While Gov. Rick Scott traipses through the executive office, handing out plaques and awards for so many individuals contributing to Florida's "greatness" ("Wherever Rick Scott looks, he sees greatness"), the state is swimming in a sea of pollution and the Florida legislature is busily dismantling our weak, ineffective and compromised efforts to protect the environment.
The hard irony is that former US Senator Bob Graham, now at the head of the wagon train to Tallahassee, was a major player in the 2000 Clinton-era plan, called CERP, that gave Big Sugar so much leeway that public policies would careen -- well -- to exactly this point in time.
Estus Whitfield, in the Tampa Bay Times, whose career as a senior staffer was dedicated to the balancing act between big, powerful economic interests and environmental regulations notes, "the environmental voice has been a little chirp in the distance." Well, why wouldn't it be?
Florida's major multi-billion dollar industries, including Big Sugar, rock mining, phosphate mining, and the exploitation of underground aquifers to promote low-cost suburban sprawl, all depend on shifting the costs of pollution to taxpayers. Then, one must count in Florida's utilities and their call on wetlands destruction and water for industrial cooling applications in power plants.
What chance have environmentalists in Florida ever had, for a level playing field and honest public forums? Zip. Zero. Nada.
The result has been an environmental movement that is more or less efficient at one purpose: compromise. You only have to gauge the outcome by the results. Look around. What do you see?
The saddest part about the Florida Tea Party movement is that the one we needed was instantly hijacked by big money, special interests who accurately bet that citizens only care about money in their own pockets and the fact that it is being taken. The more difficult questions: how it is being taken, who is taking it, and why take longer to answer and by that time, the juggernaut is off to its next target. Simply, in Florida, that means any public servant or elected official who deviates from the (GOP) party line is fair game for removal. (Example number one, Ray Judah -- the Republican former county commissioner in Lee County -- who was taken out by Big Sugar money in 2012. Judah was the most effective and eloquent political spokesperson for the environment, because his constituents' real estate values and health were being severely impacted by polluted water running off nearby rivers and streams.)
The political machinery destroying Florida under the leadership of Gov. Rick Scott is as efficient as one of those robot vacuum cleaners that noiselessly skim the bottom of ten thousand swimming pools. Chirp.
Tue, Apr. 23, 2013
Graham leads charge against sugar interests
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
A pair of bills now steamrolling through the Florida House and Senate have drawn such strong objections from environmental groups that former Sen. Bob Graham flew to Tallahassee this week to lobby against them.
The two bills — HB 999 sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Patronis and SB 1684 by Sen. Thad Altman — are packed with provisions relating to sugar company leases in the Everglades, making it easier to wipe out wetlands and limiting the power of water districts to control pumping.
Why bring in Graham? Because “there’s a whole big army of 40 or 50 lobbyists working on the other side,” explained Estus Whitfield of the Florida Conservation Coalition. By comparison “the environmental voice has been a little chirp in the distance.”
Graham said he got involved because the two bills “don’t advance any interest of the public, just special interests.”
Patronis, R-Panama City, and Altman, R-Melbourne, did not respond to requests for comment. But Patronis told the Panama City News Herald that the bills contain “tweaks and fixes to the process that just makes it easier and simpler to do business.” Those tweaks include:
• Blocking the Florida Wildlife Federation from suing to overturn a controversial decision by Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to grant 30-year leases to 31,000 acres of the state’s Everglades property to two major sugar companies.
• Preventing water management districts from cutting back groundwater pumping by any entity that builds a desalination plant to increase its potential water supply. “I don’t think we should be tying the hands of the water management districts to better promote conservation of water,” Graham said.
• Speeding up the permitting for natural gas pipelines that originate in other states, such as the new 700-mile one from Alabama that’s being planned by Florida Power & Light.
• Forbidding cities from asking an applicant more than three times for additional information before approving development permits.
• Preventing local governments from regulating the destruction of wetlands by drainage districts, small independent agencies that were first created in 1913.
That item is specifically aimed at quelling a dispute in the Orlando area, according to Patronis. But Whitfield said there are so many drainage districts across the state that they control more than 100,000 acres, which puts a wide swath of the state’s remaining wetlands in jeopardy.
Also, an amendment added to the House version Tuesday would prevent local governments from enacting their own pollution-fighting rules against summertime sales of fertilizer until at least 2016. Local governments such as Pinellas County that have already imposed such bans would be allowed to continue enforcing their rules.
Patronis has repeatedly filed similar bills aimed at making state regulations more favorable to business. Environmental groups had asked him not file another such bill this year, Patronis told his local paper, but he ignored them because “I didn’t come up to take naps in the afternoon; I like to work hard.”
Patronis’ version of the bill has already reached the House floor and could be voted on this week. Altman’s passed its final committee stop Tuesday.
Craig Pittman can be reached at craig@tampabay.com
The hard irony is that former US Senator Bob Graham, now at the head of the wagon train to Tallahassee, was a major player in the 2000 Clinton-era plan, called CERP, that gave Big Sugar so much leeway that public policies would careen -- well -- to exactly this point in time.
Estus Whitfield, in the Tampa Bay Times, whose career as a senior staffer was dedicated to the balancing act between big, powerful economic interests and environmental regulations notes, "the environmental voice has been a little chirp in the distance." Well, why wouldn't it be?
Florida's major multi-billion dollar industries, including Big Sugar, rock mining, phosphate mining, and the exploitation of underground aquifers to promote low-cost suburban sprawl, all depend on shifting the costs of pollution to taxpayers. Then, one must count in Florida's utilities and their call on wetlands destruction and water for industrial cooling applications in power plants.
What chance have environmentalists in Florida ever had, for a level playing field and honest public forums? Zip. Zero. Nada.
The result has been an environmental movement that is more or less efficient at one purpose: compromise. You only have to gauge the outcome by the results. Look around. What do you see?
The saddest part about the Florida Tea Party movement is that the one we needed was instantly hijacked by big money, special interests who accurately bet that citizens only care about money in their own pockets and the fact that it is being taken. The more difficult questions: how it is being taken, who is taking it, and why take longer to answer and by that time, the juggernaut is off to its next target. Simply, in Florida, that means any public servant or elected official who deviates from the (GOP) party line is fair game for removal. (Example number one, Ray Judah -- the Republican former county commissioner in Lee County -- who was taken out by Big Sugar money in 2012. Judah was the most effective and eloquent political spokesperson for the environment, because his constituents' real estate values and health were being severely impacted by polluted water running off nearby rivers and streams.)
The political machinery destroying Florida under the leadership of Gov. Rick Scott is as efficient as one of those robot vacuum cleaners that noiselessly skim the bottom of ten thousand swimming pools. Chirp.
Tue, Apr. 23, 2013
Graham leads charge against sugar interests
By Craig Pittman
Tampa Bay Times
A pair of bills now steamrolling through the Florida House and Senate have drawn such strong objections from environmental groups that former Sen. Bob Graham flew to Tallahassee this week to lobby against them.
The two bills — HB 999 sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Patronis and SB 1684 by Sen. Thad Altman — are packed with provisions relating to sugar company leases in the Everglades, making it easier to wipe out wetlands and limiting the power of water districts to control pumping.
Why bring in Graham? Because “there’s a whole big army of 40 or 50 lobbyists working on the other side,” explained Estus Whitfield of the Florida Conservation Coalition. By comparison “the environmental voice has been a little chirp in the distance.”
Graham said he got involved because the two bills “don’t advance any interest of the public, just special interests.”
Patronis, R-Panama City, and Altman, R-Melbourne, did not respond to requests for comment. But Patronis told the Panama City News Herald that the bills contain “tweaks and fixes to the process that just makes it easier and simpler to do business.” Those tweaks include:
• Blocking the Florida Wildlife Federation from suing to overturn a controversial decision by Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to grant 30-year leases to 31,000 acres of the state’s Everglades property to two major sugar companies.
• Preventing water management districts from cutting back groundwater pumping by any entity that builds a desalination plant to increase its potential water supply. “I don’t think we should be tying the hands of the water management districts to better promote conservation of water,” Graham said.
• Speeding up the permitting for natural gas pipelines that originate in other states, such as the new 700-mile one from Alabama that’s being planned by Florida Power & Light.
• Forbidding cities from asking an applicant more than three times for additional information before approving development permits.
• Preventing local governments from regulating the destruction of wetlands by drainage districts, small independent agencies that were first created in 1913.
That item is specifically aimed at quelling a dispute in the Orlando area, according to Patronis. But Whitfield said there are so many drainage districts across the state that they control more than 100,000 acres, which puts a wide swath of the state’s remaining wetlands in jeopardy.
Also, an amendment added to the House version Tuesday would prevent local governments from enacting their own pollution-fighting rules against summertime sales of fertilizer until at least 2016. Local governments such as Pinellas County that have already imposed such bans would be allowed to continue enforcing their rules.
Patronis has repeatedly filed similar bills aimed at making state regulations more favorable to business. Environmental groups had asked him not file another such bill this year, Patronis told his local paper, but he ignored them because “I didn’t come up to take naps in the afternoon; I like to work hard.”
Patronis’ version of the bill has already reached the House floor and could be voted on this week. Altman’s passed its final committee stop Tuesday.
Craig Pittman can be reached at craig@tampabay.com
6 comments:
Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, held a seminar of like-minded, wealthy political donors at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colo. They laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes.
The first two pieces of the strategy — educating grass-roots activists and influencing politics — were not surprising, given the money they have given to policy institutes and political action groups. But the third one was: media.
Other than financing a few fringe libertarian publications, the Kochs have mostly avoided media investments. Now, Koch Industries, the sprawling private company of which Charles G. Koch serves as chairman and chief executive, is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company’s eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant.
By early May, the Tribune Company is expected to send financial data to serious suitors in what will be among the largest sales of newspapers by circulation in the country. Koch Industries is among those interested, said several people with direct knowledge of the sale who spoke on the condition they not be named. Tribune emerged from bankruptcy on Dec. 31 and has hired JPMorgan Chase and Evercore Partners to sell its print properties.
The papers, valued at roughly $623 million, would be a financially diminutive deal for Koch Industries, the energy and manufacturing conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., with annual revenue of about $115 billion.
Politically, however, the papers could serve as a broader platform for the Kochs’ laissez-faire ideas. The Los Angeles Times is the fourth-largest paper in the country, and The Tribune is No. 9, and others are in several battleground states, including two of the largest newspapers in Florida, The Orlando Sentinel and The Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. A deal could include Hoy, the second-largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, which speaks to the pivotal Hispanic demographic.
One person who attended the Aspen seminar who spoke on the condition of anonymity described the strategy as follows: “It was never ‘How do we destroy the other side?’ ”
“It was ‘How do we make sure our voice is being heard?’ ”
Guests at the Aspen seminar included Philip F. Anschutz, the Republican oil mogul who owns the companies that publish The Washington Examiner, The Oklahoman and The Weekly Standard, and the hedge fund executive Paul E. Singer, who sits on the board of the political magazine Commentary. Attendees were asked not to discuss details about the seminar with the press.
A person who has attended other Koch Industries seminars, which have taken place since 2003, says Charles and David Koch have never said they want to take over newspapers or other large media outlets, but they often say “they see the conservative voice as not being well represented.” The Kochs plan to host another conference at the end of the month, in Palm Springs, Calif.
At this early stage, the thinking inside the Tribune Company, the people close to the deal said, is that Koch Industries could prove the most appealing buyer. Others interested, including a group of wealthy Los Angeles residents led by the billionaire Eli Broad and Ronald W. Burkle, both prominent Democratic donors, and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, would prefer to buy only The Los Angeles Times.
The Tribune Company has signaled it prefers to sell all eight papers and their back-office operations as a bundle. (Tribune, a $7 billion media company that also owns 23 television stations, could also decide to keep the papers if they do not attract a high enough offer.)
I don't understand this "Preventing water management districts from cutting back groundwater pumping by any entity that builds a desalination plant to increase its potential water supply."
-what exactly does this mean? is this to make it easier for someone to build a desalination plant?
I used to think Hurricane season was the time of year to worry about, but clearly, it is the season the legislature is in session that is the scariest time of year for Floridians.
Seth- contact us in email. Mitigation banks? Really?
Anyone who believes that mitigation banks for wetlands works, needs to read Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite's outstanding book, "Florida's Vanishing Wetlands".
And for more on how mit banks don't work and recent efforts by the state to make them even worse, follow the Highland Ranch story.
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