See also “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Faces Lawsuit for Not Protecting Ten Florida Species”The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity has filed a massive petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service demanding that a total of 53 reptiles and amphibians be granted protection under the Endangered Species Act.Ten of the…
See also “DEP Brass Jeff Littlejohn’s Parents Own Lobbying Firm With Questionable Clientele” and “EPA Wants to Know if Herschel Vinyard Lied on His Resume”UPDATED AT 1:17 p.m. DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller just informed New Times that Sally Mann and Doug Mann are now divorced. The below post has…
See also “DEP Getting Weaker Under Rick Scott” and “EPA Wants to Know if Herschel Vinyard Lied on His Resume”The number-two man at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is the son of lobbyists who represent clients with huge environmental stakes in Florida.Jeff Littlejohn, deputy secretary for regulatory programs at…
Broward Vice Mayor Kristin Jacobs, who last year tried banning the sale of bongs, is the newest member of the Intergovernmental Coastal Oceans Task Force, a group of lawmakers and eco-experts appointed to protect us from the forthcoming watery woe of climate change.The group is said to represent the “philosophy…
Florida has landed in fifth place in the annual beachwater quality rankings from the Natural Resources Defense Council. While some counties had as many as 13 percent of their water samples exceed federal bacteria standards, Broward County’s number was down at 2 percent; Palm Beach and Miami-Dade were both at…
Gov. Rick Scott appears on track to fulfill his vision of making the Florida Department of Environmental Protection a customer-service oriented rubber stamp that allows industry to dump on the environment with little worry.In 2011, there was a 28 percent drop in enforcement cases handled by the DEP, while pollution penalty assessments dropped by 29…
The nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has been tearing up the Department of Environmental Protection with public-records request. First the left-leaning group, more commonly known as PEER, called into question whether DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard lied on his résumé, triggering an ongoing investigation by the feds. Then it released a bunch of seemingly free-form brainstorming…
Here’s a conundrum. Last week, via the environmentalist group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, we got wind of some notes from a meeting of state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials last year that showed some unorthodox — some might say laughable — ideas. Our brief blog item on the…
Hello. You pay taxes in Florida, and have a stake in state-owned lands and public parks. So naturally, you want the state to save money on those lands, and would be supportive of such enterprising ideas as building a privately run wood-pellet mill on public land that will sell product…
From Sombrero Reef down in the Keys to the waters of West Palm Beach, red barrel sponges are disintegrating at worrisome rates. The culprit is unknown, and state scientists are busy trying to figure out just how widespread the disease outbreak is.At the end of April, Ed Tichenor of Palm Beach…
Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF recently announced that its exploratory drilling efforts in “ultra-deep” waters off the coast of Cuba were unsuccessful. To drill the test well, Repsol leased the massive Chinese-built Scarabeo 9 drilling rig from Sapiem, an Italian company. The embargo has pretty much blocked U.S. companies from getting…
In the world of reptiles, turtles have a certain reputation as shell-dwelling wimps that make nice pets for 8-year-old girls. They’re slow and passive and hardly what one would call intimidating. Sure, you can argue that the snapping turtles pack a mean bite, but who among us has actually been at the receiving end…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether Herschel Vinyard, secretary of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, fabricated part of his resume and has asked Vinyard’s counsel to clarify various discrepancies surrounding his employment history.It seems like a lose-lose situation for Vinyard, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Rick Scott in…
It seems every week a new invasive species tearing through Florida makes headlines. Maybe it’s because we’re home to some of the busiest ports in the world, maybe it’s due to our ostentatious exotic pet owners constantly trying to one-up one another, or maybe it’s just that the climate here…
Red barrel sponges from Delray Ledge north to Breakers Reef are being attacked and killed by a mysterious disease, according to divers with Palm Beach County Reef Rescue.Ed Tichenor, who first observed the problem, says what’s most alarming is the rate at which the disease is killing the sponges. On April…
In last week’s cover story, we looked at why reef-building corals are being plundered from the South Pacific and sent to the shores of Florida. But the curio trade isn’t the only industry fueling the death of coral. For centuries, jewelry makers have harvested precious red and pink corals. These deep-water corals are cousins of…
This week’s New Times cover story looks at why coral reefs halfway around the world are being decimated for Florida’s curio trade. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at one group that’s working to reverse the trend. Ken Nedimyer looked up from his omelet and asked if I get seasick. “Never,” I answered…
Last week, we told you about how seven species of coral found in Florida’s waters are “extremely likely” to go extinct by the end of the century. But coral reefs around the world, not just Florida, are increasingly imperiled.This week’s New Times cover story looks at how local shell shops and…
It was raining all weekend, the second half of the Fort Lauderdale Air Show was canceled, and the falling wet stuff isn’t going away anytime soon. Rain in Florida isn’t anything new, but weather reports indicate thunderstorms hitting the area every day for the next week. Womp.Weather.com puts next Sunday…
You’ve got the chance to save a boatload of money on your electric bill, and the electric company wants to help you do it.Florida Power & Light announced earlier this week that it would be offering more than $3 million in rebates to customers who install solar equipment in their…
Care about the health of local waters? Got a beef with how the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is being managed? Don’t want to see the Atlantic turned into a barren, polluted wasteland?If so, then pay attention to what the Nature Conservancy and the Surfrider Foundation are doing this week. …
Florida’s coral reefs have been on the decline for decades, and it looks like things could get a whole lot worse. Seven species of coral found in Florida and Caribbean waters “are extremely likely to go extinct” before the year 2100, and five of those species are the most “imperiled overall,” according to…
