Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s very public worries about greenhouse gas emissions have led a group of utilities to suspend permitting activities for a proposed 800 MW coal plant in the state, at least until after Crist’s upcoming summit on global climate change.

The future of the Taylor Energy Center (TEC), planned as a pulverized coal power plant with a supercritical boiler design incorporating state-of-the-art emission controls, located on approximately 3,000 acres in central Florida’s Taylor County, will not be known until after the “Serve to Preserve Florida Summit on Global Climate Change,” TEC officials said July 5.

A four-member consortium — the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA), Jacksonville Electric Authority, the city of Tallahassee and the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which provides electricity to Walt Disney World — has already spent $14.6 million on the proposed plant, which it planned to bring online by 2012. TEC would have provided as much as 25% of Disney’s future energy needs. Reedy Creek currently produces as much as 55 MW at a gas-turbine power plant at Disney World and purchases the necessary balance to provide the theme park with a total of 120 MW of power.

Crist announced in March that he will host the summit July 12-13 in Miami, bringing together state, regional, national and international leaders in global climate change and members of the business and environmental communities, “to explore methods for advancing the global climate change agenda and for adopting specific climate action plans.” Topics of sessions will include clean and renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation, efficient transportation and land use, agriculture and forestry conservation and success stories relating to reducing carbon emissions. Keynote speakers will be California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Theodore Roosevelt IV. According to the governor’s office more than 450 participants have registered.

“We look forward to the Florida Climate Change Summit this month hosted by Gov. Charlie Crist,” TEC project manager Mike Lawson said. “We are eager to further discuss workable solutions to meet the energy demands of Florida’s citizens.”

Lawson said freezing the permitting process will give the utilities time to assess how they can meet customers’ electricity needs in ways consistent with growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our mission is to provide reliable power at an affordable price in an environmentally responsible manner. We believe the state-of-the-art technology we proposed would satisfy those objectives; however, growing concerns about climate change have raised questions that must be addressed thoughtfully,” Lawson said. “Rather than push forward, it’s more important that we work with state leaders to craft an energy plan for Florida.

Since entering office in January, Crist has made several comments that TEC officials say indicate a new attitude towards energy production in the state. In June, Crist said he supported a decision by the Florida Public Service Commission that denied a request by Florida Power & Light to build two coal plants in Glades County. In his 2007 state of the state speech, delivered in March, Crist blamed the rising number and intensity of hurricanes in recent years, and the attendant increase in insurance premiums, on global warming.

“With almost 1,200 miles of coastline and the majority of our citizens living near that coastline, Florida is more vulnerable to rising ocean levels and violent weather patterns than any other state. Yet, we have done little to understand and address the root causes of this problem, or frankly, even acknowledge that the problem exists,” Crist said during the March address, his first speech as governor. “No longer. Following this legislative session, I will bring together the brightest minds to begin working on a plan for Florida to explore groundbreaking technologies and strategies that will place our state at the forefront of a growing worldwide movement to reduce greenhouse gases. Florida will provide not only the policy and technological advances, but the moral leadership, to allow us to overcome this monumental challenge.”

TEC spokesman Mark McCain said Crist and other state officials “have given every indication that they are preparing to announce a new strategy to address Florida’s energy future. We’re just going to have to wait to see how they will address that, and how we can best prepare to supply our customer’s energy needs.”

McCain said he was not prepared to talk about the TEC’s future but said there are currently no plans to reopen the permitting process.

“It is an indefinite suspension of the permitting process,” McCain said.

The consortium filed plans for the facility, originally envisioned as a 765 MW supercritical coal-fired power plant, with the Florida Municipal Power Agency in September, 2006. The application said there were no reasonably available conservation or demand side management measures that would mitigate the need for the proposed power plant. The group had planned to file a site-certification application this year, with construction to begin in 2008 to achieve the planned commercial operation date of May 2012.

The decision to suspend permitting activities must be confirmed by the governing boards for the four municipal electric utilities that are working together on the project.

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