State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has filed an amendment to a Senate committee’s energy bill in an effort to repeal a statute that allows energy companies to charge their customers for nuclear power plants that may never be built.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection today announced it has completed a series of post-hurricane season beach inspections, as part of the response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
A coalition of Florida environmental groups is speaking out against a new bill introduced by Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, that would, he says, “empower Florida officials, rather than bureaucrats at the EPA” to implement water pollution standards.
The House State Affairs Committee passed a much-debated reclaimed water bill today — this time, with the go-ahead from environmental groups. Though it has been met with reservations by some lawmakers in the past, House Bill 639 was much less contentious today, in large part due to an amendment offered by the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has pledged $9.8 million in grants to 38 states, territories and tribes to “help protect the health of swimmers at America’s beaches.” The amount of each grant ranges from $150,000 to $516,000, with Florida receiving the heftiest grant of any state (.pdf).
In an interview with Southeast AgNet, Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, says a set of federally mandated water pollution rules would be “terribly dangerous” for Florida, and could cost the state close to 50,000 agricultural jobs alone.
According to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ever-proliferating pythons in the Florida Everglades appear to be wiping out large numbers of small mammals.
The fight to allow Florida to write its own water pollution rules continues at both the state and federal level this week.
Progress Energy has received the right to cancel construction on its proposed Levy County nuclear power plant as part of a recent settlement agreement over its broken plant in Crystal River. The company still plans to charge its customers advance nuclear cost recovery dollars, despite the cancellation — a move that state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, says he will fight tooth and nail.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced yesterday morning that it will begin selling leases to allow offshore oil drilling in 38 million acres in the central Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups say the move is troubling, as regulatory oversight and environmental problems related to the catastrophic 2010 gulf oil spill haven’t yet been fully remedied.
rss