By BRUCE RITCHIE FLORIDAENVIRONMENTS.COM Several Florida organizations on Tuesday sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to withdraw from a challenge to a Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan. Bondi came under fire in February after Florida joined 20 other states in filing a legal brief supporting an appeal filed by the American Farm […]
Groups want Florida out of Chesapeake Bay water challenge Read More »
By BRUCE RITCHIE FLORIDAENVIRONMENTS.COM I wrote a piece on the status of major environmental bills at the midpoint in the legislative session on April 4. But I didn’t get around to posting it. And that’s OK, because most of it had changed just seven days later. 1. SPRINGS LEGISLATION Sen. Charlie Dean said on April
Bills are dying — is springs legislation next? Read More »
Our car recently passed the 10,000-mile mark. That’s usually not a big deal. But with our car, it may hold a lesson about when to invest in the latest green technology. Our car is the all-electric 2012 Nissan LEAF, which we leased in August 2012 with the intent of buying when the 40-month lease expired.
The lesson learned from 10,000 miles in an all-electric Nissan LEAF Read More »
By BRUCE RITCHIE Just how permanent is “perpetual” — when it comes to conservation easements? Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in November touted the benefits of those landowner agreements not to develop as the Cabinet approved a deal to preserve 1,364 acres of a sod farm and cattle ranch in Polk County. The benefits, Putnam said,
Just how permanent are those conservation easements? Read More »
By BRUCE RITCHIE FLORIDAENVIRONMENTS.COM Graphic designer Rick Kilby of Orlando visited Florida’s springs while growing up in Gainesville in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But he says his study of them began a few years ago with a historic roadside attraction in St. Augustine — the kind of “tourist traps” he says most Floridians
Author wants us to rediscover, protect Florida’s fountains of youth Read More »
BY BRUCE RITCHIE FLORIDAENVIRONMENTS.COM I’d like to say the session is winding down with just a week to go but it’s really not. It’s actually cranking up. With both chambers now going all day without committee meetings, bills are getting amended and speedily passed. Many controversial environmental bills have been amended or are dead. Here
HEADING INTO THE FINAL WEEK — A SPRINGS HEAD-SCRATCHER Read More »
With the Senate and House only holding meetings on Wednesday and Thursday this week, there was time to catch up on some stories that were slowly bubbling up. Like natural gas from a hydraulic fracturing well. QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I think this issue has become radioactive, pardon the pun, for a lot of folks,”
WEEK FOUR: Hope for land-buying; Florida’s “broken” tanks program Read More »
By BRUCE RITCHIE It was the third week of the Florida legislative session and the pace definitely picked up. Bills were moving through various committees while budget hearings were being held in the Senate. EVERGLADES The biggest news was that environmentalists and the sugar industry reached an agreement on legislation to fund Gov. Rick Scott’s
Week three: Everglades deal reached; the passing of a Southern gentleman Read More »
By Bruce Ritchie Floridaenvironments.com What a difference a week makes — when it comes to Everglades legislation. On March 7, after an Everglades bill was rolled out in a House committee, Rep. Matt Caldwell said there was no “go-fast” approach. Environmentalists who opposed HB 7065 said they had only seen the bill language less than
Legislature Week Two: Everglades at warp speed Read More »
BY BRUCE RITCHIE Anyone interested in the environment couldn’t be blamed for skipping Tuesday’s opening session of the Legislature. But the week ended with a bang. Gov. Rick Scott’s “state of the state” speech on Tuesday contained no reference to the environment, energy or growth management. (See “Scott sounds re-election themes as 2013 session opens,”
Florida’s Legislature’s 2013 session starts slow, gains steam Read More »
