Palm Beach activists mobilize against FPL plant

The Broward-Palm Beach New Times reports this week on efforts by members of the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition stop a $2 billion natural-gas-fired power plant being built within the Everglades Agricultural Area.

The West County Energy Center project includes construction of a natural gas pipeline and plans for sotrage of millions of gallons of oil nearby as backup fuel.

FPL calls the plant "a Next Generation Clean Energy Center" ... which is to be built directly across Southern Boulevard from the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge on 220-acres purchased by FPL in 2005.

What's more:

FPL said that the West County Energy Center would pump almost 15 million gallons of water per day from the Upper Floridian Aquifer. Wastewater, in turn, would be shot 3,200 feet deep into the ground via a method called deep-well injection.

The plant will be fueled by liquid natural gas. According to court documents, the fuel arrives by ship at ports in Mississippi and Alabama, and it's funneled into an underground pipeline that runs across the Gulf of Mexico and the State of Florida. The pipeline was already 691 miles long. A new section of it — 34.26 miles — extends to reach the West County Energy Center ...

Read the full Broward New Times story online here.