TECO Can Brighten Its Future - And Ours

President Bush has called us a nation addicted to oil. If he looked at our local utility, he would cite it as a company radically addicted to coal and natural gas.

More than 99 percent of TECO's generating fuel is coal and natural gas. That hardly constitutes energy diversity or security, since all of it has to be transported via thousands of miles of rail lines and pipelines coming to us from outside of Florida, across many other states and along the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. A single series of terrorist attacks or natural disasters could fairly easily wipe out our energy sources here in the Tampa region.

And what about the economics of coal and natural gas? While TECO's fuel charges to us jumped 42 percent in early 2006, and another 10 percent this year, where are our energy fuel dollars going? Certainly not back to Florida or to our local community. At best these millions of dollars are going to distant countries, states and investors who contribute little or nothing to the Florida economy.

Fossil fuels are likely to continue to skyrocket in price, and you can be sure TECO will continue to pass along those increases to its customers. If it does not move forward on developing efficient renewable forms of clean energy, we customers are likely to pay a high price for that failure, possibly from a federally imposed cap and trade system or carbon tax, not to mention the astronomical future costs of Florida environmental remediation.

Gov. Crist and the departments of Energy and Agriculture are beginning to put forward thoughtful initiatives regarding new energy technologies. In particular, we are finally hearing what the federal Department of Energy has determined for years: Florida could become a major production site for solar energy, bioenergy and biofuels. Florida Power and Light is planning a 200-megawatt solar thermal facility in South Florida. Progress Energy is proposing a 300-megawatt local biomass-fueled generating plant. Both of these projects would add many Florida jobs and stimulate local investment.

TECO needs to take some giant steps in that direction. It has been a recognized leader in coal gasification technology. It could now become a leader in clean, renewable energy, locally produced and fueled. Its small pilot biomass co-firing effort in Polk County could be expanded to burn more local yard waste, construction waste and agricultural and forestry residue-all virtually free or inexpensive fuels.

These are all proven technologies. Much of Scandinavia has been producing bioelectricity for years, and those countries are moving quickly toward total independence from fossil fuels, while developing innovative new technologies and markets.

And global warming? That debate is over, except among those who still believe the Earth is flat. It's only a matter of how fast CO2 in the atmosphere increases, how fast the seas rise and coastal Florida disappears under water, and how many more catastrophic hurricanes Florida will endure, as our polar caps increasingly melt and our major carbon sinks, the forests and plants worldwide, recede.

TECO's coal-fired plants at Big Bend and Polk County each produce roughly twice as much CO2 as a gas-fired plant, and 100 percent more than carbon-neutral bioenergy plants or carbon-free commercial solar installations. Big Bend alone produces equivalent CO2 to the annual emissions of nearly 3 million cars on the road, and makes Hillsborough County the 39th highest CO2 polluting county in the nation.

Coal mining is a dirty business, and it has destroyed much of the Appalachian environment by mountaintop removal and the pollution of streams and groundwater sources.

TECO needs to join with our governor and the other Florida utilities in moving quickly toward a cleaner, safer and more locally prosperous energy future.