Oct 4 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Mike Salinero and Russell Ray Tampa Tribune, Fla.

Tampa Electric Co. is touting its proposed $2 billion coal gasification power plant in Polk County as "clean coal technology."

For some pollutants, TECO's claim is true. When it comes to greenhouse gases, however, the plant will be a major polluter, emitting 5.4 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

That's a major departure from Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's goal of reducing carbon emissions, the leader of a clean energy watchdog group said Wednesday.

"We believe that this facility proposed by Tampa Electric Co. is the first test of Florida's commitment to reduce global warming pollution in the form of carbon dioxide gases," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The group is opposing the proposed 630 megawatt generating unit TECO wants to build 40 miles southeast of Tampa. The Florida Public Service Commission will begin hearings on TECO's proposal Wednesday. If approved, the new unit would start generating power by 2013. Construction would begin in 2008 or 2009.

Smith said if the plant's carbon emissions are not captured and stored underground, it will increase greenhouse gas emissions from Florida's utility sector by 4 percent. That goes against the governor's executive order to reduce utility carbon emissions by 6 percent, back to 2000 levels, by 2017.

"Our argument is that this is going 180 degrees in the wrong direction from the governor's executive orders," Smith said.

Founded in 1981, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy scrutinizes inefficient and polluting energy practices. The group brought media attention to the Tennessee Valley Authority's plans to build 17 nuclear reactors in the 1980s and 1990s. TVA's construction program was halted after it built five reactors and tallied a $28 billion debt, according to the group's Web site.

Smith said the alliance's lawyers will argue to the PSC that Tampa Electric should increase energy efficiency before it builds new generating capacity.

"TECO does not need the level of base-load generation they're arguing for because they haven't looked at all the energy efficiency they can meet," Smith said.

The Public Service Commission's own policies create a deterrent for Florida utilities to lower demand for electricity, Smith said. For instance, the PSC uses something called the "rate impact measure," which allows the power companies to count energy savings as a loss of revenue.

The result is Floridians use twice as much electricity per capita as Californians, he said.

"The first thing the state of Florida has to do is get out of the dark ages with this rate impact measure test," Smith said.

Tampa Electric spokeswoman Laura Plumb Duda said the utility recently won approval to begin offering more than a dozen new energy-efficiency programs, including one that reduces electricity consumption by commercial customers during periods of peak demand.

"We're significantly expanding our energy efficiency programs to make them more appealing and useful for customers," Duda said.

Coal gasification is sold as a cleaner technology because it creates a gas from which pollutants normally associated with coal can either be removed easily or are never created.

Carbon from gasified coal can be stored underground, a process called carbon capture and sequestration. Smith said TECO should study whether capture and sequestration is possible in the Polk County geology. If it is, the company should commit to using it before getting permission to build a new plant, he said.

Duda, however, said there are a number of policy questions that must be resolved before carbon capturing and sequestration technology can be included in its coal plant proposal. Carbon dioxide emissions are not regulated now, but state and federal regulators are expected to limit such emissions in the future.

"We don't think it's appropriate to make a substantial investment in this before public policy and regulation associated with it are finalized," Duda said.

In June, Crist signed legislation that encourages the construction of coal gasification plants in Florida. The law allows utilities to start recovering from customers the costs of building a gasification plant, years before the first watt of power is generated. Normally, a utility has to wait until the plant is completed before it can start recovering its costs from ratepayers.

In a letter accompanying his signature, Crist said coal should only be used in a environmentally responsible way. He said coal gasification "offers the best potential in this regard as it releases less climate changing gases, less mercury and consumes far less water than traditional coal plants."

Crist added that coal gasification offers the best potential for storing carbon underground.

The governor's spokesman, Anthony De Luise, said Crist "welcomes and encourages" TECO to move from coal gasification to carbon capture and sequestration when it is technically possible.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero @tampatrib.com. Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.