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Tampa's Contract With TECO Won't Add Green Initiatives

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: October 24, 2008

TAMPA - Every 25 years, the city renegotiates its franchise with Tampa Electric.

To environmental advocates, the talks provide a window of opportunity for city officials to push for green policies, renewable energy programs and other concessions from the regional utility.

However, city council members, who are set to vote early next month on a renewal of the franchise agreement, learned Thursday that they have little sway when it comes to those issues.

"That's clearly outside our jurisdiction," city attorney Chip Fletcher told council members at Thursday's workshop, when asked about adding green policy requirements to the franchise agreement.

Stephen Breslow of the Tampa Bay Sierra Club said he had hoped the city would use the negotiations with the city to require TECO to reduce its reliance on coal-fired energy.

"TECO is one of the dirtiest energy companies in the country," he said.
Breslow also wanted the city to require the utility to bury its power lines, which he said would lead to fewer outages, better-looking neighborhoods and improved public safety.

Several council members and environmentalists asked why the option to buy the utility wasn't included in the agreement.
TECO officials said they weren't interested.

"It's not in our company's best interests to put that into this agreement," said Tom Hernandez, TECO's vice president of energy supply. "We're not looking to sell."

Councilman Joe Caetano thought the city taking over a utility would be a mistake.

"We shouldn't be in the electricity business," he said. "We're bad business people."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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