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Tuesday, February 23, 2016

From Terry (a good citizen).  The reason why our precious earth remains in peril.

Environmental legislation is hard to defend and almost impossible to pass. The overarching problem is big money and special interests.  Legislation is all about
sliding the most money to regulated industries, large corporations and individuals.

There is really no cash to be had from stopping environmental destruction, degradation or pollution.  There is plenty however to continue degradation.

Even though environmental protection and oil drilling are number 5 on the list of the most important concerns of Floridians, all the money is on the side of drilling and exploiting the environment.  The public influence and voice are near zero in every major financial or environmental decision.

Just whose side are legislators on?
One of the architects of Florida's recent water-policy overhaul is collecting big checks from the state's largest sugar cane growers.
Growing a Sustainable Future, a political action committee run by House Speaker Steve , Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, got $25,000 from West Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals on Jan. 11.
That was 10 days before Gov. Rick Scott signed the far-reaching water bill that Crisafulli had pushed.
Crisafulli's committee also got big money from U.S. Sugar Corp.: $25,000 on Dec. 31 and $50,000 on Aug. 31.
As Florida legislators started their annual session in this election year, at least $28.5 million has been funneled into legislative political committees in the past seven months, fueling progress on priority legislation for many industries, blocking other ideas from advancing, squelching public opposition to unpopular measures such as fracking.
The Barron Collier Companies, for example, which is seeking a permit to use hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and gas in Naples, has steered $115,000 to lawmakers — up from the $63,500 it spent last session. Other members of the petroleum industry have warmed up lawmakers’ campaigns with another $170,000.
Cash received as of the end of the 2015 regular session, money to be used in 2016,  at least $9.5 million — in five- and six-figure checks — were sent to the political committees of individual lawmakers. 
Another $6 million went directly to the campaigns of state representatives and $3 million to state Senate campaigns. The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee raised another $3.2 million for Republican senators. 
The Republican Party of Florida, which is collecting checks for state House campaigns, raised $4.3 million, and the Florida Democratic Party, which raises money for all its legislators, collected $2.1 million (1).

Why can't we pass a good solar energy bill, or stop unsustainable water permitting?
The state’s largest utilities always work to kill bills that pose a threat to their monopoly control, and to maintain that control, legislators, those who are supposed to regulate these utilities, receive large "contributions" prior to each legislative session.
Rep. Fred Costello, R-Ormond Beach, has introduced a bill that would open the state’s energy market to solar energy competition by allowing homeowners and businesses to lease their rooftops to companies that generate solar power and sell it back to the grid. But, it also allows regulators to charge solar users for the cost of maintaining the grid.
Costello has said that  “even if the bill gets heard, it will not make it to the finish line." “That’s because the industry does not want it..."  Too much money on the votes.
Florida Power & Light, the largest utility in Florida, gave $2.3 million to legislative campaigns, and Duke Energy, the second-largest company, gave $807,000, since July.
FPL gave another $911,500 to the business lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida, and $210,00 to the Florida Chamber of Commerce to distribute to legislators and their political committees (1-2).
lawmakers can't accept money during the regular 60-day session. So, as a result, periodic committee meeting weeks have become scheduled fundraising marathons and lobbyists and "clients"are pursued relentlessly for contributions - all with the expected string attached.
Well, there it is in a nutshell.  I'm passing this info along so you can appreciate just how much money is involved, and the corrosive, smothering influence it has on passing good legislation.

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Liked your 'accidental airdrops' post, someone in the 'dark Government' is a comedian

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  2. Barry Sanders agrees with you, and so do I.

    Feel the Bern!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Spring was never waiting for us girl. It ran one step ahead as we followed in the dance. Between the parted pages and were pressed in love's hot fevered iron like a stripped pair of pants.

    I recall the yellow cotton dress foaming like a wave on the ground around your knees. Birds like tender babies in your hands and old men playing checkers by the trees.

    There will another song me for I will sing it. There will be another dream for me. Someone will bring it. I will drink the wine and let my passions flow like rivers to the sky. After all the loves of my life. After all the loves of my life you'll still be the one.

    I will take my life into my hands and I will use it. I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it. I will have the things that I desire and never let you catch me looking at the sun. After all the loves of my life. After all the loves of my life I'll be thinking of you and wondering....why?

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  4. My life became devastated when my husband sent me packing, after 8 years that we have been together. I was lost and helpless after trying so many ways to make my husband take me back. One day at work, i was absent minded not knowing that my boss was calling me, so he sat and asked me what its was all about i told him and he smiled and said that it was not a problem. I never understand what he meant by it wasn't a problem getting my husband back, he said he used a spell to get his wife back when she left him for another man and now they are together till date and at first i was shocked hearing such thing from my boss. He gave me an email address of the great spell caster who helped him get his wife back, i never believed this would work but i had no choice that to get in contact with the spell caster which i did, and he requested for my information and that of my husband to enable him cast the spell and i sent him the details, but after two days, my mom called me that my husband came pleading that he wants me back, i never believed it because it was just like a dream and i had to rush down to my mothers place and to my greatest surprise, my husband was kneeling before me pleading for forgiveness that he wants me and the kid back home, then i gave Happy a call regarding sudden change of my husband and he made it clear to me that my husband will love me till the end of the world, that he will never leave my sight. Now me and my husband is back together again and has started doing pleasant things he hasn't done before, he makes me happy and do what he is suppose to do as a man without nagging. Please if you need help of any kind, kindly contact Happy for help and you can reach him via email: happylovespell2@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
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