A lot of Floridians may be out of work or under-employed. Distracted to say the least. So if you are a wealthy special interest, like Big Sugar or phosphate or rock miners or developers who control the Florida legislature, this is the moment to knock down what little remains of Florida's laws protecting the environment.
Honestly, the housing boom did a fine number on Florida's environmental regulators. In the 1990's and early 2000's, condos sprang up in wetlands and platted subdivisions grew like weeds. While millions of homebuyers were lured into environmentally sensitive lands under the banners and false advertising of bankers and speculators, regulators working for government agencies put their fingers in the wind and decided the best way to build productive careers and pensions was to go with the flow.
The only way to feed enough housing into the Wall Street Fraud Machine was to capture the regulatory agencies that slow down zoning changes and permitting. Speed in execution was the mantra of the "deciders", both Republicans and Democrats, who steered the economy right off the cliff.
Today, the premise is that people aren't paying attention, or, that "regulations are job killers". There is no proof -- zip, none, nada-- that protecting wetlands or saving our environment and water quality harms jobs. In fact there is plenty of evidence that a stable environment that supports tourism and recreation like fishing and hunting is what attracts people to Florida in the first place. Although Florida is ringed with polluted waters, our politicians are just shrugging "so what?"
Who spends money to visit a place that disrespects its own waters in order to grow sugar for restaurant packets?
This idiocy is what is behind the full-scale effort by Republican elected officials against the US EPA for attempting to write into law nutrient limits in Florida waters, because the state won't. The EPA isn't doing this on its own. No, it took a federal lawsuit by environmental groups to nudge the federal government's most shell-shocked agency into getting up and out of the foxhole it had dug itself into, over decades.
As one informed observer noted last week, "... the state is trying to make certain that the federal government’s numeric nutrient criteria is never used to force the reduction of nutrient pollution in our waters. Even though the EPA version of the regulation is so weak and full of loopholes that there is very little chance of that happening, Florida DEP is nevertheless weakening the federal criteria even more." The guy in charge is: Eric Shaw, Environmental Manager
Standards & Assessments Section, Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Email Mr. Shaw:
Eric.Shaw@dep.state.fl.us Tell him that you are sick and tired of the non-stop lies that will make it certain that no polluters will ever have to actually reduce their nutrient pollution.
The same fraudulent behavior underlying the Occupy Wall Street movement is at the root of Florida's pollution nightmare; twin disasters that shifted the costs of speculation and pollution to taxpayers and citizens.
3 comments:
No better example than what is happening to Biscayne Bay - last year the legislature attempted to eliminate special protections written into law when the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve was created, like having to prove that not allowing your development/dredging/marina, etc would create a hardship. There was also language to carve out waiver/exceptions for projects proposed by municipalities. Thanks to citizen vigilance and activism, the protections are still in place. Next session, don't be so sure....
In a depressed economy it become very easy to lobby for any project you want. All I have to do is say that my construction project will create xxxxx amount of jobs. Public and politicians will be impressed.
It was the same in the boom years -- they approve just about any project peddled by a lobbyist.
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