9:00 AM
GT
The press release said:
The ecosustainable community of Destiny in Florida will open the first green E-station in the state at the southeast corner of 441 and State Road 60 in southern Osceola County.
For Green Readers who have lived in Florida a few years, the word Destiny causes one to pause, as one of those made up names that have emerged post-Disney. Where is Destiny and what is the story behind it? More on the E-station at the end.
According to a 2006 article in the St. Petersburg Times, a man named Anthony Pugliese III bought the largest piece of undeveloped piece of property in Florida since Disney. Located in southern Osceola County, the 27,400 acres of pasture land is better known to us as Yeehaw Junction (population 32,000).
Most travelers know Yeehaw Junction as a quaint sign along Florida's Turnpike. Before the Turnpike, the intersection of the north/south Highway 441 and State Road 60 was an important gas stop on travels across the central part of Florida, located 60 miles south of Orlando and 30 miles from Vero Beach on the east coast.
Yeehaw Junction was also famous for its Civil War battle in 1864, for possession of the strategic 'Yeehaw Junction Corridor.' Evidently the Confederate victory enabled an important pipeline for supplies. More recently, the Yeehaw Junction Festival and Fiddle Championship (January 22 - 25 2009) is held annually on the grounds of the 'historic Desert Inn.'
Back to Mr. Pugliese who, along with Subway founder, Fred DeLuca, invested $137 million for the acreage last year and Destiny (larger than the size of Disney's Reedy Creek District) was born. Charles Lee, Director of Advocacy for Audobon of Florida said this development "pries open the interior of Florida like a can-opener."
Over the next few decades, the plan is to create a self-contained city of 100,000, not unlike Celebration. Mr. Pugliese was quoted in the St. Petersburg Times article as describing Destiny as "part New Urbanism and New Ruralism. It's really like pre-1940's living." [Does that mean without the air conditioning?]
In 2006, the law firm Greenberg Traurig of Miami lobbied on behalf of Destiny for an exemption from certain permitting regulations for properties greater than 25,000 acres. Although not successful, they did get a rewording of the rural land stewardship program.
The developers and Orlando consultant, Robert Whidden, head of Destiny's development team, say that environmental groups will be invited to participate in the planning of the area which is bigger than the City of Clearwater, of which 1/2 is proposed to be left as open space. Build-out could take up to 40 years. For more on Destiny, it has a web site.
So, that brings up to the refueling station that was announced last week, as being in the "final design stage" to be located at the southeastern corner of US 441 and State Road 60. [we assume with access from exit 193 on the Florida Turnpike.]
It will have five gasoline and alternative fuel stations along with diesel, electric automobile charging stations and a solar and geothermal-powered green-mart convenience store.
The final fuel mix will include E85, soy-or animal fat-based biodiesel, compressed natural gas, liquid hydrogen fuels and plug-in charging stations for electric or hybrid vehicles.
8:46 AM
GT
Could saving money become the catalyst for more solar in Florida?
The City of Lake Wales, voted last week to apply for $500,000 from the Florida Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Technology Projects Grant to install solar panels at the Lake Wales Fire Department, according to the Lake Wales News as part of other budget-saving measures voted upon by the Commission.
The panels are estimated to produce 10,640 kilowatts per month, significantly reducing the fire station’s power bills. Currently they use about 13,000 kilowatts per month, so the panels would provide approximately 81% of their power.
The grant would require a $71,000 match on cash and in-kind services.
It would take a year for the city to recapture an initial investment of $10,000 for the interconnect device, but after that the City estimated that the cost savings would be significant.
7:49 PM
GT
Scientific American reports on a technology that proposes to generate energy with little greenhouse gas emissions that may be able to remove existing emissions sources while getting rid of garbage.
A plasma incinerator proposal for St Lucie County could take trash usually dumped into landfills and turn it into energy that powers turbines. The garbage is vaporized into a gas when it is blasted with streams of superheated gas (known as plasma) at temperatures of 10,000 F. Potentially 50,000 homes could be powered by plasma arc gasification, while significantly reducing the methane emissions normally generated from garbage decomposing in landfills.
The plant is scheduled to go online by 2011, processing 1,500 tons of garbage daily and creating an estimated 60 megawatts of electricity, some of which will be used by the incinerator.
Inorganic matter such as aluminum cans could be used as recycled materials.
8:18 AM
GT
According to our Green search, there are only four restaurants in Florida that have been certified by the Green Restaurant Associaiton. None are in Tallahassee.
Standards for certification include:
- Use a comprehensive recycling system for all products that are accepted by local recycling companies.
- Free of polystyrene foam ("Styrofoam") products.
- Commit to completing four Environmental Steps per year of membership. (refer to Environmental Guidelines)
- Complete at least one Environmental Step after joining the GRA.
Help your favorite restaurant become green, take the quiz.
7:19 AM
GT
Dr. Robert F. Stonerock, Jr., President of the Florida Renewable Energy Association, a non-profit advocacy organization, announced in a recent letter reaffirming his beliefs "that there are ways that Florida, intelligently and even-handedly, can phase in renewable energy such that all of our power needs can be supplied by renewables and renewables alone."
Florida has the potential to be one of the largest leaders in renewable energy independence and creating green jobs. Are we up to the challenge?
2:06 AM
GT
In addition to the cost to the consumer who purchases the bottle of water (ex: average bottle @ $2.00 per liter equals $7.57 a gallon!) and the fact that someone recently pointed out what word Evian spells backwards, a recently released report indicates that bottled water may be more polluted with contaminants than tap water.
The Environmental Working Group published a study at the end of last month that finds ten major brands of bottled water contained 38 pollutants, with an average of eight contaminants in every bottle analyzed. Unlike tap water, where consumers are provided with test results every year, the bottled water industry does not disclose the results of any contaminant testing that it conducts. A wide range of pollutants included disinfection byproducts, caffeine and pharmaceuticals, heavy metals and minerals including arsenic and radioactive isotopes, fertilizer residue and a broad range of other, tentatively identified indiustrial chemicals.
Go to Water Quality to read the City of Tallahassee's 2008 report on water quality.
In conjunction with this testing program, EWG conducted a survey of 228 brands of bottled water, compiling information from websites, labels and other marketing materials. Fewer than half describe the water source (i.e., municipal or natural) or provide any information on whether or how the water is treated. Walmart and the chain, Giant, are bottling tap water.
Water bottle production in the U.S. uses 1.5 million barrels of oil per every year, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors’ resolution passed in 2007, enough energy to power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year and millions of bottles end up in landfills, incinerators and as trash on land and in our streams, rivers and lakes.
12:34 PM
GT
The Green Community exhibit is showing at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC from now until Ocotber 2009.
The quote from Auguste Mouchout, French inventor of the earliest solar powered engine, was posted on a wall behind graphics and displays of communities efforts toward sustainability throughout the world. Exhibits included looking at earth, air, fire and water as our sources of food, fuel and shelter and asking how we can use these things to sustain us on our planet. Highlights included communities that were focusing efforts on improving air quality, plan and configure growth and transportation, utilize the sun's radiation as a source of food and fuel and conserving water and its quality on our planet, as well as looking at water as an energy source, recycling and reuse of waste generated by humans and the machines we have created.
In Washington, DC, projects included green roofs and the public transportation initiatives in Arlington, Virginia. All public transit buses that we saw in DC during this visit were powered by natural gas, and of course, the Metro can get you virtually anywhere you need to go quickly and easily.
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