Crist's bold stand against polluters

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published July 7, 2007

Gov. Charlie Crist is doing more than just talking about his concerns over global warming; he is taking a stand. Just days before he hosts a high-profile summit on global warming in Miami, he shot down a plan for a coal-fired power plant in North Florida.

How refreshing it is to see a politician do more than just give lip service to the global warming challenge. Crist convinced a consortium of four utilities that their proposed 800-megawatt coal-fired plant was a bad idea, and the companies withdrew the plan. It wasn't the first setback for the utility industry, either.

Crist also objected to an even larger coal-burning plant Florida Power & Light wanted to build near Everglades National Park. With opposition to that plant bolstered by Crist's objections, the Florida Public Service Commission rejected the plant last month. And you might recall that Crist rejected a six-figure campaign check from FPL during his general election campaign after the company backed opponent Tom Gallagher in the primary.

While FPL and the others are batting zero with Crist, state residents should be heartened that a politician is actually doing something about global warming. While coal is the cheapest and most readily available fuel for generating electricity, it is also the dirtiest - by far. In addition to being the major domestic source of carbon-dioxide emissions, coal-fired plants are responsible for most of the sulphur-dioxide pollution (which causes acid rain) in the country, and are the main source of man-made toxic mercury in the environment.

Crist knows that Florida is particularly at risk from global warming because our long, low coastline could be washed away by rising sea levels. While turning down a few coal plants won't solve the worldwide problem, it is a step in the right direction. If Florida can't make a difficult decision to limit greenhouse gases, who can?

Now that Crist has said no to coal, he'll have to lead the way on promoting better energy efficiency and alternative fuels for generating electricity. That will require him to use his political skills to convince people to pay a little more now for their electricity so they can save a lot more than money later. We'll see if Crist is up to it, but so far he's off to a strong start.

[Last modified July 6, 2007, 22:32:50]