I believe this concerns everyone not just Floridians.

[Leslie G.]

A message from Florida State Leader Jeff Greene.
Friends:
Wednesday evening, Oct. 28 from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m., Florida State University, Gannett Florida and the Tallahassee Democrat are hosting an important event on offshore energy exploration.

A panel of proponents and a panel of opponents will answer questions about energy exploration from members of the studio audience and those watching on the Internet around the state. State Sen. Mike Haridopolos and State Rep. Dean Cannon will join in the discussion.

It promises to be an educational event about what could be the hottest issue in Tallahassee during the next Legislative Session.We need you to participate. Please take time and submit a question for the panelists. Questions may be submitted for consideration before the event to
[e-mail]

The program is being broadcast from WFSU-TV in Tallahassee. Florida State University will air the program live on 4FSU, its cable television channel in Leon, Gadsden, and Wakulla Counties, as well as webcasting the program on wfsu.org.

Additionally, viewers can watch and participate in the forum on the Internet at www.Tallahassee.com and may post comments to a live blog and pose questions to forum participants. The same chat and live stream of the forum can be viewed at www.10connects.com, www.firstcoastnews.com, www.pnj.com, www.floridatoday.com and www.news-press.com for area-specific coverage at Gannett sites in the Tampa, Jacksonville, Pensacola, Melbourne, and Fort Myers areas.

So be sure to tune in tomorrow (Wednesday) from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. to watch and participate in this important forum on energy exploration.
Let your voice be heard on this important issue.
Thank you,
The EnergyFLA Team

[neil cox]

I watched the debate. It was educational, but I was disappointed that it was almost entirely about oil and natural gas, neither of which were mentioned in the original post nor the debate announcement produced by Garnett. I think the picture was an oil platform, but I missed that clue and asked questions about alternative energies off shore. The opposition made a successful point that that even a one percent probability of a large oil spill which could reduce Florida Tourist revenues by a billion dollars per year is a poor trade for possible revenues 1% that large from oil and gas. The proponents successfully made the point that USA will become a third world country if we continue to pay 8 billion dollars.per year for imported oil, and that the oil industry has a near perfect record of no oil spills, except of imported oil and near the oil refineries, none of which will be in Florida. Neil

[neil cox]

HVDC = high voltage direct current and offshore alternative energy, was the topic I expected.
My questions were: Is any Florida utility presently doing a HVDC pilot program?
Are other power generation methods being considered for the Gulf Stream other than OTEC?
Does Florida intend to harness the tide flow between the Islands in the Florida Keys?
Does Florida have any other good alternative sources? One of the opponents suggested that PV was viable, but the proponent of drilling said PV costs 37 cents per kilowatt hour compared to 12 cents per kilowatt hour from dirty coal or a bit more from clean natural gas. Neil