Over the past year, Florida’s struggling solar industry has been knocked a number of blows that could seriously hurt the chances of making clean energy common. Most of those hits have come from the state’s utilities, which — despite claims as being pro-sun power — have continually obstructed the private…
If you were the kind of person who liked to sniff out plots and nefarious designs in headlines, you might raise an eyebrow over the recent actions of Florida’s utilities. Over the course of the summer and fall, Florida Power & Light and others basically blocked the state’s private solar…
One of the many gunbarrels America is staring down right now pertains to its infrastructure. Roads, dams, levees, coastal areas — basically, it’s all crumbling faster than state governments are willing to throw money at reconstruction, which means the next 20 years might be interesting. And although down here in…
Hurricane season officially ends on Sunday and, here we are another year without getting hit by one. It’s almost as if we shouldn’t even bother with having a hurricane season. Yet scientists say we’re just smack in the middle of a ridiculously lucky streak — one that is going on…
The day that pro-solar power advocates across the state had been fearing finally came this week. The state’s Public Service Commission held a number of recent votes that basically knee-cap Florida’s home solar-power industry. This come after pressure from the state’s powerful utilities, which have been trying to edge solar…
Brace yourself, everyone. South Florida is about to get all Planet Hoth on us with a cold front swooping in over the weekend that could be bringing temperatures as low as mid-50s. So get ready to bust out those winter coats and boots…it’s gonna be CRAZY. An arctic blast is…
Florida Power & Light wants to use public funds to fight off clean water rules. FPL went before the Florida Public Service Commission on Wednesday, asking it to allow the utility company to collect $228,500 from ratepayers to lobby against proposed water rules by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The…
Hal Kreitman is having a staring contest with an eight-foot bull gator. It’s a Monday morning, and fast-moving cloud cover yanks shadows across a shallow pond nestled along an empty stretch of Loop Road in the Everglades. Kreitman — 51 years old, salt-and-pepper hair, circle medallion glinting off his gym-ripped…
Rick Scott is going to have company at his seaside mansion this weekend but the visitors are not likely to be welcome. A coalition of Florida citizens dismayed at the governor’s environmental record are planning to march on his $9.2 million residence at 3150 Gordon Drive in Naples to raise…
Members of all three South Florida native people’s groups — the Seminole Tribe, the Independent Traditional Seminole Nation, and the Miccosukee Tribe — got an early start on Columbus Day this year, marking the date with education and networking on what they see as a new form of colonization –…
Florida is pretty much sinking into the ocean. This is no longer in question. The real question here is, What the hell is being done about it? For now, the only answer politicians seem to have is to look at the ocean, which is exactly what Sen. Bill Nelson and…
For Florida’s upcoming November elections, most of the buzz has been about Amendment 2 — the proposal that would legalize medical marijuana via an amendment to the state constitution. But there’s another proposed amendment on the ballot — one that would dedicate funds for conservation projects. Every time a person…
The National Climate Assessment findings released in May by the Obama administration found that South Florida is “exceptionally vulnerable to sea level rise.” South Florida, the assessment concluded, is sinking into the ocean. That’s the bad news. The good news is that South Florida environmentalists, scientists, business owners, and public…
A state court judge last week blocked Florida Power & Light’s plans to build an immense new gas-fired power plant in Hendry County, on environmentally sensitive, historically significant land that adjoins the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. See also: Seminoles to Protest FPL Power Plant on Earth Day In a…
Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet announced the approval of the acquisition of more than 1,275 acres to protect environmentally sensitive areas in Monroe and Washington counties. The approval is the final step before land can be purchased for these two Florida Forever projects. “This more than $4 million investment…
For one subset of the Florida cracker, hunting, fishing, and frogging is a way of life. And intrinsic to their subculture, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, is the use of swamp buggies. So when the National Park Service banned their use in parts…
Environmentalists took one on the chin Tuesday when Collier County officials voted to drop a lawsuit they’d filed against the Department of Environmental Protection over the state’s policing of fracking by Texas oil prospectors in the Great Cypress Swamp watershed. See also: – Frack No More: Activists Drive Texas Oil…
It’s getting ugly between Florida’s solar industry and the state’s public utilities. All summer, both camps have been sniping at each other after Florida’s power companies blocked solar industry advocates from sitting in on a policy skull session at the Florida Public Service Commission. Now, the war of words is…
Just when you think the Palm Beach County Tea Party can’t sink any deeper into the quicksand of gullibility, it brings in another clown act to prove you wrong. Last time around, it was an uproar over a mythical U.N. plot to subvert local government via mind control. This time,…
Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager billionaire from California, has decided to pour millions into a campaign to remind Floridians that Rick Scott has been terrible to the environment. Steyer’s super PAC, NextGen Climate, is going strong to the hoop with attack ads targeting Scott and his environmental record,…
As part of its effort to watchdog Rick Scott’s administration, the Florida arm of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) combs through the annual data about the caseload of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The thinking goes that a shrinking number of corrective actions by the state’s…
Marco Rubio hasn’t been a friend to the environment. We know this. You know this. But is he the worst climate denier in Congress? That might be up for debate, but we’re going out on a limb and say, pretty much yes. Mainly because he’s the senator from Florida, and…
