Friday, July 16, 2010

The Nuke Scoping Meeting Yesterday. By Geniusofdespair

I saw Candidate for County Commission District 8 Albert Harum Alvarez at the meeting and Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner said Eugene Flinn, also a candidate, was on his way to make a presentation with her -- Mayor solidarity. I had to leave early and did not hear any of them speak, however, I welcome any candidate to post the public statement they made yesterday. And, I would not welcome negative remarks from other campaigns if they do decide to post their testimony. I am thankful that some candidates showed up for this hearing. It is not only doing the talk, you have to do the walk, this nuke expansion is a big deal for District 8. I also understand that candidate's schedules are busy and there was a long wait to speak at this hearing, but if they did show up and spoke I will be glad to post what they said in a guest blog.

Does anyone know what Latin Builder Association Board Member Manny Rodriguez (pictured) was doing there? Found out Saturday from a reader that he is the Government Affairs employee for FP&L. He is also on the board of the LBA. Interesting. Marriage made in heaven.

7 comments:

Albert Harum-Alvarez said...

I was honored to join Lloyd Miller and others in opposing FPL's expansion.

I offered my advice as an owner of a business, and as the owner of a company which helps other companies make better business decisions. And I focused on two facts:

1. The only way to tell if the new reactors are a good investment is to compare them to other, simpler investments, such as efficiency or distributed power generation.

2. Spending $15 to $30 Billion or our own money to get 800 permanent jobs is a lousy investment in job creation.

A number of other speakers, including Mayor Lerner spoke strongly about the concerns with groundwater from the proposed radial wells. I seconded the three mayors' assertion that 100-foot utility poles will do nothing to improve the urban centers along U.S. 1.

It was a good session. I hope Lloyd Miller's first question, pointing out that a nuclear plant has never been denied based on a study like this, turns out not to be as ominous as it sounded.

Anonymous said...

How shortsighted, you seem to forget the 4,000 construction jobs for at least ten years. The dollars that retailers will see for goods and services, the inflow of cash to the area car dealers and real estate.

I know they use a lot of water, make them recycle it isn't that what county government is for? This is an investment in the area, sure FPL will make money, why is that a bad thing?

Hold them accountable every step of the way, reject tolerating any bad habits. Maybe a responsible candidate for commission would have said that, but we now have your words on the record.

They have successful conservation projects. American Crocodiles to name one.

Geniusofdespair said...

Boy, where did they dig you up, from the chamber of commerce?

Anonymous said...

Mishap at an offshore oil drilling rig; we now know what happens.
Mishap at a nuclear facility? Hmmm...

Fallout Boy said...

I laugh at anyone who calls another "shortsighted" for questioning the logic of TWO MORE nuclear reactors that will leave a PERMANENT stockpile of radioactive waste in our back yard.

Thanks to anyone who spoke about the dubious wisdom of pouring $20 BILLION of YOUR money into this boondoggle. Remember, you get to pay FPL up front and the government is backing the investment. Commercial banks won't touch this - the same banks that dumped tons of money into bad home loans aren't stupid enough to gamble on these things without the Federal Government socializing the risk.

And even if it did make 4000 construction jobs (which it won't - even FPL's bloated number is 2000) those jobs won't even start for two, maybe three years at the cost of $10,000,000 per job. I can think of 10,000,000 ways to create more jobs for that kind of scratch.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know that Manny was with the LBA. He's one of FPL's County lobbyist:

RODRIGUEZ, P.E., MANNY J
2010 Annual Registration: Submitted on 1/15/2010
Principal / Subject Registration Date / Status
FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY 6/9/2008
MISCELLANEOUS PERMITTING AND ZONING MATTERS TURKEY POINT UNITS 3 & 4 Open

FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY 6/9/2008
MISCELLANEOUS PERMITTING AND ZONING MATTERS TURKEY POINT UNITS 6 & 7 Open

FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY 5/17/2007
TURKEY POINT UNUSUAL USE APPLICATION Open

FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY 2/9/2004

Anonymous said...

I heard Gene Flinn at the meeting. I am glad the Mayors showed up. Attorney Gene Flinn is representing us well.