Subject: Utilities Sector

• A Dull Post About Plantation Garbage

  May 24, 2007

• Crist's Secrecy Prompts Suit

  August 1, 2008

• If at First You Don't Succeed, Get Hired by the City Again

  May 14, 1998

• Best Place To Bird-Watch

  March 11, 1999

• Best Freshwater Fishing

  March 11, 1999

• Best Topography

  May 17, 2001

• FPL vs. the Environment, again

  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

  January 5, 2009

• Best Place to Canoe

  May 16, 2002

• Cattle Decapitation

  January 20, 2005

• Create Green Jobs? Can We Save 'Em First?

  Last August, when the presidential race was a toss-up and the the stock market was not yet gyrating, Barack Obama's campaign released this paper, which promised that as president he would create five million "green jobs."Not many, it seemed, would be in the recycling industry. The word "recycle" doesn't even appear in that 8-page paper. Probably because it's the one aspect of green living that Americans have mostly adapted to. Even in Broward County, which has an atrocious record for recycling,

  January 26, 2009

• Letters for March 31-April 6, 2005

  March 31, 2005

• This Blog Will Now Save Broward Schools a Few Million Bucks

  Today's Herald quotes Broward school officials who say that in this year's budget talks, "everything is on the table." That might mean fewer high school sporting events or no more bus rides to magnet schools. Or even cutting one class out of the students' daily schedule. Desperate measures for desperate times, right?Right. So it will be fascinating to see whether in this climate of allegedly ruthless cost-cutting, Broward School Board members finally take a hard look at the district's trash bill

  January 28, 2009

• Best Power Couple

  May 12, 2005

• Rambo and the Phantom

  Investigating a gun-slinging city commissioner and the mayor who hides in the bathroom

  December 6, 2007

• Kick the Bottle

  August 14, 2008

• Sunday Reading: The Wayne Huizenga Story

  I just happened on this classic written by Steve Almond in 1994 about South Florida's hard-driven, complicated, and sometimes brutal mogul.  Uh, it jumps.   Citizen Wayne - The Unauthorized Biography A college dropout and the product of a broken home, H. Wayne Huizenga rose to become the King Midas of South Florida. His formula for success? A dash of hard work and perseverance, and a lot of hitting below the belt. by Steven AlmondMiami New Times Vol. 9, No. 33 (Decemb

  March 1, 2009

• Tree-huggers mobilize to stop FPL from building Everglades power plant

  November 6, 2008

• Deck the Halls With Waste and Folly

  Just don't ask too many questions about a sweetheart trash contract in Florida's most complacent city

  December 21, 2006

• Deck the Halls With Waste and Folly

  Just don't ask too many questions about a sweetheart trash contract in Florida's most complacent city

  December 14, 2006

• Tailpipe

  Davie Squeeze

  May 5, 2005

• Pickpocketing the Public: Part 1

  The "renewable energy" program you're chipping in for spews the same old pollutants

  March 10, 2005

• Stagebeat

  December 9, 2004

• We've Got the Power

  A legendary producer wants to make Fort Lauderdale a hit factory

  October 28, 2004

• Don't Drink the Water, Part IV

  Pompano's top man still needs to be flushed from office

  October 16, 2003

• Don't Drink the Water III

  An underling becomes the sacrificial lamb, but Bill Flaherty must go

  August 21, 2003

• Taking Stock of Bob Graham

  The South Florida senator and presidential candidate wheels and doodles

  June 26, 2003

• Don't Drink the Water

  A deceptive city manager. A Machiavellian administrator. An incompetent lab director. Are the Pompano taps to be trusted?

  March 13, 2003

• Awful Fishy

  For Broward's canal fisherman, potentially toxic levels of mercury are a part of the catch of the day

  April 27, 2000

• Postcards From the Edge

  Peace and quiet, great fishing, tax-free land. Welcome to the Everglades, where "hunt camps" are enjoying a new lease on life.

  July 17, 1999

• Postcards From the Edge

  Peace and quiet, great fishing, tax-free land. Welcome to the Everglades, where "hunt camps" are enjoying a new lease on life.

  July 8, 1999

• De Groot: Broward County Is Full Of Garbage

  The latest from John de Groot, the king of interesting statistics. Here you have a lifetime's supply of information about trash. No wonder the mafia loves the carting business so much.   And you thought that smell was coming only from our politicians?   It jumps.  --------------------------------------------------------   Serious Shit In Earth Day Aftermath; Ala the Late George Carlin By John de Groot           

  April 27, 2009

• You're Invited! Environmentalist on Trial for Chaining Herself to Tree

  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

  June 18, 2009

• 49 States Green With Envy Over Florida's Environmental Progress

  Radio Green Earth: Making the world safer for tree frogs​Bet 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

  August 3, 2009

• Nuclear Energy: South Florida's Misunderstood Friend

  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

  September 9, 2009

• Palm Beach Billionaire Sailor Fights to Stop Wind Farm

  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

  October 8, 2009

• Koch's Spokesman: Wind Farm is a "Boondoggle"

  Flickr user: andjohan​Yesterday, 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

  October 9, 2009

• Palm Beach Billionaire Koch Likes Tax Subsidies, Too

  Flickr user: andjohan​One 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

  October 9, 2009