The hardcore environmentalists at Everglades Earth First sure know how to push FPL's buttons. All year, they've been waging a court battle against construction of a new power plant in Palm Beach County (right across the street from a wildlife refuge!). Today, they picked another fight with the energy giant, suggesting that FPL is killing thousand-year-old cypress trees and trying to hide it. About 30 years ago, FPL bought the 455-acre Barley Barber swamp area -- a pristine swath of land ho
Courtrooms can be such staid places -- so we love it when people treat judicial proceedings as interactive theater events. This January, an environmental activist named Stevie Lowe went to the site of the Barley Barber Swamp, an ancient cypress forest, and locked herself to a tree. The reason? Florida Power & Light, which controls this land adjacent to its Martin County power plant, shut down access to the area after September 11, 2001, citing security concerns. Lowe and her friends from Eve
Radio Green Earth: Making the world safer for tree frogsBet you thought South Florida was a lot more likely to win accolades for "best strip malls" or "extra egregious decimation of natural wildlife" than for anything much greener than development dollars. But it turns out Florida is among the top states in the nation when it comes to a clean, green energy economy, according to a study released last month by the Pew Charitable Trust. And we're also among the top ten states for jobs in the gre
Thanks for that, Smithers. Now that we're in the midst of the public hearings on whether to build two new nuclear power plants on Turkey Point, Florida Power & Light is asking you to think of nuclear power as an adorable, avuncular, and perfectly harmless cartoon character.Keep Smilin' Joe Fission in mind, especially if your thoughts should wander toward questioning why you should help pay for $18 billion nuclear plants in a region whose population is shrinking and using less energy. Becaus
Flickr user: andjohanWind farm? NIMBY!You'd think Bill Koch might be a fan of wind energy. The billionaire Palm Beach energy magnate made some of his fortune off eco-friendly geo-thermal and natural gas power plants. He's also an avid sailor who won the America's Cup in 1992.But it appears that when he's on dry land, Koch's fondness for wind falters. For the past several years he's poured more than $1.5 million into blocking the construction of America's first offshore wind farm because, well
Flickr user: andjohanYesterday, The Juice brought you the tale of Bill Koch, the Palm Beach billionaire energy mogul who has spent millions of dollars to oppose an offshore wind farm that will sully his view of Nantucket Sound. We speculated that Koch's opposition might have something to do with the fact that his company, the Oxbow Group, mines coal and sells petroleum waste.Today, Koch's West Palm Beach spokesman, Brad Goldstein, called to yell at us
Flickr user: andjohanOne of Palm Beach billionaire Bill Koch's main objections to a proposed offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound -- which he has spent millions of dollars fighting -- is that it will require tax breaks to succeed. As the Juice reported earlier today, Koch has claimed that the annual $100 million in tax subsidies will be passed on to customers in the form of higher electric bills.This is a delightful bit of math for a couple of reasons. First, because the coal industry -- whi
