Staff wants to approve power for No Name

By Steve Estes

The fight to bring electricity to No Name Key becomes more murky with every decision made by most any agency it seems.

The Monroe County Attorney’s Office recently issued a written opinion that the Monroe Board of County Commissioners cannot stand in the way of electrical power being extended to No Name Key.

County Attorney Suzanne Hutton said she based that opinion on a reading of the original enabling legislation that established City Electric more than 50 years ago, legislation which she says gives now-Keys Energy carte blanche to extend electrical power anywhere it sees fit.

Hutton also opined about four months ago that Keys Energy did indeed have the authority under state statute to extend power anywhere in Monroe County, provided it could get utility easements by negotiation, purchase or eminent domain.

“I guess they (Keys Energy) could file eminent domain against the county for use of the right-of-way,” Hutton told the commission.

Hutton recently wrote that a resolution approved by the BOCC in 1951 gives county approval to Keys Energy to freely use its right-of-way to extend commercial power where it wishes.

That opinion is disputed by noted environmental law specialist Richard Grosso, who was the author of the legal challenge that resulted in the current court injunction halting new construction on environmentally sensitive lots until the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency could come to terms on endangered species and habitat protection.

According to a letter from Grosso, the county has approved a series of prohibitions against extending utilities to No Name Key since the 1951 resolution, all of which had as part of their intent to render any previous decisions moot, and relying on that resolution as approval would not be in the county’s best interest.

The Public Works Department, through its Engineering Division, had planned to simply issue a letter to Key Energy giving it authority to extend commercial power to No Name Key, even though the BOCC has, three times, voted not to lift its prohibition in the comprehensive land use plan against running electrical power.

That didn’t sit well with some members of the BOCC, who left no doubt that anything dealing with No Name Key would come to the commissioners before staff took it upon themselves to issue approvals.

“This issue needs to be done completely in the light of day where everyone can see everything that goes on,” said Commissioner Kim Wigington.

“There are significant issue areas that need to be dealt with before we have staff allowing anything,” said Carruthers.

Residents of No Name Key are pushing for commercial power, central wastewater, and commercial water on the island, again, where there has been none before.

Even using the 1951 resolution as a basis for giving county approval, which Mayor Sylvia Murphy said can be changed at any time by the seated commission, that may not negate the need for Keys Energy to find ways to secure easements to the majority of homes asking to be hooked in to commercial power.

The county’s resolution only covers rights-of-way under its jurisdiction. A significant number of the homes on No Name Key are located on a private road, a road land locked by lots owned by the USFWS. Residents of the road were granted an easement to use the USFWS lots to get in and out of the road several years ago, but that easement did not mention any use of the rights-of-way for utility installations.

Officials of the USFWS are currently reviewing a request from Keys Energy to run power lines to homes on No Name Key.

They have asked for some detailed information from the utility, particularly when it comes to how generating plants, transmission lines and equipment that will service No Name Key were paid for.

No Name is mostly contained inside a federal Coastal Barrier Resource System designation which prohibits the use of federal money to finance any development that must go into, or traverse, a CBRS area.

During the current portion of the USFWS review, Keys Energy has been asked to delineate what funding was, and is, used to generate power and transmit power.

USFWS officials also say that even though the residents have agreed to pay for the total cost of running power to the island, or at least those who want to hook up, they cannot get the money from loans backed by any federal agency, nor can they use grants funded in any way by the federal government.

Keys Energy has estimated the cost of running overhead power to the island at anywhere from $690,000 two weeks ago to just under $900,000 as little as three months ago.

That estimate does not cover any costs associated with mitigation, litigation or permitting.

Members of the Solar Community of No Name Key have promised to challenge rulings allowing the extension of power to No Name Key.

“This will eventually be decided in court,” said Wigington. “We have paid taxpayer dollars to keep power off No Name Key, now we’re going to pay tax dollars to put power on No Name Key. I don’t understand why we would set ourselves up for that.”