The EPA today announced the appointment of a director of a broad program designed to “facilitate collaborative actions to protect, maintain, and restore the health and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico in ways consistent with the economic well-being of the Region.”
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson testified before the U.S. Senate, Committee on Environment and Public Works this morning, highlighting the need for environmental funding in the President’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget.
The U.S. Senate yesterday passed the Gulf RESTORE Act, a piece of legislation that would dedicate 80 percent of the Clean Water Act fines for the gulf oil disaster toward restoring the gulf ecosystem and economy.
In a letter sent to EPA Regional Administrator Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, the head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection requests that the agency “return to Floridians the responsibility for protecting Florida’s waters.”
Gov. Rick Scott yesterday signed legislation supporting Florida’s effort to create its own set of water pollution rules, also known as “numeric nutrient criteria.” The move is likely to add fuel to the fire of environmentalists, who argue that the state-drafted rules are not stringent enough to combat Florida’s nutrient pollution problem.
The federal government today released a proposed $8.344 billion budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for fiscal year 2013. Florida environmental groups applauded the announcement, arguing the money would help ensure that job-creating restoration projects (like some underway in the Everglades) will not come to a halt.
In a new statement to The Florida Independent, the EPA defends its Florida-specific water pollution rules against charges in a new ad by the group Free Market Florida that the standards will cost the state “billions” and “eliminate 14,000 farming jobs.” Instead, according to the EPA, the regulations will ”save Florida money in the long run.”
The Florida Senate gave final passage to a bill approving a set of state-drafted water pollution rules late Thursday, a move environmentalists say is a “slap in the face to Floridians” dealing with algal blooms and fish kills caused by poor water quality. Critics charge that the rules drafted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection are not as strong as the ones drafted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Critics of federally mandated water pollution standards continue to challenge the costs and benefits of implementing the new water rules, while environmental groups maintain that the standards are necessary to ensure the health of Florida’s waterways, and its economy.
The Florida House of Representatives on Friday unanimously approved a bill to ease approval of a set of proposed state water quality standards drafted in response to a set of federal pollution limits, which many argue are too expensive to implement.
rss