FL Government waking up to this "Green" Thing- Way to Go!

Great article from Miami Herald.... Looks like FL is finally waking up to being the leader in renewable energy in the US. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be more than just words and they do what they say.

I look forward to working with FL to be the leader in "Going Green",

Bob

''We want to be a leader in this country in solar and wind,'' said Public Service Commission Chairman Matthew Carter. ``We want to establish a dynamic and vibrant marketplace.''

''We agree the people of Florida don't want to pay a lot for renewable energy,'' said Jerry Karnas of the Environmental Defense Fund. ``But we also know they want renewable energy and they want a lot of it so the key is how do we get the most renewable energy for the least cost.''



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The Miami Herald
Sat, Jan. 10, 2009

Renewable energy gets push in Legislature
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS

Florida electric companies would have to rely on an increasingly heavy mix of wind, solar and biomass to generate their power over the next 11 years, under a proposed rule state regulators voted to send to the Legislature late Thursday.

Calling their decision ''historic,'' the Florida Public Service Commission unanimously voted to send the Legislature the proposal that calls for 20 percent of their fuel mix to come from renewable energy sources by 2020. They also agreed that consumers could be charged up to 3 percent more in order to jump start the market for the clean technologies.

''We want to be a leader in this country in solar and wind,'' said Public Service Commission Chairman Matthew Carter. ``We want to establish a dynamic and vibrant marketplace.''

The commission's draft rule would require that 75 percent of the renewable energy fee go to finance solar and wind production and 25 percent go to finance biomass production.

The financial incentive is needed, commissioners said, because developing these projects is expensive and they want companies to be willing to build them in Florida.

The Legislature can approve or reject the recommendation before the rule takes effect. The recommendation is only a small piece in a large and complicated debate over how to spark investment into more environmentally-friendly energy sources and reduce Florida's contribution to climate change.

The rule also recommends the following goals:

* 7 percent of the fuel used by power companies come from renewable energy sources by 2013, 18 percent by 2019 and 20 percent by 2020;

* commissioners will review the goals every three years;

* penalties for companies that fail to meet the goals;

''We have a long term commitment to it so these industries are going to come to Florida,'' Carter said. ``We're going to have jobs. Florida's going to be a leader and we may even be able to export solar technology to other states...I'm all for leading.''

The vote was a victory for Gov. Charlie Crist who first recommended the ''20 percent by 2020'' standard and won plaudits from the environmental and alternative energy industries. But PSC staff concluded last year that that wasn't achievable until 2041. Florida got 3.6 percent of its electricity from alternative energy as of 2007, the commission said.

The commission hired a private consulting company, Navigant, to conduct a thorough study and market analysis. Navigant concluded that Florida could reach at least 24 percent of its energy portfolio from renewable energy by 2020 with the right incentives.

At Crist's insistence, the 2008 Florida Legislature authorized the PSC to set the rule, but the Legislature gave itself the authority to approve or reject it. At the heart of the debate is the question of how fast Florida can develop solar and wind power at a reasonable cost to consumers and how much more to allow consumers to be charged to get the new technologies up and running.

Commissioner Lisa Edgar said that while she ''doesn't generally like carve-outs,'' it may be necessary to charge customers more money to meet the 2020 goals.

Commissioner Nathan Skop agreed: ''20 percent by 2020 is an ambitious goal and it's going to take money to get there,'' he said.

''We agree the people of Florida don't want to pay a lot for renewable energy,'' said Jerry Karnas of the Environmental Defense Fund. ``But we also know they want renewable energy and they want a lot of it so the key is how do we get the most renewable energy for the least cost.''

The commission also recommended that the Legislature exclude nuclear energy from the 20 percent requirement, something Florida Power & Light and other large utility companies fought hard to get.

© 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.

Bob Gentile
Solar Energy Consultant
Abundant Energy, Inc. Palm Beach County Area

Office: 561.732.5181
Email: solarnow@bellsouth.net
Solar-FL.com

Oil Price Wars

Here is a great article by Boone Pickens about the Oil Wars and why we have to stay focused on moving away our dependence on foreign oil.

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Oil Price Wars

We have to stay on offense! We can’t let the new Congress and the new Administration shove our dependence on foreign oil to the back burner.

Here’s why.

When we started the Pickens Plan last July, oil was at about $147 per barrel, gasoline at the pump was $4.11, and we were importing about 70 percent of the oil we use. Today oil is $100 per barrel less, but we are still importing about 70 percent of our oil.

Why is this important? Because we are still at the mercy of foreign governments and unstable areas of the world for our oil supply.

It is still a crisis, but it’s also an opportunity for us to fix it.

Look at the headlines from just the past couple of days.

- Oil up $5 on OPEC cuts.
- Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine.
- Iran calls for oil embargo for supporters of Israel.

Just before the holidays, OPEC met to try to raise oil prices. OPEC delivers 40 percent of the daily oil supply. They decided to cut their output by 2.2 million barrels per day to try and get the price back in the $70 range.

You’ve heard me tell you before that if consumption runs short of supply, then the only way to balance the books is by raising the price. What have we seen? Gasoline at the pump has jumped back over $2 per gallon in many areas and is moving back up.

Next headline: On New Year’s Day, Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over prices and payments.

According to Reuters news service, “That has hit natural gas supplies to countries in eastern and southern Europe facing freezing temperatures and has worried European countries, which get one fifth of their gas through pipelines that cross Ukraine.”

Think about that: The Russian government is willing to force its customers to pay whatever price it sets by cutting off supplies; not threatening to cut off supplies, but by actually doing it in the coldest part of winter.

We don’t rely on Russia for our natural gas. We don’t import any of it, and we have plenty of our own natural gas supply.

The problem comes from that second headline – what happens if Iran and other Mideast and African countries decide to use oil as a weapon against us like Russia is using natural gas as a weapon against Ukraine?

I’m not making this up. Here is what the Iranian News Agency reported over the weekend:

"Pointing at Westerners' dependence on the Islamic countries' oil and energy resources, [Iranian leaders] called for cutting the export of crude oil to the Zionist regime's supporters the world over.”

Iran understands how to leverage our over-dependence on foreign oil. OPEC understands how to manage output. We are left without any weapons in this price war.

We have to remind our leaders in Washington that whether oil is a $50 a barrel or $150 a barrel it is the level of our dependence on foreign oil, not just the price, which puts us all at the mercy of unfriendly foreign governments and you don’t know when they will move against us.

-- Boone

P.S. If you haven’t yet joined your Pickens Plan District Group, click here to join today.