TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Crist Energy Plan: Clean Or Costly?

ADVERTISEMENT

By RUSSELL RAY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2007

Gov. Charlie Crist has a grand vision for Florida's energy future. It includes solar panels dotting the rooftops of homes and businesses, wind turbines whipping the sky and new nuclear reactors sending clouds of steam into the air.

In a series of mandates that the Florida Legislature will begin reviewing and debating early next year, Crist has mapped out a path to cleaner and greener living 40 years into the future. The executive orders signed by Crist last summer, which call for significantly reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and dramatically increasing the use of renewable energy sources, could be one of his key legacies as governor.

But Florida's business leaders contend the governor's energy policy, modeled largely after California's energy plan, is too aggressive and could leave a different legacy by driving utility costs higher, triggering job cuts and causing some employers to flee the state.

"If we don't change the executive orders, our experts have concluded that by 2015, electricity prices will be 26 percent higher than they would have been," said Mark Wilson, vice president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the state's largest business group. "Florida will lose 251,000 jobs if we don't change course."

Wilson says the governor's goals can and should be met. But he disagrees with the governor's deadlines and method for achieving them. "The process did not include a look at technology or economics," Wilson said.

Crist's office did not return calls seeking comment.

Under Crist's plan, emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants must be reduced to 2000 levels by 2017, to 1990 levels by 2025, and to 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050.

"It's an aggressive policy," said John Reilly, associate director of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. "It will require completely redoing Florida's electricity sector."

The state produces 37 percent of its electricity from natural gas and 13 percent from nuclear plants, according to Florida's Department of Environmental Protection. "The fact that Florida already has a relatively clean generation portfolio makes it that more difficult to clean it up further," Reilly said.

Demand For Energy Keeps Growing

About 45 percent of the greenhouse gases produced in Florida come from power plants that burn oil, coal or natural gas. Reducing those emissions may be challenging because Florida's demand for electricity is expected to soar 76 percent by 2030, or twice as fast as demand for electricity in the United States as a whole.

Florida's electric utilities won't be able to meet the governor's standards for lowering carbon emissions and generating more power from renewable sources without significantly increasing customers' electric bills, Wilson said. To keep costs down, the governor's deadlines for lower emissions should be extended by three to five years, he said.

That would give Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy - the state's two largest electric utilities - enough time to build new nuclear reactors, which produce no air emissions. Nuclear plants take at least 10 years to build.

The Florida Energy Commission recently embraced the chamber's recommendation for a 2020 deadline for reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 2000 levels and a 2030 target for cutting emissions to 1990 levels.

Crist also has ordered the state's electric utilities to produce 20 percent of their power from renewable energy sources, though no deadline for that benchmark has been set. Right now, less than 2 percent of the state's electricity is made from renewable sources of energy.

Florida can't produce that much renewable power because the state's solar potential, or the level of sunshine, is average compared with other states, according to the Department of Energy. And the wind in Florida isn't strong enough to justify building huge wind farms, Wilson said.

"The reason everybody doesn't have solar is the technology doesn't exist yet to make it financially feasible to do," Wilson said. "We either need to figure out a way to get rid of the clouds or you need to improve the technology."

Report Will Guide Lawmakers

On Monday, the Florida Energy Commission, a nine-member panel appointed by state lawmakers, finalized its recommendations to the Legislature during a meeting in Orlando. Its report is due to the Legislature by Dec. 31. The report will serve as a guide for state lawmakers when the session begins in March.

The commission will not recommend a specific standard for renewable power. After considering a recommendation to require utilities to produce 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025, the recommendation was withdrawn after commissioners could not reach a consensus.

Setting a standard for how much renewable energy sources utilities must use when producing electricity by utilities "is one tool, it's not the only tool," said Lisa Edgar, a member of the energy commission and chairman of Florida's Public Service Commission. "It could hurt more than it helps."

Changes Could Be Costly

Crist's 20 percent mandate for renewable power could lead to less reliable sources of electricity, especially if that includes a heavy dependence on solar, MIT's Reilly said. "What do you do when the sun isn't shining?" Reilly said.

To meet Crist's mandates for lower emissions and renewable energy, utilities may be forced to shut down some of their coal-fired power plants and switch to more expensive forms of energy such as natural gas to meet demand, Wilson said.

The energy commission plans to recommend tax credits and incentives for the development and production of renewable power.

Wilson said if Crist's energy plan isn't changed, it will lead to inflated electricity prices and thousands of lost jobs as businesses locate their operations in states where electricity is more affordable. "Companies can be anywhere in the world today," Wilson said.

One study, performed by Washington-based CRA International, a business consulting firm hired by the Florida Chamber, contends Florida will lose more than 700,000 jobs over the next 43 years under Crist's executive orders.

Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT