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| Gov. Rick Scott opens 2016 legislative session. |
Environmentalists could see it was coming during the Jeb Bush era, when Jeb re-branded the Florida Department of Environmental Protection: "more protection, less process". What Jeb brought was a succession of efforts to suppress the rule of law and regulation, especially governing water quality, water resources, to advance Florida's signature industrial wealth creator: rampant sprawl.
Charlie Crist, who succeeded Jeb, was indifferent to the case for managing Florida's growth and agriculture in order to protect natural resources. Rick Scott, who succeeded him, has been a disaster of the highest order.
This year's travesty -- the water policy bill -- effectively destroys the expectation that the state will regulate and enforce against polluters. It represents, instead, capitulation to the idea that polluters will self-regulate and if they screw up, so be it.
One is tempted to call Scott, "clueless", except that Scott's wealth in the private sector was based on his skill trolling for profit at the margins of health care laws and reimbursement regulations. In other words, when it comes to spying opportunities to make money from exploiting environmental rules and regulations, Scott instantly understood both the constituency -- Big Sugar and Big Development -- and the way to solidify his political authority.
This is how Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida legislator set out on their own course, ignoring critics while pandering to special interests. Harder to understand: why the Florida Democratic members of the legislature have been so derelict in their responsibilities to offer resistance, as if to say of Tallahassee: "all ye who enter here, abandon all hope."
The water policy bill making its way after near unanimous approval in the House is exactly as Carl Hiassen described in the Miami Herald: "a major win for polluters and the politicians they own."
So why did every Florida Democrat in the House -- with the notable exception of two representatives, including Jose Javier Rodriguez of Miami-Dade -- approved this catastrophic measure?
In part, because in its badly weakened state, Florida's environmental movement was incapable of mounting a unified opposition to the measure. In the last session of the legislature, Floridians were outraged that the GOP failed to enact the authorization of Amendment 1 for land acquisition as the constitutional amendment -- passed by more than 68 percent of voters in 2014 -- required.
Some environmental groups -- notably Audubon of Florida and the Everglades Foundation -- supported the water policy bill because it offers $200 million to the failing Everglades. But we saw the same mechanism of divide and conquer at work in the early 2000's, when dangling hard cash in front of environmental groups for the Everglades was just a sneaky way to mask even more damage to the public interest.
One long-time observer commented on an Everglades list serve, relative to the absence of public outrage: "The gap grows between the Everglades as an environmental cause and the Everglades as an environmental business." In other words, after decades of broken promises, environmentalists in Florida -- and Democrats, too -- have been shuffled into chutes like compliant cattle. "If you want your elected office, just move along."
Ours could have been the generation that built on bipartisan consensus to protect Florida's environment, but we watched quietly while the GOP and the fear-mongerers put that consensus in reverse, full throttle.
Carl Hiaasen: Polluters win again in the state Legislature
Proposed law would let polluters police themselves.
Tax dollars will be used to subsidize clean-ups.
Rules about violations, enforcement vague and undefined.
BY CARL HIAASEN
Touted as an environmental breakthrough, the water policy bill passed last week by the Florida Legislature is actually a major win for polluters and the politicians they own.
Enforcement of clean-water rules is basically being replaced by the honor system. Big Agriculture couldn’t be happier.
