Did we just wave goodbye to last new Florida coal plant?

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http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/did-we-just-wave-goodbye-to-last-new-florida-coal-plant/1060413

Did we just wave goodbye to last new Florida coal plant?

By Robert Trigaux, Times Business Columnist
Posted: Dec 21, 2009 04:39 PM

It slipped by as a mere footnote last week. But the decision by Tampa's Seminole Electric Cooperative to cancel plans to build a coal-fired power plant to generate electricity might represent the death knell of coal plants in Florida.

Possibly ever.

"The Florida Public Service Commission is extraordinarily unlikely to approve another coal plant in Florida," says David Guest, an attorney in Tallahassee with EarthJustice, a so-called "ecological law firm" that fights against the use of coal and its heavy output of carbon dioxide to produce electricity. "The PSC realizes coal is not a good fuel for the future."

There are still 15 existing plants powered by coal in the state. But Seminole Electric's plant in Palatka was the last of a series of coal-fired plant proposals — ranging from one by the city of Tallahassee to another by the Orlando Utilities Commission — in the state to be canceled.

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