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CounterPunch
October
24, 2002
Jeb Bush and
the Environment
by ALAN FARAGO
At a recent meeting in Tallahassee, the governor
of Florida boasted of his "devious plan" to thwart
the class size amendment. What kind of governor boasts about
being devious? One who has gotten away with it before.
Take the governor's policies on suburban
sprawl; linking environmental issues like habitat destruction,
loss of wetlands, with traffic congestion, inadequate infrastructure,
and overcrowded schools.
In 1998 Jeb campaigned on a promise to
reform policies that influence the sensible growth of our communities
and protections for our environment. From the governor's mansion,
he promoted an internet survey on public attitudes on sprawl.
But the results were not what the governor wanted to hear. A
strong majority of those who completed the survey asked for more
state involvement in controlling sprawl, not less.
Governor Bush junked the survey claiming
it represented the views of only a small fraction of Floridians.
He then appointed a blue ribbon panel to recommend "real"
reforms. But his appointments were stacked with special interests,
and its recommendations withered in the legislature under pressure
from lobbyists.
Today, the wagon wheels on Florida's
effort to control sprawl, wobbly under Jeb's predecessor, have
fallen off. Jeb continues to maintain that state regulatory authority
should be diminished in favor of local government, and that local
officials can protect the interests of people better than state
agencies in Tallahassee. It is strange, because Jeb continues
to reverse his principles in practice.
The most controversial legislation of
the 2002 session was a bill that galvanized the protest of one
of the largest citizen coalitions in Florida history. The bill
provided funding for a portion of Everglades restoration, a worthy
goal, but was poisoned by an amendment making it even harder
for citizens to challenge bad permitting decisions by state agencies
and local officials.
Jeb could have asked the legislature
to deliver a clean Everglades bill, but he didn't. By signing
the bill, Jeb made it more difficult for citizens to challenge
their own local government. He reversed himself again when he
signed into law a measure in favor of billboard owners even when
billboards had been constructed in violation of local zoning
codes.
In the 2002 redistricting of Congressional
and state district boundaries, Jeb had a keen eye for two legislators
in particular; Mark Weissman and Cindy Lerner. These were the
only two state representatives cut from districts in which they
lived.
In successive years, both legislators
had ranked first out of 120 members of the Florida House by the
Florida League of Conservation Voters Legislative Scorecard.
The League tracks voting record and bill/amendment sponsorship
of state legislators on the environment. A low rating correlates
with bad votes. A high rating correlates with leadership on environmental
issues.
Cindy Lerner earned her number #1 ranking
by speaking out in defense of Florida's drinking water quality
and against Jeb's plans to weaken federal rules protecting drinking
water quality from risky well drilling.
In forming a new Congressional district
in south Florida, Jeb cut the Everglades from its staunchest
Congressional defender, Congressman Peter Deutsch. In 2002, Deutsch,
a Democrat whose district boundaries used to take in the Everglades
and the Florida Keys, had a 100% rating from the national League
of Conservation Voters.
The Republican contender for the new
district is Mario Diaz Balart. As state representative, Diaz
Balart received a rating of 18% by the Florida LCV. His brother,
Lincoln, a Congressman from Miami Dade County scarcely rated
14% from the national LCV.
It would be one thing if Jeb's leadership
on redistricting were simply a case of "winners" thrashing
political "losers", but the "losers" in the
Bush term are mostly ordinary citizens.
In 2001, Jeb wrote to his brother, the
president, urging the relaxation of federal drinking water standards
by the EPA. While citizens mounted a grass roots campaign and
stopped the governor's plan to pass new legislation that would
have legalized pollution of Florida's drinking water aquifers,
the corporate giant Enron was greasing the skids for a bid to
privatize Florida's water resources, a scheme supported by Jeb's
key environmental aide, David Struhs. Only later, after fraud
brought the corporation down-taking hundreds of millions from
state pension funds-did the public learn that Enron's opening
night party in Tallahassee, in 1998, was called "Liquid
Assets".
Either Jeb means what he says, or he
doesn't. In Orlando, Jeb said that his remarks about his "devious
plan" were sarcastic. Sarcasm is when you say one thing,
and mean another. Devious is when you do something completely
different from what you said you were going to do.
Environmentalists know the difference,
which is a compelling reason to believe it is time for new leadership
in Florida.
Alan Farago
lives in Coral Gables, Florida. He can be reached at: afarago@bellsouth.net
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