A majority of county commissioners now are against putting wind turbines at Blind Creek Park, which sends a "strong signal" to Florida Power & Light Co. they should reconsider the site, Commission Chairman Joe Smith said Friday. Commissioner Paula Lewis said Friday she is against FPL putting three wind machines on the state-owned land that is managed by the county. She said she was swayed by staff memos that said it would be impossible to replace the unique archaeological and ecological land lost at Blind Creek Park by the project. "Staff's input was there was no way to replace Blind Creek," she said. "It just isn't the place." ...Grande said he thinks it's still worth having a commission meeting devoted solely to the project and said he would definitely cast a vote one way or the other at that time. "If we turn it down, we should turn it down as quickly as possible," he said.

Opponents of Florida Power & Light Co.'s plan to put wind turbines on South Hutchinson Island still hope to have a large crowd at tonight's St. Lucie County Commission meeting even though a majority of commissioners have said they oppose building the turbines on public land. "We're trying to get our people out, but many have the impression we've already prevailed," said Julie Zahniser of the Save St. Lucie Alliance. ...Tonight's vote deals only with FPL's request for three wind turbines on the public conservation lands. FPL also wants to build six wind turbines on its own property at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant.

If a few people get their way, a few more windmills will dot the Broward landscape in the next few years -- more as a symbol of the county's agrarian roots and a nod to environmental sensitivity than a true alternative power source.

Two St. Lucie Nuclear Plant employees have raised safety concerns about wind turbines damaging the plant, but Florida Power & Light Co. officials maintain there is no danger. The concerns are raised in internal documents from FPL that were sent anonymously to County Attorney Dan McIntyre on Thursday. ...One of the messages recommends discontinuing the project on FPL property. A manager posted a response to the messages Aug. 23, noting the exact locations of the turbines still was to be determined and a safety study was underway.

A new study projects average wind speeds on Hutchinson Island would be strong enough for Florida Power & Light Co.'s wind turbine plan to work, the company announced Tuesday. The study was done by WindLogics Inc., a company owned by FPL Energy, a sister company to FPL. The findings project the average wind speed would be 13.8 mph, enough to generate 13.8 megawatts of power or enough electricity for about 3,600 people, according to a company news release. ...Julie Zahniser, head of the Save St. Lucie Alliance, and others opposed to the project said they believe there is not enough wind to make the turbines economically viable, that they would be built in an environmentally-sensitive location and that it's going to devalue local properties.

Large-scale power from the sun is finally gaining traction in Florida. And FPL is building solar plants in its home state, for the first time in the company's 79-year history. ...Though solar power is an expanding part of Florida Power & Light's agenda, the three new plants will generate far less power than conventional sources. After the three natural-gas units at West County Energy Center are complete in 2011, they will produce 3,750 megawatts of power - 34 times as much electricity as all three solar plants combined.

Three Florida Power & Light Co. wind turbines could be built amid human remains and Ais Indian artifacts that an archaeologist hired by St. Lucie County found in Blind Creek Park. Archaeologist Bob Carr called the area a "prehistoric cemetery," though only scattered bones and no skeletons were found. Ceramic pottery and shells also were discovered. "It was obviously a big campground," Mosquito Control Director Jim David said. "There clearly was camping and fishing and oystering there." ..."The survey was part of the state requirements before we removed exotic species with heavy equipment," David said.

The bulk of the $9.5 million raised in FPL's Sunshine Energy Program between 2004 and 2007 was paid to a contractor in Texas for salaries, office expenses, business travel, research, marketing and a public relations consultant to administer the program, according to the audit findings. Auditors estimated that the contractor, Green Mountain, has spent about $2.2 million - 25.9 percent - to purchase and develop renewable energy. ... The Public Service Commission's probe of the program began in September with requests to the company for documents and explanations. FPL repeatedly responded by filing records under seal, saying the requested documents were "proprietary business information" and "contractual vendor data."

For Barney Bishop, president of the Tallahassee-based Associated Industries of Florida, it's too much, too soon. "We're willing to go in the same direction the governor wants to go, but he wants to go 100 miles per hour, and we want to go 50 miles per hour," Bishop said. "They talk about, 'we can do this, we can do that,' but they just assume people are going to be willing to pay the costs." Bishop wants a cost-benefit analysis for the governor's plan, and argued that Florida won't benefit from any push to curb greenhouse gas emissions if the states around it don't do something similar.

Florida critics of offshore oil drilling say rigs would blight Gulf of Mexico vistas. So imagine a different kind of energy-harnessing rig looming over offshore waters: windmills hundreds of feet tall, with three-prong blades slicing through the sky to generate relatively pollution-free electricity.

The county commissioner who was most supportive of bringing wind turbines to the county is now against it. Commissioner Chris Craft, who encouraged Florida Power & Light Co. to look at the county for its wind turbine proposal, announced during Tuesday's commission meeting that he no longer supports the project. He said his decision wasn't based on the debate over public lands but on whether it would have a net positive effect for the environment. "I think this has been and will continue to be the most important issue we have debated on this board," Craft said.

St. Lucie County Commissioner Paula Lewis said Thursday that she won't support wind turbines in Blind Creek Park and became the third of five commissioners to speak against the project. "Conservation lands are just not the place for wind turbines," Lewis said. "I'm still pondering whether wind turbines should be allowed other places in the county." Lewis' decision means a majority of commissioners oppose the project and it would lose if the board voted today. It's not clear what effect commission rejection of the project would have on state reviews of Florida Power & Light's proposal.

At present, wind provides only 1 percent of U.S. electricity, but a federal report predicts the wind could be providing 20 percent of American power by 2030. ...But perhaps not in Florida. Though pleasant breezes sweep in from the ocean, several experts say the quality and location of those winds make it difficult, if not impossible, to generate much wind power here at a reasonable cost. Florida Power & Light, whose parent is the largest supplier of wind power in the nation, insisted for years it wouldn't build a wind farm in Florida because the state's breezes weren't strong enough. That changed last year when, under pressure from Gov. Charlie Crist and the public to move toward green energy, the utility announced plans for a small wind project near the Atlantic coast in St. Lucie County.

The St. Lucie County attorney is recommending against letting Florida Power & Light Co. build wind turbines on state land at Blind Creek Park because county conservation money was used toward buying the park. The recommendation is similar to one he made last year against allowing FPL to build turbines at Frederick Douglass and John Brooks parks, county-owned land that was purchased through bonds approved by voters for conservation purposes. FPL announced earlier this month that it was scrapping plans to put the machines at those parks, and would instead place six turbines on its own property at the St. Lucie Nuclear Plant and another three on an undeveloped parcel of state land at Blind Creek Park. ...Sharon Bennett, an FPL spokeswoman, said the company is reviewing McIntyre's recommendation, though she said some state officials have "offered a different opinion" about the legal status of the property. "We anticipate they will also be weighing in on the issue," she said.

Mr. Craft said between 200 and 250 people showed up at last week's county commission meeting in opposition to the wind turbines on Hutchinson Island, along with a "number of people who were for them." "I'm pretty sure that the further you get from Indian River Drive, the more support you find for the project, and we have to consider the wishes of the entire community," said Mr. Craft. "But obviously, we don't want there to be a negative impact on any group of people, and that's one of the things that is part of the process; to understand what these impacts are and, if there is a net environmental gain, whether these turbines lower people's property values." Mr. Craft said the commissioners must also consider the environmental issues that may be associated with wind turbines, such as the impact on sea turtles and trout spawning and the issue of birds flying into turbine propellers.

Gov. Charlie Crist said today he is talking to Florida Power & Light about finding another location for its proposed wind turbines, but the power company said it's sticking with St. Lucie County, at least for now. Crist said FPL should consider locations that "may not have the resistance we're seeing in St. Lucie County." Crist said he understands St. Lucie County residents want to make sure the land used for turbines is an appropriate location. "I can't disagree," Crist said. "I want to make sure it's appropriate too."

St. Pete Audubon has urged members to oppose Senate Bill 1506, because portions of that proposed legislation make it easier for power companies to run lines through public property. "The concerns were that it made it too easy for the utility companies to take land that belongs to all the people of Florida," says Kandz. ... "This is wild Florida, so we need to protect conservation lands at all costs," said Rinker. So while the power puzzle continues to take shape in Tallahassee, environmental activists say they'll continue to keep their guard powered up.

The bill would cut red tape for utilities seeking sites for new power plants and lines, provide grants for renewable energy development and offer limited tax incentives for solar energy devices, hydrogen powered vehicles and a pair of alternative fuels, biodiesel and ethanol.

Driscoll said the ocean energy has the potential to supply the world's energy demands thousands of times over, significantly reducing greenhouse gases within 10 years, and long-term, creating thousands of jobs for a highly skilled work force, changing the state from an energy importer to energy exporter. Research must still be done to determine the impact on sea life, he added.

Florida will adopt California's car-pollution standards -- the toughest in the nation -- and become the first state in the Southeast to enact targets for reducing greenhouse gases, under executive orders Gov. Charlie Crist plans to sign Friday in Miami. Drafts of the orders released Tuesday would require the state Secretary of Environmental Protection to immediately adopt rules to limit pollution-causing emissions for cars, diesel engines and electric companies. The orders also impose tough new energy conservation goals for state agencies, demand better fuel efficiency from state-owned vehicles and require state cars to ``use ethanol and biodiesel fuels when locally available.'' But the most optimistic step in Crist's green agenda is the requirement to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to 1990 levels by 2025, and reduce those levels by 80 percent by 2050, in spite of what is expected to be a near doubling of the state's population.