Monday, April 27, 2009

PBCEC April update: Eco-action is alive and well in the eastern Everglades!

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)

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