I cannot tell a lie, I went to Confront Head On. By Geniusofdespair

Eric Eikenberg of the Everglades Foundation gave Senator Anitere Flores an enormous boost of green-washing.

FPL was there to counter all the bad press about tainting and taking our water. Who are these guys anyway?

Rather than boycott like some did, I went to Commissioner Daniella Levine's Miami Dade Water Summit to confront Eric Eikenberry a.k.a Eric Eikenberg. Anyway I did confront him. I didn't say "You're an Asshole Eric Eikenberg" even I can't get those words out of my mouth even though I was thinking it. But I did ask him why he sent a letter to Hawaii praising the company, considering  how bad FPL/Next Error aka ERA is, in Florida. He said in the jointly signed letter:

NextEra Energy is a company that doesn't hesitate to tell it like it is. It is good at what it does, and it doesn't settle for shortcuts. It is a company you want on your side because you can count on it, and it will count on you to share your expertise with it. 

NextEra Energy has been a valued collaborator and supporter of our organizations for many years. We hope Hawaii has the same experience.

FPL (NextEra)  is a company that is now pumping 14 million gallons daily from the aquifer for the Nuke cooling canals (they were the hottest cooling canals in the country) and is causing salt water intrusion into our water according to rock miner scientists (of all people) and county officials. The rock miners cannot sell rock tainted with salt water. I should have asked:

So, Eric, tell us about FPL’s use of water in the Model Lands, how they've lowered the water table by a foot in the SE Coastal Everglades, and how great your partner FPL is for unraveling the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in the Biscayne Bay watershed.

FPL sent this to customers.

What I did say is why did you write that letter to Hawaii (considering Next Error as their power company) when FPL threatens our water with tritium (a marker of their waste water which proves they are causing the salt water intrusion) and I said some other dribble.

Eric said something about the letter and solar. That made me so angry, look at FPL's own chart. I said "solar is 1%". Actually I was wrong: It is really .1% of the company's source of energy.
(In the letter to Hawaii Eric said: Electric utility operations require lots of water, and the Everglades and other ecosystems need fresh water. So our organizations go out of the way to make sure that Florida utilities are efficient, thrifty with water and prioritize solar energy.) Really Eric, prioritize Solar .1%, and 14 million gallons of water a day?

At this point Daniella Levine Cava said I was off topic. Well, Eric put us off topic not me.

FPL got up and said something about how good their renewal record was. I of course didn't listen to them.

The thing that made me most angry was the green-washing of Republican Senator Anitere Flores who for one thing, voted for Florida Coastal offshore oil drilling in 2009. Eric Eikenberg put her on the panel and gave her plenty of speaking time asking her question after question. She is up for reelection and her challenger Andrew Korge was in the audience. He has been green from the get go. She has been green since her district was redrawn.

I said to Flores it is good to see you here because we never saw you before in all the years you have been in office. i.e. she never gave a shit about the environment until redistricting when she got a lot of green people in her district.

All in all, it was a good trip. I had to call out the Republican Everglades Foundation. They can like FPL if they want since they get funds from them, but my GOD that letter supporting them was over the top and a lie about solar. Besides, the Everglades Foundation sucks up to Republicans and gives them much needed voice to stay in power. Someone had to say: "You are an asshole". 

I am still looking for the Woman's name in this photo,  I wrote it down. She came from North Miami with her children. In the middle is Andrew Korge who is running against Antitere Flores for State Senator. I am giving him space because this was obviously made into an event to greenwash a Republican by the Everglades Foundation.

See Barry White's response to FPL full-page ad and remember what Eric said about their use of water to Hawaii  (So our organizations go out of the way to make sure that Florida utilities are efficient, thrifty with water):

Mr. Silagy, are we to ignore the up to 100 million gallons per day of freshwater from the L-31E canal which the South Florida Water Management District has authorized FPL to withdraw and the over one billion gallons of it which it has used to bring the canals down to a very low but ultimately unsustainable level?

And, while the tritium you speak of, at that level is of more subtle harm to humans (see below), it is very harmful to mollusks and other sea life. But, more importantly, as a tracer, it confirms, what has already been well
documented, that water from the Turkey Point Cooling Canal System, classified by the State of Florida as an industrial waste facility (IWF) into which FPL dumps every type of noxious chemical, including the cleansing chemicals for the reactors, is flowing not only to the west, but also to he east into Biscayne National Park and into the Biscayne Bay Estuary carrying with it ammonia and phosphorus.

The energy of the beta particle emitted during radioactive decay of tritium is the lowest energy of any radioactive isotope. This means that your dead skin cells will absorb the particle before is causes any damage to living tissue, so exposure to elevated (above natural) levels of tritium outside the body is not of much concern. However drinking water with elevated levels of tritium could be a cause for concern because then the beta particle produced during decay is adsorb by living human tissue where it can cause damage to cells.

Nitrogen (ammonia) and phosphate are two key nutrients required to fuel algal growth and phytoplankton blooms in aquatic ecosystems. Elevated beyond natural levels, nutrients harm seagrass beds and corals by promoting the growth of algae and microgalgae that smother sea grass and choke out light preventing effective photosynthesis and ultimately die-off of seagrass beds. In Southeast Florida, plant and algal growth in the bay ecosystems is phosphate-limited and reef ecosystems nitrogen-limited. Thus, in Biscayne Bay, our greatest concern would be unnatural elevation in phosphate in nearshore waters. Elevation in phosphate is predicted to foster algal blooms that damage or kill seagrass beds in Biscayne Bay, the health of which are critical for a functioning marine ecosystem. For this reason, the leaching or flushing of phosphate from the Turkey Point Cooling Canal System into Biscayne Bay appears to represent a direct threat to the marine ecosystem health of Biscayne National Park.

So, what your Miami Herald public relations full page ad, paid for by your stock holders according to the ad,  did not say is far more important that what it did say. 

Bottom line, with which FPL is well acquainted: the Turkey Point Cooling Canal System is an insult and tragedy to the Turkey Point Wetland and to the wild life and ecology of the entire area (crocodiles have abandoned the canals) by increasing salt water intrusion directly and indirectly, by threatening the water supply for the entire Florida Keys, the agricultural and rock mining interests, the fishing industry for which Biscayne Bay is the nursery, and befouling the freshwater supply for two million people. What part of FPL’s facts and pride does this fit into?

Barry J. White
President - Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, Inc/CASE - Miami