An Eye on Miami reader wrote:
Help in turning out residents from the communities along U.S. 1 -- from Pinecrest to Coconut Grove -- for a Public Meeting 7pm, March 2nd at South Miami City Hall, 6130 Sunset Drive to protest FPL's plans to run high-voltage power lines through our communities! Most folks don't know this, but FPL's preferred route for running 100-foot towers carrying 230-KV high-voltage powerlines north from Turkey Point to Miami and beyond is right up South Dixie Highway right alongside the Metrorail ... creating an incredibly unsightly gateway into all the business districts and neigbhborhoods along the way!
The high-voltage lines would run from Davis substation, located between SW 136th Street and SW 140th Street and west of the Turnpike Extension, all the way to the downtown Miami substation. Go to FP&L Website for info on the lines.
We are never afraid to stand up against FP&L and their crap, however, I wish this reader would be as angry over the prospect of two more nuke reactors at Turkey Point but I will take what I can get.The new Mayor in Pinecrest, Cindy Lerner, appears to be an intelligent public servant who is trying to address this power line blight (hit on her letter to enlarge it).
I understand your pain reader. Just look at these photos of what high tension lines did to the landscape in North Miami:
North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin said: THESE ARE THE OLD LINES, the new ones are 80 feet tall! I will have to go photograph them. I did, they are up at top of this post.
(Hit on photo to enlarge)
30 comments:
i wonder if those power lines are advance capacity building for the new nuclear reactors that haven't even been permitted yet. FPL ratepayers; you are all chumps for letting this corporation run roughshod over public health and the environment. Get involved, and protest.
Bravo to Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner! Now, let's see if South Miami Mayor Horace Feliu and the City Commission have the, er, cojones, to take a stand against FPL and say these lines go underground or they go nowhere!! Everyone and anyone up and down US-1 who's at all concerned should turn out for the March 2nd 7 pm public hearing at South Miami City Hall, on Sunset Drive one block WEST of US-1, and voice their concern!
Hey, anonymous, good thinking! Of course they are ... FPL itself has even officially called this transmission line project officially the "Turkey Point 6 & 7 Transmission Improvement Project." Don't believe it? See the FPL brochure on this online: http://www.fpl.com/environment/nuclear/pdf/transmissionFacts.pdf
So, first they lobby the politicians to get a power plant we don't want, then they ram the high-voltage lines through our neighborhoods! And, we pay for it with rate hikes every year !!!
Leaving aside safety issues, the biggest challege is cost.FPL and Progress Energy estimate $9 billion each for two new reactors; Progress Energy projects $8.5 billion. The Florida Public Service Commission gave the green light to both companies to recover full costs from the state’s ratepayers irrespective of whether the plants ever get built. We foot the bill on this one. We take on the safty issues.Nuclear power facilities are at-risk targets. It's just not a good idea to build this in the first place..let alone to have to deal with the aesthetics of it right down US1. I'm stepping up! I'll be at The South Miami City Commission this Monday!
Unless I am mistaken, Horace Feliu and the vice mayor of homestead spoke in support 0f FPL and the new nukes at the State Florida Public Service Commission hearing last year when it was held at the Downtown Campus of Miami Dade College...only some 40 odd miles away from where the people who will have to live with it are. And then, the same commission held the next hearing in Tallahassee, I guess 40 miles wasn't far enough away from South Dade and any complaints about the nukes.
Come to the Public Hearing! Monday, March 2nd @ 7pm
City Commission Chambers South Miami City Hall. 6130 Sunset Drive. South Miami, Fl. 33143
Don't pressume someone else will fight for you. Take a stance it's YOUR voice. This affects all of MIAMI!
These huge poles are not for supplying electricity to our neighborhoods, they’re to facilitate the expansion of FPL’s network in Central & Northern Florida & beyond so their shareholders get higher dividends. FPL is willing to disfigure our neighborhoods.
STOP THEM!! Come to meeting in South Miami City Hall, Mon, March 2,7pm
New petitition now out there to STOP FPL's high-voltage lines coming up US-1 at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/STOPFPL
plus, express your support for Palm Beach environmentalists trying to stop Everglades encroachment by FPL's West County Energy Center at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NoRiverofGas/signatures.html
When has Horace Feliu ever stood up for the people?? The people do not have big pockets. Do not depend on your politicians, they have let us down over and over. Let's stand up and preserve our neighborhoods for our children. I urge everybody to come on Monday to the workshop at South Miami City Hall.
Not only are these poles unsightly, unhealthy, and unnecessary, they will also cause property values to drop.
Unsightly poles and nukes are a concern. I love the idea of burrying them, if possible (the lines, that is).
Just for kicks, listen to what the President of Fed Ex said today in a speach (go to CSPAN). He was talking about energy, the need for short term transportation, battery powered electric cars that can go 40 miles or so before switching over to fuel). This type of transportation uses 40% of our fuel in the country (or so he says).
O wants to connect a massive grid. We have to get off fossil fuel. Drilling off shore is a concern. So...what is the answer here?
I would love to hear the nukes debate again. If we can fix the water usage issue...do those nukes make sense? Are we all going to be driving electric cars i ten years? Yeah, it would be great if they could burry the lines or run them right through the center of where the other power lines are on the existing easements...however, those easements can make good parking lots for mass transit in some areas too. Lots of good ideas here.
Love to hear your thoughts bloggers.
In Western Europe all the transmission lines are underground in urban areas. What is different here?
I am also opposed to the transmission lines that will be going up right in front of Everglades National Park. I am not expert but wouldn't this affect the ability for birds to fly back and forth from the coast to the park?
And we have many birds migrating through this area!
FPL will also need massive amounts of water and fill for construction that Florida cannot afford to sacrifice.
No, we are going to have to try to get more creative on efficiency and producing energy in this state!
Oh, and just in case you were not aware.... we are paying now, for the construction of this plant even if it never happens.
Not a very good investment for Florida, no bank would loan money for this right now….why should we.
Fifteen Top Reasons Why Only an Idiot Would Want a 230 Kilovolt Power Pole in His Backyard
By Bob Welsh a/k/a Bobnoxious and Walter Harris
15. Nobody will be able to take your sneakers, tie the shoelaces together and throw them
over these power lines.
14. A blind dog will find it hard to miss this target.
13. Dixie Highway will be more easily located by the hum.
12. Rain will have a beautiful yellowish glow.
11. One small step for man; one giant step backward for Manor Lane (South Miami’s old access road).
10. So helicopters won’t buzz your house as much.
9. So five kids can stand side-by-side and play hide and seek behind the poles.
8. Your son’s spiked Mohawk hair-do can be ready for the heavy metal concert in half the time.
7. So Andean condors can spot them from 15,000 feet and have a place to rest-up on their way home to South America.
6. So you can hear snap-crackle-pop without having to eat a tasteless cereal like Rice Krispies.
5. In these hard economic times, the power companies will provide an endless stream of campaign contributions to politicians who speak in their favor.
4. So they will be eighty feet above the waves when global warming puts twenty feet of water n top of Miami.
3. So the half-a-million people the County wants to settle on the US1 corridor won’t have to spend any money on solar.
2. Because they’re South Florida’s version of the Sequoia tree.
1. So that nearby residents can pick up radio signals from Kyrgykistan.
But the really best reason why only an idiot would want a 230 kilovolt transmission line in his backyard is so they can provide enough power for twenty times the irresponsible growth that we have seen happen in downtown Miami, when the present stock of unoccupied condos hasn’t even a snowball’s chance in hell of ever getting sold in twenty years.
The small City of South Miami (2 sq miles) appears to be the disproportional focus of a large number of these proposed 230 kV transmission line routes? Does anyone have an explanation as to why?
Bobnoxious hit it right on the head.
By the way your Mayor in South Miami, Horace Feliu, spoke in favor of the nuclear power plant at the Florida Public Service Commission. He said that nobody in his City has a problem with it.
Bob and Walter, where were you then?
FPL has many options to run their power lines. They could run them along the expressways or utilize their easements which they are currently using. Coral Gables, South Miami, and Coconut Grove need to join Pinecrest. Their is power in unity.
NextGenPolitico
We need to put out the names of the politicians who are supporting this lobbying from FPL. They must learn that there are political consequences to their support. Otherwise, large spending corporations such as FPL will continue controlling our government.
MASSIVE poles have recently gone up along SW 144 Street, east of US-1in Palmetto Bay.It seems this was done with nary a whimper from the neighborhood or city government. How did that happen?
REMINDER!
Public hearing Tomorrow Monday 7PM!
South Miami City Hall!
Bring your posters and signs that express your opinion!
People of Miami come together!
See you tomorrow.
Don't hate me but: The route they are proposing down Bird Road is much much worse.
Great suggestion NextGenPolitico!
Turns out that South Miami Mayor Feliu's 2008 Campaign Finance Report is a rather interesting read. Other than being chock full of Baptist Health/South Miami Hospital officers and directors who felt compelled to pony up huge campaign contributions to His Honor, there are an unusually large number of folks whose listed addresses are within a stone's throw of FPL's north Palm Beach headquarters (courtesy of MS Virtual Earth) who had the overwhelming urge to send large campaign contributions 90 miles south into the Mayor's bulging campaign coffers.
Perhaps 230 kilovolt transmission lines festooning every thoroughfare in the city will be Mayor Feliu's ultimate legacy to the resident's of South Miami.
Genius, agree the proposed Bird Road route is equally horrendous.
That route comes up the old East Coast Railroad tracks along three South Miami schools (elementary, middle and high school!!) up to Bird Road and then dog legs right through the Gables back to US-1 ... Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, the Gables and Coconut Grove would still be negatively impacted.
But, rumor has it that CG Mayor Don Slesnik won't stand for the Bird Road route and has offered "no resistance" to FPL for the straight US-1 route through the Gables from Red Road to Douglas Road to FPL. Note that the poles are already in place in front of UM and along Ponce ... those would be restrung to accomodate the higher voltage transmission lines.
Can't Maria Anderson or one of the other candidates in the Gables race raise this as an issue?
The only real solution is to force FPL them to bury the lines or put them back onto the existing right-of-way along the Don Shula Expressway.
Come on "anonymous" and/or "you betcha" ... cough it up? Who's got that campaign finance report mapped against MS Visual Earth ... that needs to be shared!!!
100+ people attended the hearing in South Miami Monday night, dozens spoke and all against the power lines, asking them to be buried or the project abandoned.
Herald reporter was there, so look for a story in the Thursday Gables/S. Miami neighbors section ...
Councilman Scott Galvin reported today:
Rep. Ron Brise' Files Bill to Protect Communities in FPL Situation!
I am very excited to learn today that State Rep. Ron Brise' has filed a bill in Tallahassee that would protect communities like ours when faced with utility issues like the one North Miami faced in 2007. Back then, FPL decided to run 80-foot-tall Transmission Lines through the heart of our city and we could do nothing to protest.
Thanks to the activism of people like you, Rep. Brise' has risen on our behalf! He has just filed "House Bill 1315 - Construction of Electric Transmission Lines." Click this link to read it in detail:
HB 1315
If the State Legislature passes it, local communities would have options available to fight utility companies like FPL! We owe Rep. Brise' a great deal of thanks for being brave enough to file this Bill. No doubt, it will incur the opposition of FPL.
This issue is not only a south miami issue. It is a health issue as well. These lines are proposed to travel up US1 or rails to trails. The US1 route will take it in the vicinity of Pinecrest, South Miami, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, City of Miami, and Brickell areas. As many said during the South Miami workshop our current nuclear plant is running at 60%. This does not show a need for more production at turkey point.
FPL never considered the expressways as alternative routes. Since they are a publically traded company there only concern appears to be to maximize their profits.
The sad issue is how FPL has gone about quieting the residents. Their tactic to lobby Mayor Feliu of South Miami with possible campaign contributions makes me wonder who else did they pay and was it limited to campaign contributions. We need true investigations into this and we need to stop FPL and also discourage this lobbying tactic.
It is obvious that "Anonymous" has a political axe to grind against Mayor Horace Feliu. Either a looser of a campaign against him or a loud mouth that was rececently kicked out one of his meetings. Mayor Feliu sponsored and passed the only resolution that makes sense. His resolution requests that our state legislators amend the Statute to include EMF's as a reason to prevent transmission lines from going down corridors that include residential areas and schools thereby eliminating the Rails to Trails, Bird Rd and US1. This change will make it easier to win a judicial hearing.... Talking tough and loud doesn't mean you have "Cojones". Anyone who knows Feliu knows he doesn't have a problem in that category. There are individuals including government agencies that wish they hadn't made the mistake of underestimating him. By the way Feliu supports clean energy and any form of energy that will quickly free us from dependency on foreign oil. Anyone that has done some research knows that wind, sea and solar are not quite there yet when it comes to megawatt production required by South FL.
Mayor Feliu voted against two other resolutions that would send a direct and clear message to FPL as well as the PSC that the City of South Miami oppose these lines coming through the city. With so many paid off politicians this type of action makes one wonder. I guess Feliu kept his promise not to oppose FPL until oooops it is too late.
But people let's show Feliu and FPL that it is not too late. Now is the time to add pressure.
Horace Feliu is up for re-election in Feb. 2010. Wonder if FPL is giving him campaign contributions again! This guy is just for too long in politics and rumor has it that he will also run for the school board in late 2010. Does he even have a job??
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