Crist signs bill to close off public input in water decisions

Gov. Charlie Crist today disappointed environmentalists and signed into law a bill that removes from public input the of water management district boards on surface water and consumptive use permits. Environmentalists had urged Crist to veto SB 2010 arguing that by allowing those decisions to be made by the water management districts executive director, instead of the elected board, they will be shielded from public input and debate.

They also warned that the bill carves out special exemptions for certain large land holders to get 50-year permits to use Florida water with no public review.

Crist said he was sensitive to those concerns and, in a letter accompanying his signing of the bill, urged the WMDs to continue to make their water permit decisions in the open. "I am asking the governing boards and executive directors to continue to include surface water and consumptive use permits on all board meeting agendas or other public meetings for discussion and transparency purposes.''

Eric Draper of Audubon of Florida said they will fight to get the language repealed next year. "In the past at least we've had a chance to get in front of those people and say, 'Hey, this isn't a good idea,'' he said. "We didn't always get the votes...but this takes a decision about resources and puts it behind closed doors, eliminating the opportunity for a public hearing.''

Crist's environmental image takes a hit

Gov. Charlie Crist waited until 5:05 p.m. tonight to quietly send out a press release saying he had signed a "growth management'' bill that environmentalists say will result in worsening sprawl.

"It's sort of illogical to spend half a billion dollars to save the Everglades and then sign this bill,'' said Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation, which has championed Crist's efforts on behalf of the national park. "There are environmental groups that have supported the governor who are feeling wounded today."

No bill-signing ceremony for this controversial legislation. But tomorrow there will be three -- count em' -- ceremonies to sign feel-good legislation aimed at helping low-income families get KidCare health insurance and increasing the guardians ad litem available for divorce cases.

The first press conference will be in Tallahassee. Then Crist will fly to Tampa and Miami -- the two largest media markets in the state -- to do it for the cameras two more times.

Environmentalists already shaking fists at Crist can only shudder at his fly-around's carbon footprint. 

Everglades expert says growth bill will weaken protections

Richard Grosso, the director and general counsel of the Everglades Law Center is the latest to weigh in and urge the governor to veto the growth management bill, SB 360, which is sitting on this desk. Read story here.

"In short, the 'economic stimulous claims' don't pass the straight face test given the huge over-supply problems and the fact that most development in florida costs the state more money than it brings in.'' said Grosso, who has been working on growth management since its inception in Florida.

In a letter to the governor, urging a veto, he writes: "This bill would result in more burdens to taxpayers, and would also result in weakened growth management controls, undermining the very important climate change goals you have so strongly advocated.  It would clearly lead to more sprawl and less infill in already developed areas.  

"Governor, I have worked with this law virtually every day of my career since 1989.  This Bill is bad. While some have claimed that is will be good for the economy and promote infill development, the details of the Bill do just the opposite.   As someone who has admired and been grateful for your strong leadership and understanding of growth management and environmental protection, I urge you in the strongest terms I can muster to understand how this bill does violence to both of those objectives, and ask you to prevent it from becoming law." Download ELC VETO LETTER

Everglades Trust severs ties with Sachs' PR firm

Everglades Trust, a leading environmental organization in Florida, has broken off its professional ties to Ron Sachs Communications, Tallahassee's leading public relations firm. The reason: Sachs' firm was helping to promote the offshore oil drilling legislation in the 2009 session on behalf of California and Texas-based energy interests. 

"Ron and I are and have been good friends," said a dismayed Thom Rumberger of the Everglades Trust. "I decided it was just terribly inconsistent with our work, and I thought we would just take a hiatus." He said he told Sachs that "we might want to go our separate ways." Rumberger said losing Sachs' advice "feels like I lost my right arm," even though the Trust paid for Sachs' service on a limited, case-by-case basis. (Sachs' firm continues to represent Rumberger's law firm).

Sachs said he regretted losing Everglades Trust as a client but he had no second thoughts about his advocacy of the drilling legislation, which did not pass. "This is not just being a hired gun," Sachs said. "I went through a very deliberative process with my top management team. We got very educated about the issue and reached a comfort level on this issue."

The public relations expert said public opinion in Florida is shifting to a more open-minded approach on drilling. "I'm a native Floridian," Sachs said. "I own a home on the Gulf. I'm as much an environmentalist as Thom Rumberger is."

-- Steve Bousquet  

Sugar rival weighs in with protest on U.S. Sugar buy

On the eve of a vote on Gov. Charlie Crist's scaled-back land deal to buy portions of U.S. Sugar, a rival grower is raising claims that the deal is unconstitutional.

In a four-page letter to the South Florida Water Management District, New Hope Sugar and Okeelanta Corp. say that the proposed acquisition "violates state constitutional and statutory law by failing ot submit the entire proposal to the voters for a referendum.''

The strongly-worded letter, by Miami lawyer Joe Klock, urges the governing board to change course. "You as public officials have a fiduciary obligation to follow the law and blind adherence to the instructions of the executive provides no protection nor justification for what is being proposed." Download New Hope protest

If the board listens to Klock, it will put a further wrench in the deal Crist hoped to run on as he touts his environmental record in his newly-launched U.S. Senate campaign. The governor has already been forced to scale back the acquisition because his first proposal was too expensive amid the declining economy.

House strips off Florida Forever from Crescent

Goodbye Florida Forever.

The House just removed the conservation program from SB 2430, which closes a loophole in the state law which allowed corporations to create shell corporations and escape paying documentary stamp taxes on real estate transactions. The loophole was created as a result of the Florida Supreme Court ruling in Crescent v. Miami.

But in a party line vote, the chamber stripped out the Senate plan to use $10 million of the money collected from the program to pay for $100 million in bonds on Florida Forever, the state land conservation program, and Everglades restoration.

The Senate adopted the provisions and passed the bill in an attempt to win over support from Gov. Charlie Crist, who has opposed even closing tax loopholes this session but supports the bonding programs.

But House sponsor, Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, insisted that if the environmental programs remain funded by the bill, the bill would be in danger. He repeatedly declined to answer Democrat questions that would have explained why it's in danger.

After Lopez-Cantera's cryptic answers, he got a scolding from Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami. "There are a lot of members who need answers," Robaina said.

"I don't think anybody disagrees that Florida Forever is imporatnt. It is important,'' Lopez Cantera said. "if we leave this language on, which has nothing to do with what the intention of this bill is, it will endanger the bill. Obviously, i do want to leave the Florida Forever language on here.''

He suggested that Democrats who support Florida Forever should have voted for the bill to open the Gulf of Mexico to oil drilling. That bill would have using drilloing revenues to finance the conservation program.  "We choose to vote agsaint that bill because it was an inappropriate place to fund Florida Forever,'' said Rep. Ron Saunders, D-Key West.

After a loud voice vote against, the amendment was approved along party lines 77-43.

Friendly Senate committee passes clean car rule

The Senate Environmental Regulation Committee unanimously passed a bill to require Florida cars to meet tougher greenhouse gas emission standards beginning in 2011, steamrolling a lineup of opponents from the state's business and automobile lobbies.

But this committee may be the end of the line for the bill that Gov. Charlie Crist has said is one of his top priorities. The measure has six more stops in the Senate and has not gotten a single hearing in the House. "This committee sent a clear message,'' said chairman Sen. Lee Constantine, who sponsored the bill. "I can't any that anybody else will.''.

Lobbyist for J,M Family Enterprises, AutoNation, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and Southeast Auto Dealers presented the same arguments that were unsuccessful when the issue came before the state Environmental Regulation Commission. The commission wrote the standards which became the subject of the bill offered by committee chairman, Sen Lee Constantine.

"The Obama administration is moving at what I call federal warp speed to have the first set of standards,'' said Wade Hopping of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. He said lawmakers should wait until there is a national standard because until there is, the state must rely on the California's greenhouse gas emission standards. "You shouldn't give away your authority to another state.'' 

DEP Secretary Mike Sole said that while there may be added cost to car buyers for the environmentally cleaner cars -- about $100 to $700 over the life of a car -- the bill ultimately saves consumers money with higher fuel efficiency. The estimated savings over the life of a car is $2,300, he said.

Crist's first campaign ad for 2010?

Look what came in the mail today: a handsome 8-by-10 photo of Gov. Charlie Crist. Is it is his first mailing for the 2010 election, when he will either be running for re-election or for the U.S. Senate?

Not quite. Turn it over and read "Ten Reasons To Support Governor Charlie Crist's Everglades Land Acquisition." The mailing was paid for by the Everglades Trust, an environmental group lobbying for the $1.34 billion deal to buy U.S. Sugar land for Everglades restoration.

For Crist, the mailing is even better than a campaign ad because it didn't cost him a cent.

Earthjustice files suit against feds for lake pollution

The environmental legal group Earthjustice filed suit Tuesday in federal court alleging that the federal government has intentionally weakened pollution controls on Lake Okeechobee and its tributaries and should set more stringent pollution limits.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida and Save Our Creeks, was filed in the Northern District court in Tallahassee. It alleges that when the federal Environmental Protection Agency raised the allowable amount of phosphorous pollution in the lake in -- from 77 parts per billion in 2006 to 113 parts per billion in 2008 -- it made the change to benefit the agriculture industry. 

"The EPA caved to the big polluters who are destroying the lake. It's shameful,'' said Earthjustice attorney David Guest.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to order EPA to reset the process for setting the total maximum daily load - the amount of pollution allowed in the lake.

Hope for the Everglades?

After years of tepid support, Washington appears primed to jump-start stalled Everglades restoration.

The House on Wednesday approved a giant budget bill with $183 million for Everglades projects, including $60 million for bridging the Tamiami Trail. Also tucked into the measure is a tiny provision crafted to circumvent a Miccosukee lawsuit blocking the Trail improvements.

In addition, the Obama administration has named Terrence ''Rock'' Salt, who has spent 18 years overseeing federal Everglades restoration efforts, to a key White House post directing civil works projects.

Still to be determined, what President Barack Obama's budget proposal may mean for the project, though the 'Glades does get a nod in the budget summary. Funding highlights for the US Army Corps of Engineers, the summary says, include advancing "aquatic ecosystem restoration efforts, including restoration of Florida's Everglades and Louisiana's coastal wetlands."