Florida should increase its fuel diversity, expand its fleet of natural gas powered vehicles and push harder to get private ethanol projects under way, Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam says in an interview with Florida Trend.
“I’d like to see us develop a long-term blueprint for Florida’s energy needs that has buy-in from the business sector, political sector and the utilities,” he said in the interview, published online Tuesday.
Putnam also cited several Florida companies as examples of doing the right thing in terms of going green – particularly Publix, JM Family Enterprises, Mosaic and Darden, for putting solar panels on rooftops and other green building initiatives.
Putnam said the state needs a multi-pronged approach on energy.
“I am not singularly focused on renewable. I believe we need an array of options for energy production for electricity and for mobile fuels in a peninsular state — and that means that diversity is important in a state that needs multiple options for its growing energy needs,” Putnam told Trend. “Reliability is critical in a state that has record amounts of lightning strikes, is susceptible to hurricanes, tornados and other things that jeopardize reliability. And, of course, to be competitive, affordability is important, and so a logical progression would be that the state’s current reliance on natural gas will continue because of the affordability of that fuel. It is my hope that our nuclear projects will get back on track because they are long-term, zero-fuel cost technologies that also have zero emissions.”
