At least one group has reportedly pulled out of St. Petersburg's Earth Day Festival, an event scheduled for Saturday at South Straub Park, because power giant Duke Energy is sponsoring the event to the tune of $5,000, and others are planning on handing out flyers criticizing the company.
On Monday Tampa Bay Times writer Charlie Frago reported the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity said it would not have a booth at the event because of the company's "multiple instances of air and water contamination events resulting in dozens of Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act violations."
Environmental groups have criticized the company because of its weak embrace of alternative energy, among other things. A company executive was even quoted calling Florida the "partly cloudy state" when asked why the company doesn't take advantage of Florida's abundant sunshine by generating more solar power. The company has recently said it plans to beef up its solar energy use by adding 500 megawatts over the next decade, in the near future, but advocates say it's not enough.
But some groups, while critical, are keeping their spots at the event, and are using Duke Energy's sponsorship as a way to draw attention to the lack of non-fossil fuel alternatives that would help reduce the company's pollution while bringing down prices for consumers.
"I believe we are going to be there but we will be handing out flyers to educate on the sins of Duke energy and what attendees can do to push them in the right direction," said Tim Heberlein, the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign organizer, in a personal Facebook message. "Probably [won't] pulling punches on the language."
Other groups may do the same.
“I know that a lot of env groups that are being vendors…are putting a sign up that says that because they're participating in the festival doesn't mean they support Duke Energy,” said Lucinda Johnson of the environmental group Chart411, which had initially planned to have a table at the event but had to pull out because of a family emergency.
Johnson pointed out that while there are plenty of reasons to criticize large utility companies like Duke, the company also gives significantly to environmental causes, including to nonprofit Tampa Bay Watch, a small nonprofit that has used Duke donations to the tune of $50,000 to do things like plant vital seagrasses in coastal areas.
"'Duke's going to spend their money on something, so it might as well be something good,” she said.
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.