Miami-Dade County to hear pros, cons of Turkey Point landfill plans

Front page story this morning in the Miami Herald outlines what's at stake today in the hearing before Miami-Dade Planning Advisory Board for a permit to allow rock mining for landfill purposes related top construction of new Turkey Point nuclear reactors 6 & 7.

According to the story, FPL canals criticized as health risk, by Herald staff writer Curtis Morgan:

Environmental groups, backed by Biscayne National Park, will ask Miami-Dade's Planning Advisory Board on Monday to reject a request key to its Turkey Point plan. The land-use change would clear the way for FPL to dig rock pits in up to 880 acres of nearby farmland as a source of limestone fill for future construction.

The story goes on to say that:

... spiking chloride -- a measure of salt -- in monitoring wells west of FPL's site, and new aerial electromagnetic assessment techniques used by the U.S. Geological Survey, suggest South Miami-Dade's salt concerns are the most serious in South Florida. Salt fronts typically ebb and flow, but preliminary data suggest the salt is moving inland yearly in spots.

Read the Herald story in full online, here.

ZNet article on Palm Beach activists jailed for protecting environment against FPL power plant

Very well-researched and thoughtful piece yesterday by Howard Lisnoff at ZNet, titled Jailed Activists Seek to Free Enslaved Environment, about the West County Energy Center (WCEC) in Palm Beach and the arrest and trial of the environmental activists who've tried to stop it.

As Lisnoff points out:

The [WCEC] power plant being built by Florida Power & Light will release 12.3 tons of carbon dioxide a year into an atmosphere already drenched and laden with global greenhouse gasses, and inject an astounding 13.5 million gallons of contaminated cooling water a day "into underground aquifers and allow it to seep into water bodies," according to Dr. Sydney Bacchus, a hydroecologist, who testified in defense of the protesters at their trial.

Lisnoff reviews the trial proceedings, interviews scientists and jailed activists Panagioti Tsolkas and Lynne Purvis in this well-researched piece, concluding among other things that:

In February 2008, scores of protesters momentarily stopped the construction of what soon will be one of the largest fossil-fuel burning plants in the U.S. They faced the power of an industry entrenched in the political establishment of Florida that can purchase enough lobbying muscle to do just about anything it wants done. These protesters faced jail time and a huge fine levied against them for acting out of moral courage in pursuit of the greater good. They faced a hostile judge and prosecutor who belittled the environmental alarm that is so apparent in South Florida. A huge amount of good science was thrown out of the courtroom in return for what was convenient and expedient for the purpose of supporting a major industry player in Florida Power & Light.

The full article at ZNet by Howard Lisnoff is available online, here.

For all those who care about our natural environment and what a giant energy utility can do to harm it if left unchecked, this piece is more than well-worth the read ...

Earth First! Roadshow in South Florida this weekend: March 20 - Miami / March 21 - Jupiter / March 22 - Lake Worth

This just in from Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition, which has been on the front lines -- literally -- in the fight against FPL over the West County Energy Center and Barley Barber swamp, and has done some absolutely great demonstrations in front of the FPL headquarters in Juno ...

EARTH FIRST! ROADSHOW IN SOUTH FLORIDA THIS WEEKEND ...

3/20, Miami, FL
8:00pm Black Mangrove Collective
This event will include a presentation from Max Rameau of Take Back the Land
Location: 138 NW 37th Street, Miami
www.theblackmangrove.com

3/21, Jupiter FL,
Earth First! Benefit Show at Adam Barksdale’s place, with 14 bands, show starts at 4pm, EF! Roadshow will be tabling at event, doing our puppet show at 4pm and slideshow presentation at 7pm… donation $5-10
Location: 13926 157th Ct N, Jupiter Fl, 33478
For more details: www.earthfirstroadshow.wordpress.com

These two events on Friday and Saturday will be followed on Sunday with ...

Sunday March 22 at 7pm
Benefit Dinner and Theater at the Canew (collective house in LW)
822 North C Street, Lake Worth

Join us for a local foods dinner, activist theater and direct action slide show to benefit a great cause; the local Earth First! direct action movement and touring roadshow!

Making the connections between local sustainability and environmental action:
* local foods dinner - direct from our bountiful backyard garden
* tour of the garden, bee-hives, home-made solar panel and water systems
* exciting puppet theater & presentation by Earth First! about the U.S.radical environmental movement
* good company to boot!

Sliding scale donation from $10 - $20. Money will support the Earth First! direct action movement and roadshow. Wine and beer cash bar available.

Seating is limited, please R.S.V.P and let us know your meal preference (vegan, vegetarian, omnivore) evergladesearthfirst@gmail.com or 561-584-2644

PLEASE COME OUT TO ONE OF THESE EVENTS TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR AND NETWORK WITH THE ACTIVISTS AT EARTH FIRST! AND THE PALM BEACH COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL COALITION.

Miami Herald, WWF get it wrong on FPL and the "renewable portfolio standard"

Hat tip to gimleteye over at Eye on Miami for Sunday's post taking to task the Miami Herald's editorial support of the "'renewable portfolio standard'' that is up for consideration by the legislature at Gov. Charlie Crist's behest.

Titled "FPL and environmentalists: one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away...," the post rightfully points out the shortsightedness of the Herald's editorial, "Solar power vital to state's future," for its having failed to note that FPL has lobbied hard to include "nuclear energy" in Gov. Crist's so-called "renewable portfolio standard."

Stop FPL has posted previously here and here on FPL's efforts to have nuclear power redefined as "renewable" energy and to have it included in the State's diversified energy portfolio.

But, in all the media hooplah over FPL's groundbreaking last week over a solar plant in De Soto County -- at a mere 25-megawatts, representing a miniscule portion of FPL's overall electric power output for the State of Florida -- the FPL PR machine showed its prowess, managing to arrange to have some on-side environmentalists like the World Wildlife Fund's Debbie Harrison pronounce in the energy giant's favor and to use that to obfuscate the real story for reporters and editorial writers around the State.

As gimleteye so rightfully pointed out, such environmentalist support for FPL's meager solar initiatives belies the fact that:

FPL is hell-bent on destroying Biscayne National Park: not by direct impacts from nuclear power, but from rock mining nearby to get fill for its massive footprint and from water supply for the new cooling units that put the entire region at risk. The company is spending vast amounts of ratepayer dollars to push its plan through local and state permitting processes; witholding key aspects of the plan until they can be rushed through at the last moment, according to predetermined outcomes.

By including nuclear in the state requirements for what qualifies to be "renewable", FPL can minimize the effort to get consumers to use solar. Surely, Ms. Harrision knows that FPL and its brethren continue to resist fundamental reform of the regulatory structure in Florida. By centralizing solar through massive PV arrays it owns, FPL can control its business model. When consumers use solar on their rooftops or in their backyards, the control FPL can exert is massively fragmented.

Couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Eye on Miami is to be commended for pointing this out and the Miami Herald should be ashamed for having overlooked the obvious contradictions in the Governor's "renewable energy portfolio."

It's one thing to have FPL press releases disseminated and reposted across the Web, it's quite another for the editorial writers at the formerly august Miami Herald to swallow the FPL PR machine's pronouncements without bothering to do real investigation into the story behind the story ...

Anti-FPL activists gets Palm Beach Post reader support

Anti-FPL protester Panagioti Tsolkas received positive support from Palm Beach Post readers in letters to the editor published by the paper on Sunday.

Following criticism in a Feb. 8 column by retired Post editorial writer Dan Moffett, one reader wrote in that the actions of Tsolkas and others arrested for protesting environmental damage by an FPL plant in Palm Beach County are "legitimate attempts to draw attention to serious, even life-threatening situations," and continued:

"The protest against Florida Power & Light Co.'s West County Energy Center was a perfect example. This project could pollute our air and threaten the purity of our ground water. Its location makes it a danger to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge."

Another reader said that Moffett's column was "an untruthful attempt to influence readers against an environmental activist who risked his safety and freedom to protect what little remains of the environment in Florida," adding that:

"Throughout our history, the powers of the status quo have used all kinds of punitive measures to silence our voices. But we will not be dissuaded, we will not be frightened, we will not be silenced.

Tsolkas also wrote in his own defense:

I was sentenced to 60 days in the Palm Beach County Jail by Judge Laura Johnson - double the time requested by the state attorney - for asserting my right to defend land, liberty and the water we all drink from.

And, he noted the response of Henry David Thoreau, jailed for opposing slavery, to his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson when the latter visited Thoreau in jail:

When asked by Emerson what he was doing in jail, Thoreau responded with an answer that should resonate with people of conscience today in Palm Beach County; perhaps even The Post's Dan Moffett: "What are you doing out there?"

Read the letters to the Palm Beach Post editor, here.

Anti-FPL activist writes 'Open Letter' from jail

Panagioti Tsolkas, Palm Beach County activist incarcerated for protesting the West County Energy Center and sentenced to 60 days in jail "for defending my home from Florida Power and Light," has written an Open letter to people of the Everglades (and those who care about it), posted today at the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition's site.

Since writing the letter, Tsolkas was released on a $5,000 appellate bond and after serving 16 days of the 60-day sentence is now awaiting an appeal to a higher court of the circuit court verdict against him and co-activist Lynn Purvis, who has opted to serve out her entire 30-day sentence.

Stop FPL has posted about the two activists' sentencing here and about the efforts to stop the environmental degradation caused by the West County Energy Center, here.

The latter post links to a lengthy story at Broward-Palm Beach New Times, here.

Meanwhile, Everglades Earth First! has called for a Week of Action in Solidarity with jailed activists, with details online here.

Anti-FPL demo called in Palm Beach for Feb. 24

The Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition has called for a Feb. 18-24 week of solidarity with 26 activists arrested for blockading the construction entrance to the 3,800-MW West County Energy Center in Palm Beach County and to protest the Feb. 2 sentencing of two activists in an earlier protest at the site.

On Feb. 18, over a hundred anti-FPL activists gathered and 26 were arrested for blockading the construction entrance to the power plant, which is adjacent to headwaters of both the Everglades and Loxahatchee River.

On February 2, 2009, two of the activists, Lynne Purvis and Panagioti Tsolkas, were sentenced to 30 days and 60 days, respectively, for their participation in the blockade of the plant's entrance.

The coalition says the plant is being blockaded because:

The WCEC is permitted by the DEP to use over 7 billion gallons of water a year, drawn from surface, aquifer and re-use sources in and near the Everglades. It has also been permitted to emit over 12 million tons of C02 annually—an amount greater than the thirty least polluting nations on Earth.

Read more here about the week of "Solidarity actions with Everglades Earth First! Political Prisoners, Feb 18-24 and the Feb. 24 demonstration called for the DEP Southeast Regional Office 3-5pm at 400 N. Congress, West Palm Beach.

FPL Protesters in Palm Beach Outraged Over Sentence

On Monday, Feb. 2nd, a Palm Beach county judge outraged anti-FPL activists when he sentenced Panagioti Tsolkas and Lynne Purvis for their role in a 2008 road-block protest at a new Florida Power and Light power plant sight.

WPBF-TV reported that the judge sentenced Tsolkas to 60 days behind bars and Purvis up to 30 days.

Members of Everglades Earth First! and the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition protested that the sentence is too harsh and violated the activists' right to free speech.

The full story is online at MSNBC.com, here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28999807/