Our next PBCEC monthly meeting is May 4th, 7pm at the Quaker Meeting, Lake Worth (823 North S Street)... and for some up-to-date news and new features, check out the recently updated www.EvergladesEarthFirst.org website.
The heat may be creeping in, but it ain't time for the summer slowdown yet. Those of us strugglin' for the wild and wet places of our home bioregion have our work cut out for us!
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**TODAY (tue.)-- PUBLIC MEETING ON SPRAWL INTO THE GLADES IN BROWARD.. At the City Commission meeting on April 28, 2009, 6:30pm the City of Sunrise will consider another blatant attack on the sanctity of the Everglades by allowing the development of the Everglades Corporate Park on the very edge of Water Conservation Area 2 that cleanses the water that supplies the Everglades and recharges the Biscayne Aquifer. The Park will consist of a 10 story office complex and hundreds of thousands of square feet of industrial and warehouse space and will be the only development west of the Sawgrass Expressway.
Any significant chemical spill in this area will affect all of South Florida through intrusion into the aquifer and will have the potential to damage the food chain throughout the Everglades. This includes diesel fuel and oil from construction machinery, pollution from the runoff of vehicle emissions in parking lots, and various other chemicals common to industrial parks. If you can make it, please attend the Commission meeting. The City Commission Chamber is on the first floor of City Hall, 10770 West Oakland Park Boulevard, Sunrise, FL. 33351.
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**TOMORROW (wed.)-- 'OPEN HOUSE' ON NUKES.. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled an open house for April 29 to discuss and answer questions about the agency’s assessment of safety performance during 2008 at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant.
The plant, operated by FPL, is at 6501 S. State Road A1A. The open house is informal and scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the FPL Energy Encounter Building.
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**YESTERDAY (mon.)-- April 27 - Florida Power & Light filed a proposal on April 7th to build a third major natural gas pipeline in Florida -- a $1.5 billion undertaking that would snake 300 miles across the peninsula to help fuel a new fleet of power plants for the next 40 years.
If approved by the Florida Public Service Commission, the "Florida EnergySecure" pipeline would stretch from Palm Beach County to Bradford County in north-central Florida, with about two-thirds of the natural gas going to power plants in Riviera Beach and Cape Canaveral. The PSC has not yet set a timetable for reviewing the project, but FPL believes it could complete the pipeline project by 2014. Approvals are needed from the Public Service Commission, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before the project can begin.
FPL hosted three short-notice open houses to discuss the project - in Port St. Lucie, Vero Beach, and Indiantown. Several members of PBCEC and Everglades Earth First! were present at the Indiantown forum handing out flyers exposing FPL's greenwashing and myths of job creation.
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Come to our May 4th meeting and talk about new strategies for fighting FPL, renewed resistance to Scripps Biotech, victories for the reefs and more...
OTHERS UPDATES:
**Fellow activists in Indiana are facing repression for their fight against this NAFTA Superhighway, two long time organizers were arrested last week. Find out more at http://mostlyeverything.net/ These are people who have supported our efforts to fight FPL. Please offer them whatever support you can!
**The Earth First! Roadshow is still traveling across the country, and i have been along for two months now, talking about our fight for the Everglades (and more). There is still two more to go. Check out where we've been and where we are going at this site: www.EarthFirstRoadshow.wordpress.com
For the wild and the free,
panagioti tsolkas, PBCEC Co-Chair (still, for now)
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
New FPL Pipelines into the Everglades watershed? NO WAY!
Join PBCEC and EEF! activists on Monday, 4/27/09, at the Indiantown Civic Center, 4-8pm to confront FPL representatives. For more info, see below:
From: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/apr/21/fpl-fields-questions-about-proposed-300-mile-natur/?feedback=1#comments
FPL fields questions about proposed 300-mile natural gas pipeline
By Alex Tiegen
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Representatives of Florida Power & Light Co. will be on hand to receive public input on a proposed 300-mile natural gas pipeline at two meetings on the Treasure Coast in the next few days.
Earlier this month, the state’s largest utility announced a proposal to build a $1.5 billion pipeline that could produce $102 million in tax revenue over 40 years for the three Treasure Coast counties and could generate 7,500 jobs for the entire project, 3,500 of which are in construction.
The natural gas line would extend north to Bradford County from FPL’s Martin Plant in Indiantown, with a proposed lateral line from the Martin Plant to the FPL facility in Riviera Beach. It would extend through 14 counties on Florida’s east coast, including St. Lucie and Indian River, before arriving at a natural gas receipt station in Bradford.
At the meetings, the first of which was held Tuesday in Port St. Lucie, FPL representatives are setting up displays and answering questions from the public about the project. The meetings are open houses where the public can come and go freely.
“The route we have now is a proposed route, so we’re interested” in getting the input of those who live near it, said FPL spokeswoman Jackie Anderson.
Houston-based Floridian Natural Gas Storage Co. has plans to construct a $600 million above-ground natural gas storage facility. The project stalled when FPL declined to lease storage space in the tanks.
Anderson said leasing space from Floridian Natural Gas Storage would result in too heavy a cost to FPL customers. The EnergySecure Line pipeline is the best alternative, she said.
J. Bradley “Brad” Williams, a principal of Floridian Natural Gas, said the company’s two storage tanks could complement the new pipeline if FPL would invest in them.
“Since they’ll have so much spare pipeline, it should open the door for them to utilize storage,” Williams said.
ABOUT THE PIPELINE
What: Informational meetings on proposed Florida Power & Light Pipeline
• 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Best Western Hotel on State Road 60, Vero Beach
• 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at Indiantown Civic Center, Indiantown
From: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/apr/21/fpl-fields-questions-about-proposed-300-mile-natur/?feedback=1#comments
FPL fields questions about proposed 300-mile natural gas pipeline
By Alex Tiegen
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Representatives of Florida Power & Light Co. will be on hand to receive public input on a proposed 300-mile natural gas pipeline at two meetings on the Treasure Coast in the next few days.
Earlier this month, the state’s largest utility announced a proposal to build a $1.5 billion pipeline that could produce $102 million in tax revenue over 40 years for the three Treasure Coast counties and could generate 7,500 jobs for the entire project, 3,500 of which are in construction.
The natural gas line would extend north to Bradford County from FPL’s Martin Plant in Indiantown, with a proposed lateral line from the Martin Plant to the FPL facility in Riviera Beach. It would extend through 14 counties on Florida’s east coast, including St. Lucie and Indian River, before arriving at a natural gas receipt station in Bradford.
At the meetings, the first of which was held Tuesday in Port St. Lucie, FPL representatives are setting up displays and answering questions from the public about the project. The meetings are open houses where the public can come and go freely.
“The route we have now is a proposed route, so we’re interested” in getting the input of those who live near it, said FPL spokeswoman Jackie Anderson.
Houston-based Floridian Natural Gas Storage Co. has plans to construct a $600 million above-ground natural gas storage facility. The project stalled when FPL declined to lease storage space in the tanks.
Anderson said leasing space from Floridian Natural Gas Storage would result in too heavy a cost to FPL customers. The EnergySecure Line pipeline is the best alternative, she said.
J. Bradley “Brad” Williams, a principal of Floridian Natural Gas, said the company’s two storage tanks could complement the new pipeline if FPL would invest in them.
“Since they’ll have so much spare pipeline, it should open the door for them to utilize storage,” Williams said.
ABOUT THE PIPELINE
What: Informational meetings on proposed Florida Power & Light Pipeline
• 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Best Western Hotel on State Road 60, Vero Beach
• 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at Indiantown Civic Center, Indiantown
Mass Civil Disobedience Against Duke Energy's Cliffside Powerplant
From: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/675642.html
[see link for photo slideshow]
Dozens arrested after Duke protest
By Bruce Henderson
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Apr. 20, 2009
Police arrested more than 40 protesters today at Duke Energy's Charlotte headquarters following a rally and march against Duke's coal policies.
About 300 people gathered in Marshall Park this morning to decry the expansion of Duke's Cliffside coal-fired power plant in Rutherford County, its use of coal mined by flattening Appalachian mountains and its contributions to global warming.
After marching to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, where the protesters called on Gov. Bev Perdue to stop Cliffside, they massed outside Duke's uptown headquarters.
With the crowd chanting “Arrest Jim Rogers,” referring to Duke's CEO, several dozen protesters lined up to cross a pink spray-painted line that defined Duke's property and were cuffed by police and placed in waiting vans. Groups organizing the protest said 44 people were arrested for trespassing.
No incidents of violence were evident during the three-hour demonstration.
The event drew a cross-section of college-age and older people. Charlotte commercial real estate executive Kent Moore stood in his pinstriped suit and yellow bowtie, holding a “Clean Energy Now” sign. Moore said the Duke stock he bought several years ago has dropped sharply in value.
“It's telling me this plan of building more nuclear and coal plants isn't working,” he said. “They should take every dime they have and put it into alternative fuels.”
Duke spokeswoman Marilyn Lineberger called Cliffside a “bridge to a low-carbon future,” referring to the greenhouse gas linked to climate change. The $2.4 billion plant, now 30 percent complete, will be one of the cleanest in the country, she said.
CEO Rogers has been an outspoken advocate of capping carbon dioxide emissions, a stand that critics have hammered as his company builds a new coal-fueled plant that will spew millions of tons of the gas a year.
[see link for photo slideshow]
Dozens arrested after Duke protest
By Bruce Henderson
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Apr. 20, 2009
Police arrested more than 40 protesters today at Duke Energy's Charlotte headquarters following a rally and march against Duke's coal policies.
About 300 people gathered in Marshall Park this morning to decry the expansion of Duke's Cliffside coal-fired power plant in Rutherford County, its use of coal mined by flattening Appalachian mountains and its contributions to global warming.
After marching to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, where the protesters called on Gov. Bev Perdue to stop Cliffside, they massed outside Duke's uptown headquarters.
With the crowd chanting “Arrest Jim Rogers,” referring to Duke's CEO, several dozen protesters lined up to cross a pink spray-painted line that defined Duke's property and were cuffed by police and placed in waiting vans. Groups organizing the protest said 44 people were arrested for trespassing.
No incidents of violence were evident during the three-hour demonstration.
The event drew a cross-section of college-age and older people. Charlotte commercial real estate executive Kent Moore stood in his pinstriped suit and yellow bowtie, holding a “Clean Energy Now” sign. Moore said the Duke stock he bought several years ago has dropped sharply in value.
“It's telling me this plan of building more nuclear and coal plants isn't working,” he said. “They should take every dime they have and put it into alternative fuels.”
Duke spokeswoman Marilyn Lineberger called Cliffside a “bridge to a low-carbon future,” referring to the greenhouse gas linked to climate change. The $2.4 billion plant, now 30 percent complete, will be one of the cleanest in the country, she said.
CEO Rogers has been an outspoken advocate of capping carbon dioxide emissions, a stand that critics have hammered as his company builds a new coal-fueled plant that will spew millions of tons of the gas a year.
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