Attorneys say lawsuit focuses on oil spill's effects on property values

The sight of oil washing up on Florida's beaches and the empty restaurants, souvenir stores and bait shops already has led to the filing of numerous lawsuits -- creating perhaps a sense that attorneys are closing in like sharks at the smell of blood, or money, in the water.

But some attorneys who recently filed a class-action lawsuit against county property appraisers in the Florida Panhandle say they're not moving in for the kill. They said they're trying to help Florida's property appraisers get clear direction from the state on assessing the effects of the oil spill on property values.

"When we filed it we did not think it was a lawsuit hostile to property appraisers," said former Florida State University President Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, one of the attorneys representing coastal property owners. "Indeed, I think it is helpful to the property appraisers."

But at least one of the three county property appraisers who was sued said the lawsuit isn't helpful -- or necessary to adjust property values next year based on the oil spill.

Read more at The Florida Tribune.

Florida's Crist calls oil drilling special session

Saying he felt a "compelling duty to protect Florida," Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday said he is calling a special session July 20-23 to consider a constitutional ban on drilling in Florida waters.

Crist previously said he supported drilling as long as it was safe enough and far enough away to protect the coast. But he came out against drilling again after the BP oil spill began on April 20.

Crist said in May he wanted to hold a special session to put the drilling issue on the ballot and deal with renewable energy. Although House leaders point out that drilling already is banned in state law, Crist pointed out that the chamber last year approved a bill to allow drilling within three miles of Florida waters.

"This is an issue I think is so important to the state and the economy of Florida," he said. "Our economy and our environment are inextricably linked in my view."

And the governor rejected the idea suggested by some House leaders that he was posturing politically in his race for a U. S. Senate bid. House leaders point out that drilling already is barred in state law, though they voted last year to allow drilling and the Senate refused to vote on the measure.

"Politics has nothing to do with this. This has everything to do with doing what's right for a place I love," Crist said. "I love Florida. I also know it is barred statutorially. I also know just a year ago they tried to change that statute and drill holes three miles off Florida."

He said the issue is "time sensitive" because the Legislature has until Aug. 4 to put the issue on the ballot. He also said he won't bring other issues into the special session.

"It is a rifle shot," he said. "It is one issue. it is very tightly drafted. I didn't want to get confused as to what this is about."

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission, which can be obtained by contacting brucebritchie@gmail.com.)

Owner agrees to sell vital land along manatee sanctuary

An aerial view of manatees gathered near the mouth of Three Sisters Springs.

The owner of 57 acres near the Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River tentatively has agreed to sell his land to the state for $10.5 million, a landowner representative said Thursday.

The Florida Communities Trust on June 24 agreed to pay $10.5 million for the land in a deal aimed at stopping a proposal to build 309 homes. Business leaders, tourism officials, local environmentalists and the Save the Manatee Club argued in support of the purchase on June 24 before the FCT board in Tallahassee.

The Legislature set aside $2 million towards an unnamed Citrus County conservation purchase tucked away deep inside the new state budget. But the FCT board, which oversees state grants for the purchase of local parks across the state, instead agreed to put $725,000 aside for Three Sisters Springs as some members argued that taking money from other worthy projects was unfair.

George Willson, representing the Conservation Fund that represents landowner managing partner Hal Flowers, said the deal depends on the Crystal River City Council approving a transfer of development rights for some of the homes so they can be built elsewhere in the city.

"Everybody is really, really happy," Willson said.

For more on the story:
"Three Sisters Deal Shaping Up," Citrus County Chronicle, July 7.

"State Board balks at budget provision approved by Legislature," FloridaEnvironments.com, June 24.

Photos of Three Sisters Springs by Tracy Colson. To view more, go to https://www.savethemanatee.org/three_sisters/savethreesisters_photo.html

(Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission, which can be obtained by contacting brucebritchie@gmail.com.)

Chiles wants 20-percent renewable energy standard

Bud Chiles, independent candidate for governor, said Wednesday he will push for a 20-percent renewable energy requirement as governor and push to reauthorize the solar energy rebate program.

Chiles announced the initiatives after touring the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa. He also criticized his opponents' and their parties for accepting donations from utilities.

"I am the one candidate who can swing for the fences here," Chiles said in a telephone interview. "I'm not beholden to the utilities who are blocking the progress. I am going to push for this hard."

Chiles also said on Wednesday that he also would enable consumers to finance energy retrofits through their monthly electricity bills, create a $100 million renewable energy revolving loan fund for state and local renewable energy projects and end the "culture of corruption" that allows utilities to use campaign contributions as leverage over the Florida Public Service Commission.

Last week Chiles called for a grand jury investigation of the PSC after a nominating council refused to grant interviews to two incumbent commissioners who opposed utility rate hikes sought by the state's two largest utilities.

Chiles himself, however, came under fire in the early '90s when his father, the late Lawton Chiles, was governor. Members and associates of a public relations firm owned by Chiles were accused of trying to help a utility client before both the PSC and the Cabinet. The St. Petersburg Times reported the allegations were confirmed by a former PSC member and aides to then Education Commissioner Betty Castor. Months after the allegations surfaced, Chiles sold his firm.

If Chiles proposal for a renewable energy requirement has a familiar ring, that's because Gov. Charlie Crist proposed a 20-percent "renewable portfolio standard" in 2007 -- only to see it derailed by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

An energy bill approved in 2008 required a PSC recommendation and approval by the Legislature. The PSC recommended a 20-percent RPS but the Legislature refused to approve it in 2009.

The solar rebate program, which provides rebates of up to $20,000 for residential solar photovoltaic panels, was begun in 2006. But the program ended June 30 with a backlog of at least $41 million and 11,000 pending applications.

Chiles said he would provide $15 million a year for solar rebates and would get the money by examining $34 billion in sales tax loopholes, although those loopholes have powerful supporters in the Legislature. He said the jobs and environmental benefits of renewable energy are worth it.

"It's going to create jobs, it's going to save the environment and get us off carbon fuels," said Chiles.

(Story provided by The Florida Tribune. Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission, which can be obtained by contacting brucebritchie@gmail.com.)

Nelson says more skimmers on the way to Florida, Gulf to battle oil

More oil-skimming vessels are on the way to the Gulf of Mexico while the BP oil spill is not expected to affect Florida this week, state officials said Tuesday.

U. S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, visited the state Emergency Operations Center and announced that 27 U. S. Navy skimming vessels were being deployed to the Gulf from Navy ports in addition to six that already had been sent recently. Florida officials in recent weeks have cited a lack of skimmers to prevent oil from washing ashore.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency had to waive a requirement that the skimmers be kept in Navy ports in case of an oil spill, Nelson said.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole said he doesn't expect any oil to hit Florida beaches for a week because winds are blowing it to the west. Nelson said that will affect where the skimmers go.

"Fortunately for us the oil is not here in Florida because the winds have shifted over there (to the west)," Nelson told reporters. "The initial ones (Navy skimmers) are going to where the oil is."

Officials in Washington state have raised concerns that sending skimmers would leave their state vulnerable to an oil spill, according to the Seattle Times. Washington state law requires the oil industry to have the capability of responding to a worst-case scenario there. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012259959_spill2m.html)

Sole had said two weeks ago that Florida needed 100 skimmers but only had 20, not including five that the state was leasing to work in five bays in the Panhandle. Last Friday, Sole told legislators there were 81 Skimmers working off the Florida coast.

Nelson acknowledged that it took a long time -- more than two months since the BP oil spill began -- to find the needed skimmers and redirect them to the Gulf.

"Your senator didn't have a lot of confidence with the way this was playing out to begin with," he said.

He said the No. 1 priority is to plug the well, and No. 2 is removing the oil from the surface "and keep it out out of the bays and the estuaries and the wetlands.

"When it gets up on the beach you can clean it up there," he said.

Sole said skimmers serve no purpose now being off Florida's coast and now are better off Alabama and states to the west. He said enough skimmers from around the nation and globe are coming to meet Florida's needs.

Even though there is no immediate threat of oil, protective boom will remain in place to keep oil from washing into bays and inlets, Sole said.

"Most of this oil is now to the west of us," Sole said, saying that Florida had received a "reprieve" because of weather.

"I don't expect any impact at all this week except for the occasional tar balls," he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist was in Pensacola on Tuesday to hold a roundtable discussion with business owners. Sole also went to Escambia County to help open spill response branch offices in western Panhandle counties.

Trade groups band together for renewable energy

Workers are trained at the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa to install solar panels.

An informal coalition of renewable energy trade groups have developed a policy statement that they hope will push the Florida Legislature to take action on renewable energy.

Some legislators have cited disagreement among renewable energy groups as a challenge in developing renewable energy legislation.

HB 7229 would have allowed utilities to recover the cost of renewable energy projects from their customers. The bill passed the House despite concerns from some renewable energy groups but died in the Senate as concerns were raised about the cost to consumers. The interest groups involved in the issue included utilities, solar energy providers, biomass energy producers, environmental groups and even pulp and paper mills.

"They all have their own ideas on how we should approach this," Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando and chairman of the House Energy & Utilities Committee, said after HB 7229 died in the Senate. "It's hard to do that [build consensus] and produce legislation."

The new policy statement calls on the state to establish and energy plan with renewable energy goals that encourage or require use of energy from smaller producers. The groups that signed onto the statement last week are the Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy, the Florida Renewable Energy Association, the Florida Renewable Energy Producer's Association, the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association, Floridians for Energy Independence, the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, Covanta Energy and the Florida Brownfields Association.

Their statement also supports paying down the backlog in the Florida solar rebate program, which ended on Wednesday with more than $41 million in applications. The Legislature has refused to fund the program since 2008.

The groups also want a constitutional amendment that limits increases in the taxable value on commercial property for solar panels or other energy projects similar to the existing limits in place for residential properties.

Smaller scale renewable energy projects create more local jobs and have more local economic impact that larger utility projects, said Mike Antheil, executive director of the Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy.

With the new policy statement, "We can now say we're on the same page in trying to get some kind of policy in place for the small to mid-scale (producers) market in the state," Anthiel said.

(Story provided by The Florida Tribune. Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission, which can be obtained by contacting brucebritchie@gmail.com.)

Florida Legislators angry over halted beach cleanups

Workers clean oil from a Pensacola beach on June 23rd.

Legislators complained Friday that oil spill clean up workers are being kept off beaches because there are not enough workers who are specifically trained to watch out for sea turtles.

During a telephone conference call with Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole, Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, said workers from Bay County were driven to Destin to clean up oil on beaches but they were unable to work for three nights. Sole confirmed they were unable to work because there are not enough permitted turtle-watchers to accompany the workers at night.

The watchers are needed to spot endangered and threatened sea turtles to prevent them from being stepped on or run over by equipment, Sole said. The watchers also are needed to find turtle tracks leading to nests that need to be identified and protected so the eggs can be moved away from areas affected by the oil spill.

Coley, R-Marianna, said she hated to see a lack of turtle-watchers allow beaches to become soaked with oil. Sole said the state is trying to get more permitted turtle-watchers while not taking them from other parts of the state where they are needed.

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, accused Sole of allowing the lack of turtle-watchers to wreck the state's tourism economy. "I want you to go out and tell those small business people and tell those communities and other environmentalists that everything dies because we don't have turtle-watchers," she said.

Sole said that wasn't true while adding that he also had raised frustrations with the Coast Guard and BP. "It is a problem, it has been identified and they need to fix it," he said. He also promised to followup by providing information on the situation to legislators.

The federal unified command announced Friday that it was trying to build a network of observers to protect turtles from oil-burning operations.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Emily F. Alley. Story provided by The Florida Tribune. Story copyrighted by Bruce Ritchie and FloridaEnvironments.com. Do not copy or redistribute without permission, which can be obtained by contacting brucebritchie@gmail.com.)