"Pals of Polluters" protest long delayed EPA Water Rules

Rick Scott and "Pollution Pal" Adam Putnam (incoming AG Commissioner) not content to wait until they actually take office, to begin dismantling Florida's Environment, send a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, challenging the EPA Clean Water regulations (already postponed over  ten years)

They  claim radical environmentalists from the (BUSH era) EPA teamed up with former Gov. Jebby Bush created rues so onerous that they might hinder the ongoing high speed destruction of Florida's waters.

The St. Petersburg Times says "Polluted water endangers public health, threatens the golden geese of property values and tourism and destroys the very environment that attracts residents here. ... The new rules are hardly an example of an activist federal government overstepping its authority. The EPA told the states in 1998 to limit nutrient pollution in surface waters by 2004 or it would do the job for them."

 The Sun Sentinel says "Florida has only itself to blame for the federal intervention, in the form of clean water rules that take effect in 15 months. After all, the rules came about after environmental groups filed a lawsuit demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency enforce the federal Clean Water Act."

Here is the Letter inbound Not-Yet-Elected "Pals-of-Polluters" sent EPA 

November 12, 2010

The Honorable Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator
United State Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NE
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator Jackson:

As the newly elected officials representing Florida, we are writing today regarding the proposed EPA numeric nutrient rules for our state. We are concerned that the EPA’s unprecedented nutrient criteria rulemaking will impose substantial regulatory and economic consequences on Floridians. The rule for rivers, streams and lakes is scheduled to be finalized on November 14, 2010, and we request a delay so that we have time to fully analyze the rule and its affect on Florida.

We are very concerned about the cost of this onerous regulation to Floridians. Businesses across Florida are struggling and our unemployment rate is nearly 12%. We each ran on the platform of fiscal responsibility and heard from numerous constituents about concerns of an overbearing federal government that’s placing burdensome regulations on Florida’s families and employers. According to a study done by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the EPA mandates set to be finalized this November 14th will impose capital costs of over $4 billion on municipal wastewater treatment utilities and over $17 billion on municipal storm water utilities. The cost of these new mandates could impede our state’s economic recovery and increase the price of utilities, food and other necessities for Floridians.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has expressed significant concerns regarding the scientific validity of the numeric nutrient criteria the EPA is set to impose on Florida, even questioning whether the standards are attainable or will achieve environmental benefits. In April 2010, the EPA’s own Science Advisory Board joined the chorus of FDEP, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the Florida Legislature and others in expressing serious concerns that the EPA’s methods for developing nutrient standards are scientifically flawed. [editor - my emphasis]

Therefore, we strongly urge you to delay implementation of the final rule for lakes and flowing waters. Florida is the first state to be subjected to such federal rules, and we must ensure that the science is sound and the benefits are worthy of the costs.

Sincerely,

Rick Scott
Governor-Elect

Pam Bondi
Attorney General-Elect

Adam Putnam
Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services- Elect

Richard B. "Rich" Nugent
Congressman-Elect District 5

David Rivera
Congressman-Elect District 25

Dennis A. Ross
Congressman-Elect District 12

Steve Southerland
Congressman-Elect District 2

Daniel Webster
Congressman-Elect District 8

Activists must keep in mind, since Florida refused in the 1990's to enforce EPA standard environmentalists sued to get EPA to enforce standards that were not protecting Floridians.

Now, more than ten years later the EPA announced Federal standards would finally be enforced here in the land of the Environmental Scofflaws. The moderates say well since we live by our beaches lakes and shores shouldn't we protect our investment in tourism.
(Unless Jebby has another NEFARIOUS PLAN)

"It is now time to get started," EPA Regional Administrator Gwen Keyes-Fleming said this morning.

Nutrient pollution is caused by nitrogen and phosphorus in discharges from sewage treatment plants, septic tanks and agricultural runoff laden with fertilizer and animal waste.

The nutrients trigger algae blooms that turn lakes and rivers into algae-choked messes that can poison water supplies and set off a ecosystem chain reaction that leads to devastating fish kills.

The EPA standards set specific numeric limits on the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen, replacing the state of Florida's more general standard that says only that nutrients must not "cause an imbalance in natural populations of aquatic flora and fauna."

The standards announced today apply to lakes, rivers and streams. Standards that would apply to South Florida canals and downstream estuaries aren't due until August 2012.

Environmental Activists can only say - IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME EPA!

Contact Lisa Jackson at the EPA - and tell them Protect Us from Pre-Purchased Pollution Friendly Politicians - [jackson.lisap@epa.gov]

solidarity & peace

Rick

www.AveryVoice.com

"We must deal with The World as it is"... Axelrod

We must deal with the world as it is, 

yet remake it, as it Must Be - Nelson Mandela

We must deal with the world as it is, 

and then raise it up - Dr. King

We must deal with the world as it is, 

and bring people to freedom - Sojourner Truth

We must deal with the world as it is, 

and finally end centuries of slavery - Frederick Douglass

We must deal with the world as it is, 

and remake the Union - A. Lincoln

We must deal with the world as it is, 

and change centuries of oppression - Susan B Anthony

We must deal with the world as it is, 

defeat the greatest power on the planet 

and make a place for a New Nation - Continental Congress

We must deal with the world as it is,
and in ten short years, put a man on the moon - JFK

We must deal with the world as it is, 

and finally tell the people the truth - Daniel Ellsberg

Elect Elizabeth Warren President in 2012

She sees a corrupt world of interlocked banks, credit, insurance

and Wall Street and said We must deal with this corrupt world 

which CAN ONLY EXIST by using fine print and the law, 

to hold the working class hostage.

Elect Elizabeth Warren 2012 - LEADERSHIP - THERE IS A DIFFERENCE

Where else are you going to go?

As long as we have no answer when Max Baucus, Rahm Emmanuel, Bill Clinton, Robert Gibbs and their ilk, say "where else are you going to go?" And we have no answer, they can smugly ignore us, pick our pockets and stab us in the back.

Its long, long passed time when progressives need to find that answer and create an alternative. We need to stop worrying like the tea party never did, that we are not the majority. We are the future, we have been the party of the future for hundreds of years.

We ended factory abuses, put an end to child labor. Ended slavery, except under rocks of agri-business. Helped women get the franchise and have been in the forefront of any important improvement since John sat down in Runymede and was forced with a stroke of his pen to drive a stake through the heart of the Divine Right of Kings.

Now we must organize regionally and then hold a national convention. We must draft the planks of our platform priorities and give the working class the real alternative they need desperately. They can expect nothing more than lip service from the sellout Corporate Democrats. Also we can no longer allow our agenda to be framed only by the likes of FOX NEWS and Breitbart. America needs a true and honest platform that working men and women  can compare directly to more of the same Wall Street Bailouts and more WAR PROFITEERING benefiting only munitions manufacturers, petroleum polluters
and mercenaries, while pouring the lives of young American men and women down the rat hole of their profits and multi-million dollar bonuses.

I must introduce two people are working right now to lay the ground work for this National Progressive Movement, one is Ms. Mikki Royce is working on the county and regional level helping progressive activists and organizations to work together through a system of regional round tables.

This facilitates cooperative effort and fosters cooperative efforts so necessary in these fractured, fragile communities. This month Mikki is  working on regional organizing on the east coast and is teaming up with other like minded organizers to duplicate her southern strategy with activists across the mid and far west. [You can contact Mikki Royce to support her efforts progressivesrock@att.net ]

Another "global-minded" progressive organizer is Rob Alston, a software engineer and systems analyst who has a similar vision to cultivate a national network of progressive media activists. He has begun to implement with cooperative activists from the heartland, Missouri, Texas and Tenesee to the Northwest (Washington and Oregon) and activists in the deep south (Florida and Louisiana). Rob's focus is on a dual model of assisting regional activists to create alternative media centers by cultivating technical media skills among progressive activists. [The activist community needs an alternative to Corporate Media]


Helping regional activists to develop these media skills, helping them to use Internet Streaming Media as well as alternative television and radio models. Rob sees an energized and cooperative network of regional activists that can provide a vital media alternative to corporate mouthpiece media. Rob also plans on combining with the media component a "JAYCEES-like" leadership building and community service component giving young adults and seniors ways of growing a more humane civic model. [Rob can be contacted at rlabston@yahoo.com ]

Activists like these and other similarly minded activists need to prepare, NOW not in some dim distant future for a national progressive convention, where planks of a political agenda can be hammered out and candidates surfaced to offer Americans in 2012, an alternative to the theocrats and corporate drones of the republican party and the soulless sellouts who have captured  the purse strings and the agenda of the corporatist shills of the democratic party.

We don't have time to lament 2010, the year the corporatists took open power, we have a future to build. Which side are you on?

solidarity & peace

Rick Spisak
janhuss@bellsouth.net
www.AveryVoice.com

The Choice between two ANTI-CHOICE Candidates and a Sinker

RE: Florida's District 16 

Ostensibly an "instant" democrat appears just in time to run for office.

Jim Horn (D*) is anti-choice. 

Rep. Tom Rooney (R) is anti-choice.
[* Horn proposes an all republican agenda]

We Florida Dems - have to do better next time. 
My god this is 2010?
Any bets Horn wants prayer in school, and limitations on BIRTH CONTROL?
In addition to Term Limits and an end to Obama-care which he calls unconstitutional. 

bad choices part II

RE SINKS REQUEST for an Email Endorsement...

Jim (Sink's Campaign Manager)

I'll be frank with you. I tried to tape a short interview with Ms. Sink, I was told she didn't need the help of progressive bloggers.  And for gods' sake put that video camera away. I hoped to share her talk with local dems who couldn't attend. [NO THEY DIDN'T WANT THAT.]

There will come a time in the state of Florida when the Democratic party listens to voices broader than the narrow moderate/conservative voices that have mesmerized it for so long.

And has offered us bland even silly but always moderate always prepared to be as colorful as cardboard, or the states' native concrete.

Progressive have the ear of many Floridians, Floridians who care about our waters, our land, the rate of development. The poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico, the quality of our schools, and our jobs.

Jim, I'm not giving my votes nor my voice and pen to Scott, he's already stolen enough.  Until the democratic party of Florida begins to listen to voices beyond the bland of Meek and Sink. I'll be supporting more progressive candidates like Michael Arth. Whom the party deemed unworthy of even a single debate.

That Jim is not very democratic.

Richard W. Spisak Jr.

www.AveryVoice