Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Janelle Irwin TaylorSeptember 25, 2018

The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce is backing the voluntary “No Straws St. Pete” campaign to reduce the use of single-use plastic straws, the organization announced Tuesday. The Chamber previously objected to a mandatory ban on straws because businesses wanted the option to use them if they felt their clientele would object to not […]

Janelle Irwin TaylorSeptember 24, 2018

Gov. Rick Scott is directing another $2.2 million to red tide mitigation efforts, his office announced Monday. The state is funding testing on technologies to reduce red tide, including ozone treatments and specialized clay. The funding will expand Mote Marine Laboratory Ozone Treatment System in Sarasota. Mote has successfully tested ozone systems in tanks at the […]

Janelle Irwin TaylorSeptember 18, 2018

Gov. Rick Scott is putting another $4 million toward red tide funding for local communities impacted by the outbreak. The Tuesday announcement brings the total Florida Department of Environmental Protection funding available so far to $13 million. Red tide has been spreading north along Florida’s Gulf Coast for much of the late summer. It’s plagued Pinellas […]

Ryan NicolJuly 20, 2018

As algae blooms continue to pour out of Lake Okeechobee, environmentalists and other activists are once again taking aim at the farming industry, blaming them for contributing to the toxicity that allows algae to grow. The sugar industry has long disputed that it deserves the majority of the blame. Now one group is ramping up […]

Mitch PerryJanuary 25, 2018

Vern Buchanan has fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, urging the agency to preserve offshore drilling safety regulations adopted after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Longboat Key Republican’s letter is a formal protest to the proposed weakening of federal rules requiring better emergency shutdown systems, new guidelines regulating acceptable drilling […]

Jim RosicaOctober 10, 2017

Democrats and Republicans from both sides of the Capitol rotunda came together Tuesday to back Sen. Dana Young‘s latest try to ban fracking in Florida. Also known as hydraulic fracturing, the drilling technique involves shooting water and chemicals deep underground, breaking up rock to get at oil and natural gas that’s unreachable by conventional drilling. “Advocates […]

Associated PressFebruary 1, 2017

Republicans jammed two of President Donald Trump‘s top Cabinet picks through the Senate Finance Committee with no Democrats in the room Wednesday after suspending a rule that would have otherwise barred them from taking the vote. The tactic seemed a warning shot that they might deploy brute political muscle in the upcoming fight over the […]

Larry GriffinJanuary 19, 2017

A new bill filed today by Rep. Randy Fine, who represents House District 53, would aim to solve the Indian River Lagoon’s septic tank crisis and help all of Florida’s water quality by requiring the inspection of septic tanks as part of home and other real estate sales. The Indian River Lagoon was revealed last year […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 18, 2016

We love the water around here. We boat on it, haul fish from it, swim in it, and build houses that provide spectacular views of it. Water is such a big deal around here that many people identify us not by the actual places where we live, but by the catchall name of Tampa Bay. […]

Diane RobertsMay 11, 2016

You’d think that a state where they launch rockets into space, a state which houses the world’s most powerful superconducting magnets, a state with several perfectly good universities, would embrace science. Or at least not be so thoroughly hostile to it. But this is Rick Scott’s Florida, where there’s still legislative resistance to teaching evolution […]

Tag: pollution

Chamber backs voluntary St. Pete plastic straw ban

Rick Scott directs $2.2 million for red tide mitigation

State red tide funding soars to $13 million

Sugar farmers launch website to counter criticism over algae blooms

Vern Buchanan (again) protests drilling regulation rollbacks

Dana Young will try for fracking ban again

GOP pushes 2 top Cabinet picks through to full Senate

Hoping to curb pollution, Randy Fine bill would require inspection of septic tanks

Joe Henderson: Polluted water in St. Pete leaves little room for mistake

Diane Roberts: Bad science is not good for state’s waterways