Misc

Members of a Florida House panel complained today about the potential cost of water quality standards that could be proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in January, agreeing with industry representatives who said businesses and households will be affected. Scientists say high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus are contributing to algal blooms in springs, […]

With the downturn in the state’s economy, Florida’s conservation land-buying program is sucking up an increasingly larger share of tax revenue from real estate transactions, a state finance official told House members today. Florida’s land-buying program is the largest in the nation, having acquired more than 2 million acres since 1990. But the program received

Babcock Ranch has received an award for grazing practices at the 73,476-acre state preserve in Collier and Charlotte counties. The Florida Section of the Society for Range Management announced that Babcock Ranch, which is operated as a private ranch on state land, will receive the first Grazing Lands Stewardship Award, according to the state agriculture

By Florida State University and FloridaEnvironments.com A team of researchers from Florida State University, Duke University and the National Marine Fisheries Service will study the environmental and economic impacts of the vast “dead zone” in the northern Gulf of Mexico on shrimping in the region Dead zones result from low oxygen caused by algal blooms

By Michael PeltierNews Service of FloridaFor a mere $15 million, Florida lawmakers can secure $300 million for the state’s Florida Forever program, a bargain even during cash-strapped times, the top contenders to replace Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday in a bit of campaign camaraderie. Funding for the state’s premiere land-buying program is not a partisan

By John KennedyThe News Service of FloridaA Panhandle restaurateur said today he wants thousands of Floridians to hit the beaches to fight offshore oil-drilling along the state’s Gulf coast. Dave Rauschkolb, owner of Bud and Alley’s and two other beachside restaurants in the town of Seaside, has launched an effort dubbed Hands Across the Sand,

In what the House council chairman said will be the first of several meetings on oil drilling, Florida’s environmental chief today said drilling accidents pose a low risk to the state but he said other competing uses for state waters must be considered. The House Select Council on Strategic and Economic Planning heard more than

The governor says they could provide renewable energy for Florida, but Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole says biomass electric plants also are being viewed by DEP the same as any other environmental permit applications. Some Tallahassee residents who fought a proposed biomass gas electric plant in Tallahassee earlier this year now are asking

Florida law contains contradictions to guide the Public Service Commission on how much to allow companies to bill their customers for nuclear power plants that have not been completed, some PSC members said today. The PSC voted 3-1 to allow Florida’s two largest utilities to bill customers for two proposed nuclear plants in advance of

Florida oil drilling opponents today called on Gov. Charlie Crist to include more coastal protections to his criteria for allowing offshore drilling. Drilling supporters, meanwhile, touted support today for drilling from road and bridge builders — although an endorsement letter from the group was issued more than a month ago. Supporters say drilling can reduce