The Crist/Sole angle on this story is also interesting.
Posted on 06/17/2008 1:37:26 PM PDT by I got the rope
Last week’s legal victory for Seminole Electric over state regulators was a slam dunk, a review of the unanimous Fifth District Court of Appeals decision shows.
The judges said Friday that the denial by Michael Sole, the state Department of Environmental Protection secretary, of a permit to expand the Palatka coal-fired power plant was unfounded.
And the court ordered Sole to issue the permit, called a site certification.
“Despite lengthy factual discussion preceding our analysis, the resolution of this case is quite simple,” the court’s ruling says. “In short, the (DEP) secretary had no legal basis to deny certification of Seminole’s unit 3 given the parties’ stipulations in this case.”
The court found DEP had already agreed in writing that the project met state criteria. DEP provided no justification for denying the permit last August, the judges said.
What happens next depends on how the state agency reacts.
DEP has 15 days to review the court’s order.
“We are disappointed, but respect the judge’s opinion,” Dee Ann Miller, a DEP spokeswoman, said Monday. “The department is in the process of reviewing the opinion.”
Seminole proposed several years ago to build a third unit at Palatka. The 750-megawatt expansion would boost Palatka’s generating capacity by 60 percent, power studies and the state said was needed by 2012.
Until the DEP August roadblock, the $1.4 billion project was ahead of schedule. Michele Collet-Kriz, a spokeswoman for Seminole in Tampa, said the utility originally projected site certification by December of this year and receipt of federal permits in March 2009.
“But the whole schedule has to be updated at this time,” she said Monday. “We’re in the process of updating the entire project schedule.”
Seminole is prepared in case the project takes longer to complete, Collet-Kriz said.
“We have secured other capacity to make up for it during those years,” she said.
The Tampa-based utility provides electricity to 10 electric cooperatives that serve about 1.6 million people and businesses in 46 of Florida’s 67 counties.
Seminole’s primary generating facility is just north of Palatka, which consists of two 650-megawatt coal-fired units.
The state Public Service Commission confirmed the need for the third unit in 2006. In certifying the need, the PSC found that unless the unit is placed in service by May 2012, consumers might face service interruptions.
In January 2007, the Sierra Club reached a settlement with Seminole and dropped its opposition to the plant expansion.
Ping!
The Crist/Sole angle on this story is also interesting.
I wonder if this will have any effect on the coal plants cancelled by the Kansas governor and her cabal?
I’m stunned.
A court decision based on what is actually “legal”...
Can they do that?
I thought this was going to be an FSU thread.
and I thought we’d hear about a new casino.
Seminole Electric ought to seek compensation from the state EPA and/or Michael Sole personally for needlessly costing them a lot of time and money.
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