Perpetual Innovation

Category: Florida

  • Monarch & The Milk Weed … to plant, or not to plant?

    There is a pesty parasite that is killing the monarchs in all stages of their life cycle. The parasite is called OE for short. It appears that with a warming climate, the monarchs don’t migrate and the non-native milkweed doesn’t die back in the winter, especially in Florida. This seems to perpetuate the life cycle of OE and negatively impact the monarchs. 

    Here are the recommendations from FNPS based on the best available science as to what to do. Mainly, rip out all of the non-native (Tropical) Milkweed, and only propagate native varietals. 

    https://fnpsblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/florida-native-plant-society-position.html 

    Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS)

  • FPL gets approval to charge customers for fracking investment… The Real Story.

    FPL gets approval to charge customers for fracking investment | Tampa Bay Times:

    I was astounded to here that FPL is getting into the Fracking business. There’s this baloney about trying to save some money for their investors. FPL Customers pay, in advance, to drill Nat Gas wells in Alabama, and then reap some of the benefits of the wells, if any, in the form of low NatGas prices in the future.


    It sounds too good to be true. And leaves you shaking your head as to why a publicly regulated power utility would wonder off the path into the woods looking for firewood and NatGas.


    So the Fla PSC rubber stamped the deal. As they always do. (Although the PSC turned down a petition to pay for Federal Lobbying, an obvious red herring in the mix.)

    Comes to find out that NextEra, the parent company of FPL, already has oil drilling interests… 


    There are many reasons why a power company might want to get into the drilling business, but the one given seems like the very last on the list.

    Water, maybe. Fracking takes huge amount of water, as does power generation.

    Pipe lines. Power companies already have massive right-of-ways related to power lines. This seems like a perfect fit: run power through the line and gas through the ground.

    The one I like best would be to capture the NatGas that is flared in oilfields, produce power and send the power off to the grid through wire. We currently flare half of all NatGas produced in the USA. Nobody really wants to talk about it, but probably more than half. (Better to flare it, then release the methane, but still a very ugly and wasteful business).

    Here seems to be the answer: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) through pipelines to markets, domestic and abroad. We in the US pay only bout 1/3 of what the rest of the world pays for NatGas. At about $3.50 per unit for us, and maybe $10-$12 for most other countries. Liquidification and shipping LNG is in the works on many fronts. Cheniere Energy, Inc.
    (trading symbol LNG) is coming on board with export terminals with a vengeance. 

    Imagine what it will look like when our mountains of NatGas start to look like mountains of dollars.

    So what does this mean in the next era of power utilities? I don’t really know. It should take some time to understand the maze and the interlinking parts. 

    Here is discussion about Spectra Energy (drilling and such) and FPL and the pipeline in existence and/or planned. LAKE.org article. There’s a pipeline through the Gulf…

    So very interesting.

    And, of course, it has to be mentioned: NatGas is far better than that other major fuel (not mentioning any names, like Coal), but it is still not a renewable resources. Non-sustainable, by any other name, is still a broken business model… It’s just a mater of time.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • To Incubate or not to Incubate

    Marshall Goodman: Ex-administrator For USF Helping Collier County | TheLedger.com:

    This answers the age-old questions: To Incubate or NOT to incubate?

    A: Incubators definitely have advantages for cluster development and rapid business startup.

    But, that doesn’t assure that it is a great investment for that governments to jump into.

    Where do old business incubator guys go when they get old?

    A: They go to Collier County, of course. Think Naples and Big Cypress National Preserve.

    Here’s a longer version of the story by Maria Perez in the Maples Daily News (and TBO.com).

    During that time about 2010, we were trying to meet with Goodman to springboard off of the wild success he was having with 3 incubators. No success, for us on a meeting. All three incubators were rumored to be full and hugely successful. In Highlands County, we were aiming to advance the inventions from USF that were better commercialized in the heartland of Florida, not the cities.

    Well let’s see how far $3.8M goes in Collier county. With an assurance of 10 to 15 companies within 6 months, how can they possibly go wrong?

    Can’t wait to see where this one goes.

    Keywords: Business Incubator, Economic Development
    ‘via Blog this’

  • Florida Business Incubation Association: Florida Incubators

    Florida Business Incubation Association:

    Business incubators are so very cool. Generally they bring together all the components a business will need to get started or to expand. This usually includes funding sources. But as important are the key services that every organization needs. Business advice (often tied in to the SBA’s Small Business Development Centers — SBDC)… Accounting, IT, Intellectual Property protection (patents, TM, C,…), secretarial services, etc. Lots of marking help are critical, web site, search engine optimization and more…  See the SBDC for Florida.

    Frequently incubators are tied in to the science departments of universities so the inventions of the academic world can be transported into the business world.

    An entrepreneur (or two) can’t do everything within the startup business. The incubator helps coach them into giving up some of the jobs at the company so that they can focus on one (or two).

    Often there are reduced costs for incubatees who are accepted into an incubator…

    There always is a graduation process for the incubatee as he/she grows up to be an adult company!:-)

    Incubators often have internal and external networks to help engage veterans and peers in their efforts.

    Here’s the place to go for Business Incubator info — National Business Incubator Association: https://www.nbia.org/
    * Find your incubator here based on region and or type of incubator.

    Check out the incubators in your area:
    * Florida … or Florida Business Incubator Association…
    * Georgia
    * California

    Business incubators are some times called accelerators, since they accelerate the process of a business moving forward.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Phosphate World: New golf resort is out of the ordinary for Florida

    New golf resort is out of the ordinary for Florida:

    This is a great case of making lemon-aid from your excess lemons. This is a very interesting way to reclaim the past mine areas and fully benefit from the hills and water hazards.

    The open mining for phosphate in Florida has been an open eye sore to the tortured land in mid Florida. Huge dykes have been built up to block the view of the open pit mines. The water quality in the man-made lakes has generally been pretty poor.

    Florida is one of the largest Phosphate producers of the world. And the need for food to serve a hungry 7B+ population requires fertilizer, and lots of it.

    Phosphate (from mines) is a depletable resource, i.e., non-renewable. For decades the story was circulated that there were only about 25 years left of phosphate mining in Florida. See the Phosphate Primer for Florida. The actual number may be more like 300 years. But unrestrained development (sub-suburbs) are probably far more of a restriction than any environmental concerns.

    Peak Phosphorus production in the work may actually arrive by 2030, maybe sooner. It seems like about 160M metric tons might be about the limit. However, phosphorus from phosphate mines, does not disappear from existence, like the burning of oil, gas and coal. It goes into the farm land, into the plants, and run-off goes everywhere (streams, rivers, oceans). The run-off causes its own set of ecological problems (disasters).

    In 2013, the Army Corp of Engineers came up with a rather rosy study related to 4 new mines proposed. An article discussing the study in the Bradenton Herald is here. On of the quotes on an economic value were: “And there would be 6,340 more jobs because of the mines, and $29.1 billion in value added to the area’s economy.”


    Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/12/4522121/phosphate-mining-damages-environment.html#storylink=cpy”

    The general summary of the study was that the economic benefits far exceed the ecological impacts, which were many. The funding for the report actually came from the phosphate miners. A HeraldTribune article discusses the critics view, including this:

    “Although the Army Corps put its name on the report, it was developed by CH2M Hill, under a third-party contract funded by Mosaic and CF Industries — the same mining companies seeking permits from the Corps.“

    Here’s what the Sierra Club has to say about Phosphate Mining in Florida… Summary of lots of sources of info.

    Check out the role of Patents in the Phosphate world over at ipzine.blogspot.com.

    So, here’s food for though, as we contemplate food for a hungry world…

    Kinda makes you wonder, will we have a new theme park springing up in Florida: Phosphate World?

    ‘via Blog this’