[GreenYes] Florida, Petition for Clean Environment through Clean Energy.Please Sign

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Sorry if you get this twice.

Dear Fellow Green Yesers,
I am trying to collect as many grass roots and academic individual and 
organization supporters for this effort.  There has been great local and 
international response and now I appeal to you, other Floridians and National activist to 
sign on. Please read and consider endorsing. Responses received today will be 
put on the first mailing early tomorrow AM, but we will continue to collect 
support through the end of April.
Thanks
Bob Krasowski

The Florida Alliance for a Clean Environment through 
Clean Energy and Sustainable Resource Management Policies
Bob Krasowski
Project coordinator
  
Dear Environmental and Health advocates:
 
A serious situation has developed in the State of Florida. New Florida laws 
encourage more communities to build incinerators, and prevent communities with 
incinerators from recycling combustible recyclables. These laws also exempt 
communities with new burners from recycling quotas if their incinerator needs 
the recyclables to maintain "financial viability." This means Florida 
incinerators now directly undermine waste prevention, reuse, recycling and composting 
efforts, compromising our environment and health.

Please join us by signing the following petition to the Florida Legislature 
to let them know that we expect them to support a clean environment through 
clean energy and sustainable resource management policies and that we will not 
support any legislation or legislator that does not oppose mixed municipal solid 
waste (garbage) burning technologies. Please support this effort by 
responding to this e-mail with your name and/or your organizations name, and address to 
Bob Krasowski at: Alliance4CleanFl@no.address 
by Wednesday, April 12, 2006. The sooner the better. 
 
 We must insist that our legislators protect the health, safety and welfare 
of their constituents and our environment by:
 
     
A)    Developing to the maximum: Energy conservation programs, such as waste 
heat recovery from air conditioners.
 
B)    Developing to the maximum: Solar hot water heater use and wind, solar, 
and environmentally safe ocean current technologies that truly use renewable 
fuel to produce real clean âgreenâ energy. 
 
C)   Developing to the maximum: Waste reduction policies and programs that 
along with serious reuse, recycling, organic recovery composting and producer 
responsibility programs will eliminate the âneedâ for expanded or new garbage 
burners.
 
D)   Striking from all existing laws, any, provisions that accommodate the 
expansion of existing and/or the building of new high temperature, pollution 
emitting, health threatening, waste enabling, incinerator type, conversion 
technologies (âresource recoveryâ burners).
   
Most of the above-mentioned burn alternatives are already identified in the 
Florida State Energy Plan. These âalternativesâ should be completely developed 
prior to any consideration given to garbage burning. 
  
Please support this effort made under the banner of âThe Florida Alliance for 
a Clean Environment through Clean Energy and Sustainable Resource Management 
Policies.â When you respond we will add your name and/or your organizations 
name as a supporter of the position stated below in the petition. Please, also 
contact the legislators and address these issues from your particular 
perspective. 
 
A brief word about myself, I have been a social activist for more than forty 
years and have advocated for environmental protection, efficient resource 
management and, since1984, alternatives to incineration. I've worked in 
association with several environmental groups, some local grass roots efforts I 
personally developed along with my wife Jan, and am a member of various 
national/international environmental organizations. 
 
For The Florida Alliance for a Clean Environment through 
Clean Energy and Sustainable Resource Management Policies.
Bob Krasowski
Project Coordinator
1086 Michigan Ave.
Naples, Florida, 34103
239-434-0786, Alliance4CleanFl@no.address 

The petition below will be e-mailed to all legislators, administrators and 
staff of relevant agencies. It will also be mailed by the postal service to 
committee staff, chairs and co-chairs. Please distribute this entire message to 
like minded friends and associates.

                   
    Petition to Florida Elected Officials and Public Agencies

We the undersigned join in this effort to communicate to the Governor of 
Florida, The Honorable Jeb Bush, his Honorable Cabinet, and the Honorable 
Legislators of the Great State of Florida, our concerns over the present course of 
action regarding the use of municipal solid waste incineration, (waste to energy, 
resource recovery burn facilities, or high temperature conversion 
technologies) as a waste management tool or as a generator of energy. We request action 
be taken to alleviate our concerns by implementing our request, putting Florida 
on the path to a healthy, economic and environmentally sustainable future.
 
 Whereas: 
    Garbage is not a renewable resource and its use, as a fuel does not 
represent clean, green, and/or renewable energy.
 
 Therefore,
 We request the removal of waste incineration, in its various forms, from the 
list of clean energy, or renewable energy producers.

Whereas:
    Garbage burning technologies are waste enablers necessitating the 
extraction of subsidized raw materials from nature to replace the valuable materials 
burnt and do not provide a solution to the over abundance of waste in our 
society but actually perpetuate the âdisposableâ society and the "waste 
culture." 
 
Therefore,
We request the development of a waste reduction task force within or outside 
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop and support a 
conservation culture. This task force should develop serious waste reduction 
programs that identify where unnecessary waste is being produced and develop 
standards that require those at the source of the waste to eliminate the wasteful 
byproduct of their activity. This producer responsibility program, among other 
things, shall put the responsibility for disposal on the product producer not 
on the community as an unfunded mandate. The project coordinator for The 
Florida Alliance for a Clean Environment through Clean Energy and Resource 
Management Policies should be a member of the task force and be involved in the 
selection of the other task force members in order to assure a fresh look at 
solutions to energy and waste management challenges. This task force must be able to 
work independent of the influences of the burn technology consultants and 
advocates.   
 
Whereas:
Garbage burners are a significant source of air pollution, putting numerous 
chemicals, heavy metals and particulate into the air. Emitting toxins 
detrimental to the public health, clean air act compliant or not, which are especially 
damaging to children, the unborn, the elderly, wildlife and natural resources.

Therefore,
Rather than focusing on polluting energy generation, we request that every 
effort be made to use proven clean energy efficient systems and products. Waste 
heat from household, commercial and institutional air-conditioners when 
recovered offers a known savings of energy. Saved energy generates no pollution. 
Saved energy avoids the need for generating energy from any polluting method. All 
new buildings should be required to use waste heat recovery systems and 
financial help should be provided to retrofit replacement systems. Passive solar 
hot water heaters should be required to supplement conventional hot water 
heating systems on all new and renovated hot water systems. A clean energy financial 
assistance program should be set up to finance the initial extra cost of 
purchasing clean energy systems and high efficiency products (energy star 
appliances, waste heat retrofits, solar hot water heaters). The money will be 
recaptured as part of the energy bill of the recipient until all is repaid. This 
recapture plan will allow the recipient to experience an initial savings that will 
increase when the systems differential is paid for.    

Whereas:
Municipal waste burners, and other poor resource management planning 
techniques, are an imposition on future generations, inhibiting the ability of future 
leaders to design waste/discarded resource management systems that are truly 
environmentally sound and environmentally sustainable. Garbage burners lock 
communities into contractual agreements for municipal waste that directly 
contradict waste prevention and recycling efforts. This destroys local resource 
management flexibility and interferes with the ability of future leaders to protect 
the health, safety, welfare, and resources of their and neighboring 
communities far into the future. 

Therefore,
We request that the Florida Legislature realize that there is no 
justification for building new burn facilities that pollute and are dependent on future 
waste to sustain operations. This in fact represents bad planning. We call on 
the Legislators to maximize energy conservation programs, implement real clean 
"green" energy programs such as wind, solar, and environmentally safe ocean 
current technologies, maximize waste reduction policies and programs, and 
implement producer responsibility regulations. The future is in conservation, 
efficiency, clean solar, wind, ocean current generating sources of energy. Not 
dependency on the continued generation of garbage and waste.
 
Whereas:   
Last year, 2005, the legislature passed laws that encouraged communities to 
consider building garbage burners. Another part of the law disallows the 
recovery of combustible recyclable materials from the waste streams going to these 
facilities. Still another provision allows exemption from recycling 
requirements in the event a burner experiences âfinancial  viability problemsâ and needs 
to burn some of the recyclables to stay afloat. These type of laws put 
incineration at the top of Florida's âwaste management hierarchyâ  undermining 
waste reduction, reuse, recycling and organics composting initiatives. 
 
Therefore,
We request that the Legislature rescind the laws passed last year (Title 
XXIX, chapter 403.702, (2,i) that encourage communities to consider high 
temperature burn conversion technologies (incinerators) when developing new waste 
handing programs.  Rescind the law (Title XXIX, chapter 403.706, (6,a, b) that  â
protectsâ the waste stream flow to a burner from recycling when it is dedicated 
to the so called energy resource recovery facility (burner), and rescind the 
law that allows the diversion of recycling materials to a burner that needs the 
recyclables to maintain financial viability and strike from all existing and 
pending laws, any, provisions that accommodate the expansion of existing 
and/or the building of new high temperature, pollution emitting, health 
threatening, waste enabling, incinerator type, conversion technologies (âresource recovery
â burners). 

For The Florida Alliance for a Clean Environment through 
Clean Energy and Sustainable Resource Management Policies
Bob Krasowski
Project Coordinator
1086 Michigan Ave.
Naples, Florida, 34103
239-434-0786, Alliance4CleanFl@no.address


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