Letters to the Editors

Pollution is reason to reject power plants

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 3, 2000

Re: Open state's electric avenue, editorial, April 28.

The author of this editorial has obviously never flown in a small plane over St. Petersburg on a calm morning. Had he or she done so, the editor would have observed a land covered by a blanket of smog with a well-defined upper edge. Above this blanket is clear blue sky. Below is a purple haze fed by the smokestacks of the area's various power plants. One can readily observe the cause and effect from this high vantage point. There are days when the smog never dissipates.

It is hard to believe that any consumer would knowingly allow more smog to be introduced into the air to generate power sold to another locale for profit. I highly doubt the good people of New Smyrna Beach wish to see their skies darkened for the purpose of allowing a private entrepreneur to sell electricity elsewhere. Would you want such a plant in the Tampa Bay area?

There are also hidden costs to consider, such as the increased respiratory ailments and attendant medical expenses. Any respiratory specialist will tell you how hard these emissions are on patients. These patients would in effect subsidize this private activity through their increased medical expenses. We would all subsidize this activity to some degree through a forfeiture of an otherwise cleaner environment.

The opinion of the Florida Supreme Court putting the kibosh on Duke Energy's proposal was right on the money.
-- James A. Byrne, St. Petersburg

TECO's position

The Times' editorial on electric restructuring (Open state's electric avenue) inaccurately lumps TECO Energy together with Florida Power & Light and Florida Power Corp. as being opposed to restructuring. To the contrary, TECO Energy:

Has actively supported legislation to form a comprehensive energy policy study commission.

Continues to support the formation of such a commission through legislative or executive action and has written Gov. Jeb Bush to encourage it.

Did not support a call for a legislative moratorium on the construction of merchant plants during the study period.

The recent decision by the Florida Supreme Court, which held that the Florida Public Service Commission lacked the authority to approve the Duke Energy merchant plant as proposed, underscores precisely the need for a comprehensive and thoughtful legislative approach to these issues.

As the state's energy needs continue to grow, merchant power plants are one of the potential ways to meet those needs. But in addressing growing needs, Florida must also look at related issues, including environmental, fiscal and tax-related concerns. These issues must be addressed comprehensively, independently and with all stakeholders represented, which is why an energy policy study is so critical for Florida's energy future.

Whatever that future looks like as a result of the study, our company will continue to take a leadership role.
-- Richard Lehfeldt, senior vice president-external affairs, TECO Energy, Inc., Tampa

Stop water hook-ups during drought

My lawn is nearly dead. My cars are dirty. My ornamentals are wilting. This I can accept. I can accept the destructive effects of the forces of nature. What I cannot accept are the destructive effects of the forces of politics. Water is the issue. It is essential and shall remain the issue until it is resolved or overcome by events. It should be in the headlines daily, including who is helping and who is hurting the situation.

Our politicians don't seem to have the will to do what they can about this. They fear placing a moratorium on building because they fear being blackmailed by the legal threats of developers who more often than not seem to be also politicians and their friends. These people will claim they are being deprived of the use of their property even though without water and sewer service the highest and best use of a property might well be as a sandlot for neighborhood baseball games or a storage lot for the recreational vehicles that sit idle due to gasoline prices.

Let those who have no concern for the quality of life in this area continue to build on new land while gigantic urban tracts sit in decay. Simply deny them water and sewer hook-ups until it has rained daily for two years or however much rain it takes to replenish the groundwater supplies and restore the losses of the people who already live here. Has the government "taken" my lawn? No. Drought has. And drought is the reason there should be no new water hook-ups. Let the developers sue the clouds. Let them build with the caveat that they have to bring their own water or wait until there is plenty available.
-- David J. Hastings, Gulfport

Overdevelopment is the cause

Re: Swiftmud expands limits on watering, April 26.

When is this going to stop? There is no question that we face a serious water shortage here. So, in typical fashion, the defenseless, average citizen has to pay for the problem by curtailing the use of water.

Why don't the authorities attack the cause of the problem -- relentless, uncontrolled overdevelopment? Every tree, grassy area, wetlands, etc., that developers destroy and replace with concrete or buildings means less water goes into the ground to add to the wells and aquifers and runs off instead. Experts have suggested that the loss of greenery decreases the rain.

But the worst part is that the more development there is, the more people will move in to use the water, and the demand on the already short supply will increase.
-- J. Eric Jordan, Seminole

Too many are naive about communism

I was appalled at the majority of readers who recently expressed their approval of Janet Reno's heavy-handed abuse of her authority. I think too many cozy Americans have no idea just how bad conditions are in other countries, especially communist countries. Given the fact that a large percentage of Cuban youth are forced into prostitution for survival (both girls and boys), any father who really cared about his kid would be glad to get him out of that scene.

Your readers don't seem to grasp the fact that these people are literally tying inner tubes together and heading out into an endless horizon of deep water knowing that their chances of success are not very good. Meanwhile, on the shores they are so desperately seeking to reach, free Americans can't even pry their butts out of the couch long enough to go vote. Many of them wanted to see Elian go back just so the television networks could get on with their regularly scheduled dosage of intellectually deprived tripe.

Then you have the liberal socialists, who have been trying to dismantle the family institution and its associated religions for 40 years, suddenly pontificating about the importance of a son being reunited with his biological father. According to Hillary Clinton, "it takes a village" to raise your kid, but I guess Miami doesn't count.

At least we can be fairly certain Elian will be spared the harsh life of his fellow citizens. With all the cameras that will be following him around for the next 20 years keeping tabs on his fate, Castro will make sure Americans don't get a biography of the typical Cuban citizen. Elian will become a propaganda piece to show Americans how "great" Cuban life is under communism.

The pathetic part is all those Americans watching Elian go to college on 60 Minutes 12 years from now will still be clueless -- except for those living in Miami, of course. Sometimes I think the people who fought to get into this country deserve to live here more than the complacent natives who see nothing wrong with a SWAT team being used in a warped child-custody case.
-- Kyle Kepley, Odessa

U.S. loses moral high ground

You must be uncorking the champagne to celebrate the victory of the vile Clinton-Reno-Castro troika. After all, communism has not had a victory for a very long time.

After the spectacle of the thugs of the Clinton Justice Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service using Gestapo tactics to violate the home of a harmless family, the United States has lost now and forever the right to sermonize and moralize to the rest of the world.
-- Mario C. Rodriguez, St. Petersburg

Miami ill-served by its mayor

I find it interesting that while Little Havana was in chaos from outraged Cuban-Americans, Miami's Mayor Joe Carollo -- a Cuban-American himself -- let the chaos continue and used media coverage to vent his own frustrations over Elian Gonzalez's removal instead of telling the press how he and his fellow government leaders were going to prevent mass rioting and demonstrations.

Now, less than a week after Elian's removal from South Florida, Mayor Carollo fires his city commissioner and forces the police chief to tender his resignation to cover up the mayor's passion over the Elian case and the fact that he turned a blind eye to his city as it erupted in anger.

Carollo is using his power to fight a fight that he has no jurisdiction over (Elian's staying in the United States), and he has neglected the city that elected him. That should be grounds for removal from office: the fact he cares too much about a little boy and the interests of hard-line Cuban-Americans and not enough for the millions of other residents that have to live and work in Miami-Metro region.
-- John Fontana, Palm Harbor

Miami madness

The lunatics are running the Miami asylum! First Miami-Dade's boy mayor, Alex Penelas, states that local law enforcement will give the feds no cooperation in taking legal custody of Elian. Next, Gov. Jeb Bush, hiding in Tallahassee, is derelict in his duty by failing to remove from office a mayor who publicly states that he will not cooperate with the federal government in a legal action.

Now, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo fires city manager Donald Warshaw, a professional with 29 years experience, because Warshaw refuses to fire Miami police Chief William O'Brien for both cooperating with the feds in carrying out a lawful order (with a search warrant) and not notifying him in advance. I wonder how huge the mob outside might have been had the police chief notified the mayor when he received the one-hour advance notice.

I think it was good police work in not doing so, for we can't know how dangerous a larger and forewarned mob might have been.
-- Joseph F. Bohren, Tampa

Don't let facts get in the way

Re: Reno should be out, letter, April 27.

The letter writer is correct. Janet Reno should be out. The actions taken at Ruby Ridge were wrong. That she was responsible for those actions in 1992 while she was not the attorney general and George Bush was president shows that she went beyond her authority and acted prematurely.

Don't ever let facts get in the way of an attack on this attorney general or this administration.
-- Albert Sampsell, Largo

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