Florida Speaker defends coal?

Florida Power and Light must have cringed when they read that the Speaker of the House, racing to the defense of polluting utilities, declared that Florida was a coal burning region.  So much for all those bill inserts the Speaker gets at his West Miami home saying that FPL is one of the cleanest utilities in the country (using almost no coal compared to their peers).  Florida Power & Light’s energy production in this state is comprised of natural gas (43%), nuclear (19%), oil (17%), and coal (18%), with the remaining demand being mostly purchased power.

Ironically, Rubio is on the opposite side of the debate from the very utility that serves the bulk of the State’s energy customers.  FPL has been quoted several times in the Herald supporting placing a cost on carbon (i.e. cap and trade) largely because their parent company FPL Group is a member of the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) and their sister company FPL Energy is a major player in clean, renewable energy with investments in wind, solar, and biomass.  USCAP, a group of mom-and-pop shops like Alcoa, DuPont, and General Electric, recently called for:

“…a policy framework for mandatory reductions of GHG emissions from major emitting sectors, including large stationary sources and transportation, and energy use in commercial and residential buildings. The cornerstone of this approach would be a cap-and-trade program.”

As for a “common sense” approach as the Speaker suggests, what timeframe are we to make these common sense decisions?  If we’re serious about weaning ourselves off of oil and creating new Florida industries in the process, we need to aggressively line up policies that make us competitive in the US and in the world.  And fast.

Those European countries with their “Big Government mandates” are rapidly establishing themselves as international leaders in alternative energy.  Germany, whose citizens flock to Florida for our abundant sunshine, has become the international leader in solar energy and created tens of thousands of jobs in the process.  Silicon valley is the phoenix rising – this time not as the center of the “new economy” but the center of the “green economy” re-branding itself as “solar valley.”

Florida has the most to lose (think rising tides) and the most to gain (lots of sunshine, a year-round growing season and a dire need for good-paying blue-collar jobs). 

“Common sense” says that rising fuel costs are inevitable.  Our state should be investing in the green economy like everything depends on it.  It does.