Rick Scott “Gets To Work” Cutting 8700 Jobs, Slashing $3.3 Billion From Education

So much for Rick Scott’s “7-7-7″ plan to create 700,000 jobs in Florida. This morning Scott unveiled his proposed budget at a private meeting of activists from the Tea Party. For a man who campaigned on promises to create jobs and cut spending, he seems to have only made good on the “cutting” portion of [...]

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Evaluating Environmental Disaster: “We Are In The Same Place Now” Since Exxon Valdez

From the Exxon Valdez to BP, little has changed in evaluating data on oil spills. A little “political will” as mentioned below would be good right about now. Just released from The University Of  Florida: Oil in Gulf of Mexico:  Biologists cite need for critical data to determine ecological consequences Twenty years after biologists attempted to [...]

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Rick Scott Puts “The Freeze” On Mercury

Gov. Rick Scott (shudder) “hit the ground running” as soon as he was sworn in on Tuesday by putting a stop to new regulations in Florida. One of the first casualties was a proposal for rules on water pollution for mercury contamination in Florida. A public hearing had been scheduled for those rules, but then [...]

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Rick Scott Oversteps On Obama’s Oil Drilling Ban

Rick Scott is not happy about the offshore oil drilling ban reimposed today by the Obama Administration. His statement on the ban, and President Obama: “The Obama Administration’s offshore drilling ban is yet another example of government regulation impeding economic growth.  Florida is committed to pursuing energy independence, which is essential to national security. With [...]

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EPA Subpoenas Halliburton Over Hydraulic Fracturing

As investigations continue into Halliburton’s role in the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico last April, the company is now facing subpoenas from the Environmental Protection Agency over natural gas extraction methods and their potentially adverse effects on drinking water and public health. The extraction method, called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” [...]

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BP: $93 Million Spent On Advertising Since Gulf Disaster

Today House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Bart Stupak released findings on how much BP has spent on advertising since the oil disaster to Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) who prompted the probe. Among the findings: Between April 2010 and July 2010, BP spent more than $93 [...]

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The Oil Is Far From Gone

But then did you really think it was “gone” in the first place? From the St. Petersburg Times: Far from being gone, the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster appears to still be causing ecological damage in the Gulf of Mexico, according to new findings from University of South Florida scientists. And scientists from the [...]

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Gulf “Three-Quarters” Low On Oil….

We’ve heard that nearly three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher is gone. Sure. Of course, that means there’s still at least one-quarter left in the Gulf, and kind of like the old question “is the glass half empty, or is the glass half full?” how you feel about those amounts of [...]

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