Who says there are no mountains in Jacksonville?

While the highest point in Jacksonville might only be 54 feet, we do have mountains here. You could say we import them. According to Appalachian Voices, there are two coal-fired power plants in the JEA service area that have been purchasing coal directly from mountaintop removal operations in Central Appalachia in the last five years - St Johns River Power Park and Cedar Bay Generating LP. Not only does Appalachia lose its mountains, but by burning that coal, Jacksonville's waterways get all that mercury that's been locked up in those mountains. Shipping Appalachian mountains to Jacksonville...what's next, sending the St. Johns River to South Florida? Oh, yeah, there are plans for that, too.

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Temtped by the Fruit of Another

Since Florida is a noncompetitive electricity market, residents of Jacksonville are stuck in a long-term relationship with JEA and its mercury spewing ways. But, oh, to take a look around the state and see FPL - it seems so attractive. While JEA keeps spewing the mercury using a fuel from Charles Dickens era, FPL has kept up with the times (those are FPL's windmills in the picture). For example, FPL Group Inc. plans to invest $2.4 billion over several years in zero-mercury-emissions technology -- solar-thermal and other renewable energy products. FPL Group is making this investment while providing a 36% total shareholder return. As a citizen of Jacksonville, and therefore a "shareholder" of city-owned JEA, what kind of return are you getting?

Higher rates and mercury emissions. And since Florida is a noncompetitive market, JEA has no competition. That's why strong government oversight is so important. Email the mayor and city council, and tell them you're tired of JEA's mercury emissions and its reliance on Charles Dickens era coal. As for now, our relationship with JEA is like a Britney Spears song...toxic.

These are Some Fly-Ash Bricks

We already know that JEA spews a lot of mercury into the air. But with no known plans to improve its emissions technology or reduce its dependency on coal (which by itself would be a good idea, since coal prices have more than doubled over the past four years and coal faces deteriorating grades and rising costs according to today's Wall Street Journal), how can JEA mitigate all these mercury emissions? Well, check out this innovation, reported in Time magazine:

Kicking Ash

Each year coal-fired power plants dump millions of tons of mercury-laced ash into landfills. Henry Liu has found a way to compress this waste into fly-ash bricks that are eco-friendlier than their clay counterparts. The bricks conserve energy (they're made at room temperature), and tests suggest they may even suck mercury out of the surrounding air.
Available 2009

JEA should license this technology and produce its own bricks for the area's booming construction industry. Not only are there public health benefits for such a move, but it would be a new revenue stream for rate-increase happy JEA.

Photo by heyu1021

Power plants race to reduce mercury emissions. JEA stuck on sidelines?

America's power plants are
racing to reduce mercury
emissions ahead of
new regulations.

Is JEA even in the race?

Power plants and other industries that emit mercury are racing to clean up their act before the EPA's Clean Air Mercury Rule goes into effect ("Mercury emitters rush to meet new U.S. rules," USA Today). For example, pollution-control technology at Dominion Resources' coal-burning Chesterfield, Virginia plant, combined with burning coal lower in mercury, will cut the emissions of mercury and other pollutants by an estimated 90%.

And what of JEA, our city-owned utility? Is JEA's highest mercury emissions in the state (according to Florida PIRG) really in our city's best interests? What are JEA's plans for lowering mercury emissions?