DEP Tries to Toss Evidence Against TECO Project to Keep Burning Coal and More Fracked Gas

TAMPA, Fla. — One business day before the trial-like hearing starts on TECO’s plan to keep burning coal and burn far more fracked gas at Big Bend, the Department of Environmental Protection filed a motion attempting to improperly strike nearly all of Sierra Club’s evidence, including five expert reports showing that TECO's project is unsafe, exorbitantly expensive, and not needed. Despite the fact that Tampa is amongst America’s most vulnerable cities to sea level rise, DEP’s motion asks that experts on sea level rise and the impacts of climate change not be allowed to present testimony in the record.

The Sierra Club, community members, and allies have worked for months to stop TECO’s project that would continue burning coal and burn far more fracked gas at the Big Bend plant in Hillsborough County.

In fact, TECO plans to elevate some equipment at Big Bend by 14 feet and build a 20-foot sea wall to try to protect the equipment from sea level rise, even as they continue burning the climate-disrupting fuels that cause sea level rise, while doing nothing to protect local communities from rising seas or storm surge.

In response, Susannah Randolph, representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Florida, issued the following statement:

“DEP’s job is to ensure protections for Florida’s land, water and air—not to let corporate polluters escape scrutiny and line their pockets at the expense of public health, the environment,  and the safety of our families and children. We have built a case showing just how bad TECO’s dirty fossil fuel expansion is for Tampa Bay, and now DEP is playing politics for corporate polluters instead of protecting people’s health.”

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