Orlando honored for green practices
Meanwhile, its electric utility fights lawsuit over toxic coal-ash dust
Orlando is celebrating its coveted certification as a LEED city for environmental sustainability while its electric utility has been in court battling accusations that it has contaminated suburban homes with toxic coal-ash dust.
The U.S. Green Building Council, which touts its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED program, as the most widely used in the world for rating green building practices, graded Orlando as a gold city.
Orlando’s rank was won on the strength of its policies and programs aimed at boosting the sustainability of the city’s operations and growth, according to the council. Orlando Utilities Commission, LYNX bus service and the Greater Orlando Airport Authority contributed to the city’s effort.
“As a city we must lead by example,” Mayor Buddy Dyer said in a statement issued during a city council meeting last week.
The LEED program is more widely known for certifying individual buildings and projects. In the Orlando region, there are more than 240 properties that include University of Central Florida buildings, Orange County Convention Center space and others.
As for cities with LEED certification, Orlando’s gold ranking bests Atlanta, which has a silver status and often compares with Orlando in the Southeast for environmental progress. The rankings in order are certified, silver, gold and platinum at the top.
Other cities with gold status include Rochester, N.Y., Hoboken, N.J. and Savona, Italy. The vast majority of more than 100 ranked cities have certified status.
Cities are evaluated by the council in 14 areas that include energy, water, waste, transportation, education, health, safety, prosperity and equitability.
“Cities, communities and buildings that achieve LEED certification are creating healthier environments and striving to improve quality of life for their residents,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, the
council’s president and chief executive officer.
Meanwhile, Orlando’s municipally owned Orlando Utilities Commission is waging a highstakes defense against a federal lawsuit, charging that east Orange County homes have been contaminated with radioactive and other pollutants from the utility’s coal-powered electric plants.
Coal as a fuel for generating electricity has been increasingly shunned by U.S. utilities as a major source of air and water pollution, and as key contributor to greenhouse gases that are driving climate change.
OUC authorities are now reviewing the utility’s alternatives for electricity supply and demand to make a decision this year on when to close its two coal plants. The city and OUC are operated separately but Dyer is a member of the utility’s governing board.
The voluminous federal suit names as defendants Orlando’s utility, home builders and developers in east Orange County, and Beat Kahli, president and chief executive officer of Avalon Park Group.
The nearly two-hour hearing last week before U.S. District Court Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr. assembled a dozen lawyers, six of whom represented Orlando Utilities Commission.
An OUC lawyer, David Weinstein of Greenberg Traurig in Tampa, took the lead in arguing that the utility is protected from allegations by sovereign immunity, while Daniel Gerber of Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell in Orlando made the case that the legal window has lapsed for pursuing a lawsuit against his client, Lennar Corp., a builder of homes in east Orange.
While the arguments took a deep dive into state and federal laws and court decisions, none probed core allegations of contamination and an associated rise in rare cancer cases in east Orange subdivisions.
At one point, Dalton noted the complexity of the allegations and expressed some “sympathy” for the defendants in “trying to figure out what they are being sued for.”
“You are absolutely right,” said Diana Martin, one of the South Floridabased Cohen, Milstein, Sellers & Toll lawyers who filed the lawsuit. “This is a very lengthy complaint.”
Dalton did not set a date for when he would making a ruling.