Activists shut down a rock mine--Palm Beach Aggregates--the company associated with public corruption of local PB county commissioners and which eyeonmiami has noted (see archive: rock mining).
What is really interesting about the local CBS affiliate TV news report is that "the very tense situation" has NO clips or close-up footage or interviews of the protesters. The only person given a feature spot in the clip is the FPL spokesperson, a former Miami Dade communications director who worked for Mayor Alex Penelas.
So I have a question: is the "alarming" and "tense" story about FPL "providing for the needs of future growth" in the midst of the biggest housing slump and market contraction in a century, or, is it about the complaints of environmentalists? Go to the link, and watch for yourself.
Whose side is the media on, do ya think? (To be fair, The Palm Beach Post does a fair job of reporting the various sides, but here too economic interests get the last word. The protesters demonstrate with "glee". The truck drivers need to make money. Ba-da-bing.)
Traffic moving again as arrests clear FPL protesters from truck site
By ROBERT P. KING
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 18, 2008
Trucks began leaving Palm Beach Aggregates about 1:30 p.m. after sheriff's deputies finished arresting 27 protesters who had blocked the entrance to the rock-mining company since 8:30 a.m., according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
The action by protesters, who oppose new FPL power plants near 20-Mile Bend, had left dozens of dump trucks idling by the side of the road and snarled traffic on Southern Boulevard west of Wellington.
In addition to about 80 Sheriff's Office personnel, about 30 Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue paramedics were at the scene, and at least one representative of the FBI, along two police dogs. Among the 27 arrested, was one person arrested earlier for wearing a mask on public property, which is illegal. Two of those arrested were treated for dehydration.
The arrests began about 10 minutes after police issued a dispersal order, calling on the protesters to leave the road, where about 10 had linked themselves together with duct tape and tubing.
Another 40 to 60 cheered the civil disobedience from a legal free-speech zone at the side of the road, and were not subject to arrest.
At one point, traffic heading west had been blocked at Southern Boulevard and Seminole Pratt-Whitney Road, with cars backed up at least a mile.
Among the protesters were children as young as six or seven. People banged drums, many with hand—painted signs on sheets bearing messages such as, "FPL: Don't Destroy Our Everglades."
Alex Larson of the Acreage, a longtime critic of the power plant, noted with some glee that they had not only managed to shut down Southern Boulevard, but also shut down Palm Beach Aggregates, the rock mining company that sold the plant site to FPL. Palm Beach Aggregates also is a major supplier of rock and gravel to the road and housing construction industry.
"This is shutting down construction, too," Larson said.
Many lay on the ground with arms locked together, as others marched with banners reading, "Don't Let FPL Poison the Everglades" and "FPL Stop Poisoning Us."
FPL has approval to build two 1,250-megawatt units of the West County Energy Center near 20-Mile Bend. Both are under construction and scheduled to open in 2009 and 2010. The company is seeking regulatory approval to build a third 1,250-megawatt unit, which would open in 2011.
Critics have questioned the effects of the plant, expressing environmental concerns. FPL says the West County Energy Center would be the cleanest power plant in the state and one of the cleanest of its kind in the nation.
Today's protest was called by the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition and Earth First, a radical environmental movement. Cara Jennings, a Lake Worth city commissioner who joined the protest, acted as intermediary between protesters and police.
Leonardo Garcia, one of the idled truckers waiting in line this morning to pick up rock, complained, "I'm not making any money today."
FPL has 692,000 customers in Palm Beach County. It expects to have 758,000 customers by 2012.
Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/02/18/0218protest.html
3 comments:
I don't get it.
I'm an environmentalist and I am not a fan of FPL, but these are a collection of natural gas power plants. It is a stupid business decision by FPL since the price of natural gas is continuing to spiral upward, but it is the cleanest choice of all except for renewables. There's no mercury, hardly any sulfur, the least amount of VOCs and the lowest volume of CO2 from a fossil fuel.
You can't get 4500 megawatts of power from a solar plant, so what other choice is there?
They can have the two new nukes from Turkey Point instead. I'll trade in a second.
I would agree... no nukes and use some gas... Make them throw in some sustainable installations too.
Old Enron was going to tap mount trashmore for gas.
There is a larger question here - why are we as a state looking for ways to increase our carbon output when we will suffer some of the worst effects of Global Warming? How can we ask the rest of the country and indeed the rest of the world (including the developing world) to halt their efforts to achieve just a fraction of the lavish modern lifestyle that the average Floridian lives, with our throw away plastics, huge SUVs, giant single occupancy suburban homes? Why should the environmentally aware Californian or New England resident help us pay for homeowners insurance or build a sea wall to starve off the effects of Global Warming if we fail to lead by example either thru personal choices or political efforts? FPL's conservation efforts are a greenwashing joke.
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