The Florida Cabinet, convening Tuesday for the last time with its current members and governor, approved a controversial biomass plant in Gainesville.
The wood-burning plant, known as the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, will serve 70,000 homes, creating 500 jobs during construction and bring in an estimated $5.5 million in property taxes, proponents contend. Opponents said the plant is not needed, that it is premature for the Cabinet to vote on it before it receives its Department of Environmental Protection air permit. They claimed the alternative energy source would actually end up emitting more carbon dioxide than a typical coal-natural gas plant.
Some environmental groups like the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Florida Wildlife Foundation, however, support the plant. Besides the benefit of added jobs, alternative energy plants will keep dollars circulating in the regional and statewide economy, rather than allowing them to go to other states and countries, they argue.
"It's obvious that your discussion and your action today is a recognition of the need to keep those energy dollars in the state. Sadly, some skeptics continue to generate doubt about the environmental friendliness of biomass," said Susan Glickman, a SACE representative.
For Gainesville Mayor Craig Low, the main benefit is the plant's economic impact of jobs and the potential of snatching millions of dollars in federal stimulus money. He also downplayed the criticism of opponents that the plant was kept under wraps as it moved through the system, evading public scrutiny during 30 public meetings in more than seven years.
"It is critical that this project move forward without delay so our citizens can reap the economic benefit and we can take advantage of the $200 million in federal funds," Low said.
But former Gainesville Mayor TomBussing chided the project as an unneeded boondoggle that will increase rates.
"I've constantly maintained that theno-build option is the cheapest form of energy. Potential bankruptcy is not in the best interests of the citizens. It is a question of balance of risk vs. need," Bussing said.
Crist and his fellow Cabinet members, however, sided with American Renewables, the company that will build the plant. Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson said he is tired of "faulty science" used as an excuse to stand in the way of growth.
"This issue is important because I watched two different types of facilities that were basically shouted down and shut down because of misleading and faulty science," Bronson said.
The meeting was Crist's last Cabinet meeting, along with Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and Bronson. Crist lost his independent bid for the U.S. Senate to Republican Marco Rubio, McCollum lost the race for the Republican nominee for governor to Rick Scott, who eventually defeated Sink, the Democratic nominee. Bronson, who did not run in the recent elections and is retiring to the private sector, seemed more pleased than his colleagues to be leaving public life.
"Quite frankly, I am ready to turn this over to the commissioner-elect (U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam) and let him have some fun," Bronson said.
The four Cabinet members will convene Thursday as the Florida Clemency Board, where they could grant posthumous clemency to The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison. The Melbourne native was arrested and charged with indecent exposure after a 1969 Miami concert. His case was being appealed when he died in 1971.
Reach Gray Rohrer at grohrer@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 727-0859.
