney to reject a plan to place 15 story-tall
power lines along the edge of Everglades National Park. Twenty-nine of
the 30 public speakers, wearing NO powerline stickers, objected to the
70 powerlines, that Florida Power and Light (FPL) is proposing to install.
The only speaker in favor was FPL.
Superintendent Dan Kimball drew fire from livid park users about why
the Park would even consider the action. Some speakers asked if tourist
would enjoy coming to a park with an “industrial horizon.” Many asked why
the Park had even allowed the situation to get to this point. Others were
concerned about what this precedent would mean to other national parks.
The meeting was the first step of an Environmental Impact Statement to review the plan to envelope the eastern edge of the park with high voltage lines to service two proposed additional nuclear power reactors at Turkey Point. According to a Park report, "...wetland-dependent bird species, such as raptors, wading birds, waterfowl and passerines, are likely to be negatively impacted by the proposed power lines."
The Mayor of Pinecrest Cindy Lerner, whose community is also fighting powerlines, called the Park plan “an aberration” and expressed support for those in the audience. The plan involves swapping the existing utility corridor that the Park has failed to acquire since it expanded 22 years ago. Legislation enabling the Park to pursue the swap that would allow construction of the power lines was placed into the 2009 Omnibus Public Lands bill.
National Groups such as Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Clean Water Action and the Izaak Walton League joined by Tropical Audubon Society spoke against the powerline plan and one organization, South Florida Wildlands Association said it was already preparing to sue. NPCA delivered several boxes full of thousands of comments against the powerline plan.
- Jonathan Ullman, South Florida/Everglades Organizing Representative, Sierra Club
jonathan.ullman@sierraclub.org
Nuclear Power Plants, Paid for By You
Watch the Sierra Club video, Boondoggle
If the video does not play, go to the Sierra Club You Tube site: Boondoggle w/Ed Asner
Repeal Florida Law that requires you the citizen to pay the $ billions $, the total cost of nuclear reactors for FPL. This is a total 'give away', a nuclear 'subsidy' a gift. These new nuclear reactors will be built at Turkey Point, right on the edge of Everglades National Park and Biscayne Bay.
The Press Weighs in on the Boondoggle
Read "The Plant that may never be" in the Tampa Bay NewsRead "Nuclear Lessons" in the Gainesville Sun
60 Minutes Report: Fukushima Now Radiating Everyone.
See the video Here.Nuclear vs Solar, No Contest.
Editorial by Bradley Stark
Times are changing. We are heading for a future with less infrastructure and more distributed energy. It is a burden to build/maintain capital intensive infrastructure like nuclear plants (and coal plants). Solar power is cheaper than nuclear and getting cheaper.We have always known that there is a huge potential liability with nuclear power plants. The problems in Japan have greatly increased awareness of the potential. A partial meltdown just 1/8th of that of Japan would put Florida Power and Light Company in bankruptcy.
Going forward the money will be in trading energy, not making it. As distributed energy (solar in homes and sides of skyscrapers see http://inhabitat.com/chicagos-willis-tower-to-become-a-vertical-solar-farm/ ) comes more on line, the money will be in trading. Taking solar energy from home owners who do not use it in prime time, selling it at higher retail rates to businesses, and then replacing it with cheaper surplus power in the evening will be more profitable.
Here is an analogy. When AT&T was broken up with anti-trust litigation AT&T had a choice. Keep the long distance lines (most profitable portion of business at that moment) or the 'last mile' of service (the local Bells like BellSouth, Bell Atlantic etc.) AT&T chose long distance and it almost ruined them. They recovered by buying back the Baby Bells (the 'last mile' they had been forced to sell). Of course, today long distance lines are useless as long distance is essentially free. This is how it will be with electricity. Generating power is the long distance lines and the smart grid is the 'last mile', the portion that will make the money.
There are more than a few problems with nuclear power.
First, it is more expensive than solar power and solar is still falling in price. This is with financial incentives for nuclear such as guaranteed insurance/cost recovery etc. and none for solar, according to a study at Duke University. http://www.ncwarn.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NCW-SolarReport_final1.pdf Second, nuclear designs will always fail to anticipate something. For example, FPL is now touting that Turkey Point and St. Lucie reactors can withstand a Category 5 storm surge of 20ft. The problem is, in last 16 years alone 2 hurricanes that came through Florida. Katrina in 2005 had a storm surge of 25-28ft and Opal in 1995 had a storm surge of 24ft. If they had come in near Turkey Point, they would have destroyed Turkey Point and turned it into the disaster that is Japan. See http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ssurge/ssurge_overview.shtml Think about that for a moment. Evacuation and contamination around Turkey Point for a radius of 50 kilometers, meaning every community from Tavernier to Hollywood is uninhabitable.
Some final points to think about.
In Spain all new houses are required to have solar panels.
States other than Florida require utilities to purchase REC (Renewable Energy Credits) from green energy like home solar systems. This forces utilities to off-set environmental footprint and funds home solar systems since homeowners can sell their RECs.
Why should people pay for the upgrade to the FPL nuclear plant (costs go into the rate base)?
Why subsidize monopolistic electricity by funding FPL nuclear plants when individuals can generate a significant percentage of their own power with solar and also increase the value of their home?
- Bradley Stark
According to the NRC Inspector General Report, US nuclear power plant equipment defects are going unreported.
March 24, 2011. Story on Huffington Post website.Nuclear Power is Not the Answer.
Sierra Club remains unequivocally opposed to nuclear energy. Although nuclear plants have been in operation for less than 60 years, we now have seen three very serious disasters.Tragically, it took a horrific disaster in Japan to remind the world that none of the fundamental problems with nuclear power have ever been addressed. Besides reactor safety, both nuclear proliferation and the required long-term storage of nuclear waste (which remains lethal for more than 100,000 years) make nuclear power a uniquely dangerous energy technology for humanity.
What can you do?
Tell your senators that we need to invest in clean, renewable energy, not dirty, deadly, unsafe and costly nuclear energy. Read more on why nuclear power doesn’t make sense. Go to Sierra Club paper on Nuclear Power.
For stories prior to 2010, see our Sierra Club Miami Conservation Archives
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