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Environmental Secretary Jon Steverson reapplies for his job

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Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Jon Steverson has reapplied for his job, agency staff confirmed Friday night. Before being named Secretary by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this year, Steverson served as the executive director of the Northwest Florida Management District. Steverson previously worked for DEP 2011-2012 as special counsel and acting deputy secretary for water policy before being asked by Scott to serve as secretary during the governor’s second administration. Steverson is reapplying for the post amid a controversy surrounding…

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Perhaps DEP’s Jon Steverson will tell the Cabinet what is going on in Palatka

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DEP Secretary Jon Steverson says he has never fired anyone for enforcing the law. Yet his fingerprints – or at least tacit backing – are all over the ouster of top staff at the St. Johns River Water Management District. The resignations of Executive Director Hans Tanzler and four top staff members at the district, based in Palatka, has prompted criticism from environmentalists and newspaper editorial writers about political interference from Tallahassee. Dinah Voyles Pulver of the Daytona Beach News…

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Bill Nelson files federal bill blocking seismic testing off Florida

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson says he filed legislation that he says would block a federal plan to allow oil and gas exploration off Florida’s Atlantic coast. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is considering 10 permits to allow seismic testing from Delaware south to about Melbourne off the coast of Florida. There is no timeline on a permitting decision because they involve multiple agencies, a bureau spokesman said. Environmental groups and 75 scientists have asked President Barack Obama to halt the program because…

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Fracking public records bill hangs on whether supporters vote against exemptions

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State Rep. Matt Gaetz voted for a hydraulic fracturing regulation bill on Monday, but says he will vote against a companion bill that would provide a public records law exemption. The outcome of the public records exemption bill likely depends on whether Gaetz is joined by others who supported the bill to provide for fracking regulation. HB 1205, which the Department of Environmental Protection proposed to create a fracking permitting program, passed the House 82-34 on Monday. HB 1209, the bill to exclude…

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Florida wants feds to delay Atlantic oil exploration

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Florida wants the Obama administration to delay its permitting to companies who want to use seismic air guns off of the state’s Atlantic Coast for oil and gas exploration. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection sent a letter on April 20 to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management saying the state is concerned that not enough is known about whether the seismic tests are harmful to marine life. The air guns emit canon-like air blasts underwater, the sound from which…

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Feds halt Lake O discharges after Florida pols sound alarm

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shut off discharges from Lake Okeechobee after claims of an algae bloom in waters coming from the lake. The federal agency discharges water to prevent weakening the Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake. But the nutrient-rich discharges can cause algal blooms that smother aquatic life in Indian River Lagoon and the Caloosahatchee River. “I have personally seen video and photos confirming that water adjacent to Lake Okeechobee is currently experiencing a toxic blue-green algae…

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House water bill language finds a new home as session winds down

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Language from a comprehensive House water bill was added on Thursday to other environmental legislation in the House over objections from Democrats. But the water bill language lacks key components of the Senate bill that is important to that chamber’s leadership, raising questions about whether the move represents gamesmanship between the two chambers. And some environmentalists say they’d prefer to see the bills die, effectively ending what some observers predicted would be the “year of water” in the Legislature. HB…

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