Solamatrix, Inc. manufacturer of solar control window film products recently opened its corporate headquarters and production facility in St. Petersburg, FL. After acquiring the assets of Film Technologies International in March 2008 including the 100,000-square-foot facility, manufacturing equipment and rights to all intellectual property, Solamatrix has already created over 60 new jobs and plans for [...]

Florida Governor Charlie Crist and Jeff Lyash, president and chief executive officer of Progress Energy Florida, unveiled plans for Sustainable Electrical Energy Delivery Systems (SEEDS), an innovative renewable energy technology that will be evaluated at two sites in St. Petersburg. The sites will serve as research hubs for unique technology that could be used [...]

In December, when Congress moved the line on offshore drilling closer to Florida’s shores, it was touted as a major victory for Florida’s tourism-based economy because the measure preserved a significant no-drilling zone along Florida’s coastline.
But the area opened to oil and gas drilling was just a fraction of the publicly-owned waters the industry hoped [...]

The new chairman of the Senate energy committee says he has no plans to open more of the nation’s coastline to oil and gas drilling, but others on the committee say they won’t let the matter die.
At a hearing Thursday designed to assess the current state of offshore oil and gas drilling, particularly in the [...]

A few months ago, a bipartisan compromise on offshore drilling worked out by Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez appeared to be the best outcome for the state. The Republican-led House wanted less protection for Florida beaches and refused to accept the Senate’s offer. Then a funny thing happened in the recent election. Republicans [...]

The president of Shell Oil, in Miami for a speech, says it’s time to embrace new energy sources.
In the wake of last year’s hurricanes, the United States narrowly averted a major disruption to its fuel supply on a scale “inconceivable in recent memory,” says Shell Oil Co. president John Hofmeister.
A year later, Hofmeister says he [...]

For the third year in a row, Progress Energy’s coal-burning plant in Crystal River has been named among the dirtiest power plants in the nation in a report issued Thursday by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project in Washington, D.C.
Crystal River, which has four coal units in addition to a nuclear power generator, ranked among the [...]

For almost a quarter-century, Florida’s congressional delegation has thwarted efforts to allow oil and gas drilling off the state’s coast by presenting a near-unanimous front.
Now it appears to be fracturing along largely partisan lines.
The result could be oil and gas drilling closer to shore than is currently allowed.
On one side, with Gov. Jeb [...]