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.

Activists, Riverkeeper: JEA, Utility Industry Distorting Facts

Environmental, state and local activists are taking a stance against JEA and other utility organizations that have criticized President Obama's plan to cut the nation's power plants' pollution, calling his proposal a "good start" to helping rid waterways and air of dirty technology's effects. St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman has said that JEA, as well as industry lobbyists, are "working overtime to distort the facts," scaring the public while undermining the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule, adding, "...[C]oal-fired power plants are the largest source of toxic water pollution in the United States," The Florida Times-Union reports.

Bud Para, JEA's chief public affairs officer, said, "JEA's coal plants are not the coal plants Lisa's referring to," adding that JEA's coal-powered modern plants comply with federal regulations.

While Florida utilities, including JEA, have invested in other sources to generate electricity, coal remains a major source of fuel, with coal being used to generate "about 65 percent" of JEA's power this year.

The EPA's proposed rule aims at a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, according to the Times-Union article.

In an earlier Florida Times-Union article ("JEA: Obama's pollution reduction plan 'most disruptive energy policy in modern times'"), JEA stated that President Barack Obama's proposed plan would adversely affect Florida's economy and strip utilities of needed fuel flexibility. JEA added that the proposed rule is "the most disruptive energy policy proposal in modern times" and that the EPA's goal "would quickly render coal-fired power plants obsolete."

JEA (formerly Jacksonville Electric Authority) currently owns and operates an electric system, as well as a water system, according to the JEA website.

To read The Florida Times-Union articles further, check out "Riverkeeper: JEA, utility industry distorting facts on President Obama's pollution-reduction plan" and "JEA: Obama's pollution reduction plan 'most disruptive energy policy in modern times'".

U.N. Study: Ozone Layer Shows Sign of Recovery

After years of depletion, the ozone layer surrounding the earth is showing "its first sign of recovery," according to a United Nations study. Experts said it was largely due to global action, including a 1987 ban on man-made gases, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

While the study also showed that the ozone hole over the Antarctica has also stopped growing, it is expected to be "about a decade" before it starts to shrink.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol banned or phased out chemicals that deplete the ozone layer, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs); these were once widely used in spray cans and refrigerators.

To read the Orlando Sentinel article in its entirety, click here.

BP About Claims Administrator: 'Court Should Replace Him'

BP Plc has asked a U.S. court to fire the lawyer in charge of paying out compensation to those affected by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, stating that the lawyer had not disclosed an alleged conflict of interest. The motion, filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, states that attorney Patrick Juneau advocated for claimants before being appoint by the court to run the claims program, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

This was the latest in a series of challenges filed by BP, claiming that Juneau had "been too generous and liberal when approving claims," the Orlando Sentinel article states.

While BP originally expected the class-action settlement to cost $7.8 billion, it has since said that the uncapped program "could cost $9.2 billion and that this amount could grow."

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Cancers at PA Prison Blamed on Coal Ash

A high cancer rate among prisoners at the State Correctional Institution Fayette in southwestern Pennsylvania has been linked to a nearby coal ash dump, according to a report. The report, released by the Abolitionist Law Center and the Human Rights Coalition, also advised that the correctional facility should be closed down, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

From 2010 through 2013, eleven prisoners died of cancer, and six others were diagnosed with cancer at SCI Fayette. Only two other Pennsylvania prisons have a higher inmate death rate than SCI Fayette; both of those prisons have high geriatric populations. The investigation found that the "coal ash was the most likely cause of the inmate cancers as well as other illnesses at the facility.

Coal ash, a residue of burning coal in power plants, was used extensively in Pennsylvania during the 1960s and '70s. Its carcinogenic components include lead, arsenic and mercury.

The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm based in Pittsburg while the Human Rights Coalition is a national prison reform group.

To read the entire Orlando Sentinel article, click here.

Obama Signs Sen. Nelson's Bill For Toxic Algae Research

President Barack Obama has signed a bill that would allow $82 million for research in controlling the outbreak of toxic algae. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, sponsored the bill which amends the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998. Nelson said that it would "help battle the algae that's been choking off life in Florida's waterways," according to The Palm Beach Post.

To read more about it, click here.