FL Voters Approved Conservation Funds; Legislature Has Other Ideas

When Florida voters cast their ballots in November's election, they sent a message to elected officials: Protect Florida's natural habitats, including the Everglades, according to The New York Times. But the Florida Legislature has other ideas on how to spend the $750 million pool set aside to "buy, conserve and restore land and water resources."

During November's election, 75 percent of Florida's voters approved constitutional Amendment 1, which was intended to boost Florida Forever, a conservation program "that had been hard hit by state budge cuts," The Times reports.

However, during the current Florida Legislative session, lawmakers shifted money to other programs and projects.

"We don't need to be known as the boarding-land state," State Senator Alan Hays, the Republican chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, said about the money.

To read the entire New York Times article, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/us/florida-legislature-has-its-own-ideas-for-voter-approved-conservation-fund.html?ref=us&_r=0.

Fracking: Study Shows Waste Dangerous

A recent study states that state regulations which governs hazardous oil-and-gas waste poses a danger to human health, as well as the environment. An article titled Fracking Wast Puts Public At Risk, Study Says (Bradenton Herald) reports that "states disregard the risks" due to decades-old regulations, putting the public's health and the environment at risk

The study, released by the environmental organization Earthworks, "studied the rules governing of the often toxic waste..."

To read the Bradenton Herald article in its entirety, click here. To read more about Fracking, as well as other environmental issues, go to Inside Climate News.