The last five years have tested the hypothesis that the public doesn't care what government does, so long as its belly is full and cares even less when its belly is empty.
The easiest place to take measure of the result is the destruction and elimination of rules and regulations meant to protect Florida's air and water, natural places, and communities from rampant suburban sprawl. The Everglades comes first and foremost to mind, where billions of taxpayer dollars have been pledged to restore the faded River of Grass.
Both bloggers here at Eyeonmiami have been engaged as civic activists in South Florida for a long time. We use this venue because the mainstream press long ago lost its credibility by failing to challenge the status quo that burned Floridians' quality of life, environment, and economic opportunity -- ie. jobs-- to a crisp. I call the culprits, the Great Destroyers.
Friends of the Everglades -- the organization founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969 -- is plaintiff in federal litigation against the US EPA and State of Florida, run by the sugar industry, for failing to meet pollution control standards established as a result of years of earlier litigation. On this blog I've restrained myself from commenting on litigation since I am president of Friends, whose role was noted in yesterday's Miami Herald.
But I would like to comment on a remark made by one of the voices of the Great Destroyers in the Herald report about a possible settlement (without detailing exactly what litigation the settlement would address): Gaston Cantens, of the Fanjul billionaire's Florida Crystals reportedly told the Herald, “For a business, whenever you can have stability and certainty, then you can make long-term plans with confidence."
My comment: Big Sugar in Florida has always had "stability and certainty". In fact nothing is more stable than the profits Big Sugar is able to extract from its Farm Bill privileges. Last year's bumper sugar harvest occurred at a time of record, chronic drought. How is that for certainty? Although Florida voters in 1996 voted to hold Big Sugar primarily responsible for the costs of its pollution -- it's in the Florida constitution -- a recent report funded by the Everglades Foundation demonstrates that the public picks up 74 percent of those costs. How is that for certainty?
Sugar production is exhausting soil throughout the Everglades Agricultural Area while making plans and investments for its future use as cities or inland ports (see below) in ways that will foreclose opportunities to restore the Everglades. The only thing that is "certain" about Big Sugar's interactions with government is that its principals will invest the last penny to fight for its prerogatives. The industry has reaped billions in profits for shareholders like the Fanjuls, who simply reinvest a portion of its taxpayer subsidized guarantee of profits into the Florida legislature and various county and city elected officials. (Where is the Tea Party on that?)
The point is that the Fanjuls and their Big Sugar compatriots have always been able to "make long-term plans with confidence". Civic activists who thought the economic crisis -- the worst since the Great Depression -- would make room for a return to common sense have been proven wrong. They call what they are doing to Florida, as being about creating "jobs", but what they are really about is cementing in place the prerogatives of campaign funders.
Time will tell if the "enforceable remedies" demanded by federal judge Alan S. Gold will emerge from the negotiations between the state and EPA. No one will be more interested than Friends of the Everglades.
The easiest place to take measure of the result is the destruction and elimination of rules and regulations meant to protect Florida's air and water, natural places, and communities from rampant suburban sprawl. The Everglades comes first and foremost to mind, where billions of taxpayer dollars have been pledged to restore the faded River of Grass.
Both bloggers here at Eyeonmiami have been engaged as civic activists in South Florida for a long time. We use this venue because the mainstream press long ago lost its credibility by failing to challenge the status quo that burned Floridians' quality of life, environment, and economic opportunity -- ie. jobs-- to a crisp. I call the culprits, the Great Destroyers.
Friends of the Everglades -- the organization founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969 -- is plaintiff in federal litigation against the US EPA and State of Florida, run by the sugar industry, for failing to meet pollution control standards established as a result of years of earlier litigation. On this blog I've restrained myself from commenting on litigation since I am president of Friends, whose role was noted in yesterday's Miami Herald.
But I would like to comment on a remark made by one of the voices of the Great Destroyers in the Herald report about a possible settlement (without detailing exactly what litigation the settlement would address): Gaston Cantens, of the Fanjul billionaire's Florida Crystals reportedly told the Herald, “For a business, whenever you can have stability and certainty, then you can make long-term plans with confidence."
My comment: Big Sugar in Florida has always had "stability and certainty". In fact nothing is more stable than the profits Big Sugar is able to extract from its Farm Bill privileges. Last year's bumper sugar harvest occurred at a time of record, chronic drought. How is that for certainty? Although Florida voters in 1996 voted to hold Big Sugar primarily responsible for the costs of its pollution -- it's in the Florida constitution -- a recent report funded by the Everglades Foundation demonstrates that the public picks up 74 percent of those costs. How is that for certainty?
Sugar production is exhausting soil throughout the Everglades Agricultural Area while making plans and investments for its future use as cities or inland ports (see below) in ways that will foreclose opportunities to restore the Everglades. The only thing that is "certain" about Big Sugar's interactions with government is that its principals will invest the last penny to fight for its prerogatives. The industry has reaped billions in profits for shareholders like the Fanjuls, who simply reinvest a portion of its taxpayer subsidized guarantee of profits into the Florida legislature and various county and city elected officials. (Where is the Tea Party on that?)
The point is that the Fanjuls and their Big Sugar compatriots have always been able to "make long-term plans with confidence". Civic activists who thought the economic crisis -- the worst since the Great Depression -- would make room for a return to common sense have been proven wrong. They call what they are doing to Florida, as being about creating "jobs", but what they are really about is cementing in place the prerogatives of campaign funders.
Time will tell if the "enforceable remedies" demanded by federal judge Alan S. Gold will emerge from the negotiations between the state and EPA. No one will be more interested than Friends of the Everglades.
1 comment:
"Stability and confidence." That's what everyone who invested in Gaston Cantans' father's ponzi scheme thought they were providing. Pay up, Jr., you knew all about it!
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