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Letters To The Editor

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

Think Solar

Regarding "Uncertainty Blurs Energy Future As Utilities Back Away From Coal" (Our Opinion, Nov. 25):

It was heartening to read your mention of solar four times! Florida is the Sunshine State after all, and it is way past time to put it to use.

My great-grandfather built his home on Bayshore Boulevard back in the early 1900s and constructed a huge rain cistern, then made a box and put pipes with U-joints in and then put a glass cover on top. He put this solar water collector on the roof and connected the rain cistern to it. Mother said they never ran out of hot water!

Then, in 1981, I won a combination of solar water heater, control panel and collector for the roof. When I got my light bill, it was cut in half! This worked until an overnight freeze caused the copper tubing in the collector to bubble up and that ended my wonderful bonus.

Just think if everyone had at least a solar water heater and it cut the power bills in half and cut the greenhouse gases, think how much better off we would be.

ANITA KNIGHT

St. Petersburg

Develop A Strategy

Your editorial was reasonably accurate but left out a lot of pertinent information.

As was the case in 1973 when the Arab oil embargo went into effect and a barrel of oil went from $3 to $32 because of the U.S. support for Israel in the Israel-Arab wars, and today, until another form of clean energy is viable, nuclear is the primary answer. Look at France, Japan, and Korea for technical and economic affirmation of this.

The problems which have prevented a viable energy policy include:

•No federal, state, or electric utility leadership on this issue. We still have no national policy after 34 years.

•No construction standardization of nuclear plants.

•Only two Florida utilities significantly invested in nuclear, Florida Power and Light Company, and Florida Power Corporation, now Progress Energy. Others have fractional ownership in these plants. All others continued to rely on coal and eventually natural gas.

•There are too many electric utilities; Florida needs no more than three. There are more than 50. Within a 50 mile radius of Tampa, there are at least six.

•The NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude exhibited by consumers, politicians, and newspapers. If you want affordable, clean energy, sacrifice is necessary.

Informed decisive leadership and shared sacrifice are the answers. Until this happens, nothing will change.

DICK POWERS

Tampa

No To Status Quo

I found Sunday's editorial to be a sorry account defending the continuation of Florida's energy status quo. No silver bullet exists to break our addiction to fossil fuels. The Tribune should promote small steps that pay compound dividends to achieve our goals.

Conservation measures and energy efficiency improvements will delay and reduce the need for large centralized power plants.

Energy recovery from non-recyclable resources can add the equivalent of the recently canceled $2 billion coal gasification plant with "distributed" power generated in close proximity to the need. Modern waste-to-energy facilities have low emission profiles comparable to natural gas power plants. Renewable technologies can be implemented without "external costs" yet to be accounted for in fossil fuels.

Also, energy plantations on former phosphate lands can lead to an era of "biorefineries" that produce food, feed, fuel, fiber and fertilizers.

Innovation and new paradigms, not the status quo, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop the rural economy.

PAUL HAUCK

Tampa

Make Better Use Of Coal

I continue to read all the letters from those who state we should develop new technologies and sources for our automobile society, and home and industry. Most refuse to accept the fact that nuclear energy is the real solution to our home and industry problems; France is almost 90 percent nuclear in this field.

As far as our automotive energy problems, in Word War II Germany solved their energy problem by using coal, which they refined as diesel and gasoline. We have the world's largest coal deposits and, with some of the finest engineers in the world, a similar recovery system could be devised and we would be free of the oil dependency we now suffer under.

I, for one, am tired of the so-called "tree huggers" telling us how to solve our energy problems with solutions that are not economically or feasibly sound.

C. DONALD PROSSER

Tampa

Energy From Waste

I'd like to remind readers about energy-from-waste, Florida's largest proven source of renewable energy. EFW takes simple household trash and creates electricity. There are 11 EFW facilities in Florida that continuously generate enough renewable electricity to serve 350,000 to 500,000 homes and businesses.

Florida's EFW facilities provide a model for increased contributions to Gov. Crist's energy goals. Benefits of EFW include:

• No burden on the potable water supply - EFW processes may be designed to use reclaimed or treated wastewater with no discharge.

• Unlike traditional fossil fuel generation, organic trash does not add new carbon to the atmosphere.

• EFW prevents the formation of methane that otherwise occurs with land-filling.

• Up to 1,500 new MWs could be available statewide using EFW instead of continuing to landfill the majority of our household trash.

The EPA considers EFW to be a "clean, reliable, source of energy." It can and should be an important part of meeting Gov. Crist's energy goals.

J.R. TRESHLER

Clearwater

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