Schwarzenegger, Crist talk about global warming in California

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger convenes a two-day Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills starting Tuesday, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will be among the 600 environmental officials, activists and politicians from Borneo to Bulgaria to attend, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Schwarzenegger was the headline-grabbing guest star of Crist's own climate change summit in Miami in 2007, as well as keynote speaker in 2008. Now Crist is returning the favor.

The agenda shows Crist joining Schwarzenegger and the governors of Wisconsin, Illinois and Kansas in a discussion with representatives from various countries to talk about the response to global warming so far.

"Schwarzenegger calls it a 'historic summit' that will create 'an alliance of states, provinces and regional governments' to influence upcoming negotiations on a new global climate treaty," the Times reports. "He plans to join Illinois and Wisconsin in signing agreements with two Indonesian and four Brazilian states to work on tropical forest preservation."

"Schwarzenegger also will issue a declaration endorsed by 12 U.S. governors, along with regional representatives from Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia and Mexico, to share technology and cooperate on reducing global-warming emissions from high-polluting industries."

[AP photo of Schwarzenegger and Crist at Crist's global warming summit in Miami.]

Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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Crist formally announces deal with U.S. Sugar

Florida Governor Charlie Crist formally announced the new, improved, Everglades restoration deal with U.S. Sugar Corp this morning (see press release).

U.S. Sugar CEO, Robert Buker, also talked a little bit more about his company's future plans and the role biofuels might play (see below).

Crist said he was proud to follow in the footsteps of president Truman, who dedicated the Everglades national park 60 years ago, and president Roosevelt, "the great conservationist," by making his own contribution to protecting the environment. By restoring the natural flow of the water that feeds the Everglades, Florida was on a "path to purity," he said.

(Download audio from Crist press conference, introduced by Mike Sole, head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.wma)

“A land purchase creates unprecedented possibilities for the River of Grass and for our environment,” said Crist, standing outside the Miami home of the late author and Everglades advocate Marjory Stoneman Douglass. “Many people, including the late Mrs. Douglass, have looked forward to this day. Today, we are closer than ever to making their dreams a reality and giving this wonderful gift of restoration to the Everglades, to the people of Florida, and to our country.”

While the deal, involving the purchase of 181,000 acres of sugar cane farm land from U.S. Sugar Corp for $1.34 billion, has not been signed yet, Crist said he expected the contract to be finalized in the "next few weeks." While it was not perhaps "an iron-clad deal," it has "never been more rock-solid than it is today," he added. (read our story in today's St Petersburg Times on how the deal was made)

U.S. Sugar's new deal with Governor Crist. Company sees "ethanol in our future."

Governor Crist is scaling back his proposed 1.75 billion Everglades restoration plan to buy out U.S. Sugar Corporation.
The deal is still on but U.S. Sugar now says it plans to stay in business, will hold on to its sugar mill and other industrial facilities, and is exploring ethanol ventures.
"We see ethanol in our future," U.S. Sugar's CEO Robert Buker told me.

In September The Fueling Station reported that U.S. Sugar was in talks with Illinois-based ethanol company, Coskata. Under Governor Crists's new $1.34 billion deal the company will now keep its state-of-the-art Clewiston sugar mill, as well as a citrus processing plant and a key railroad linking its farming operation to the port of Tampa.
Under the original proposal in June, U.S Sugar was set to go out of business after seven years once the deal was signed, causing consternation among the company 1,700 employees. The company now believes it has a secure future for all its employees.
That future could have an ethanol component. Buker confirmed the company is exploring new biofuel ventures to convert its sugar mill to produce ethanol.

PSC strengthens renewable requirements -- a little

Following outrage from renewable energy advocates, state regulators on Thursday strengthened recommendations for how much renewable energy utilities will have to produce.

The new proposal calls for utilities to get 5 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2017, 10 percent by 2025, 15 percent by 2033, and 20 percent by 2041.

The rule proposed by Public Service Commission staff also caps the impact of the renewable programs on electric bills at 2 percent, doubling it form a controversial proposal put forward in August.

“2041 is not much better than 2050,” said Melissa Meehan, a lobbyist for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “It’s still timid. That’s my gut reaction. Obviously, it’s a small improvement, but we are hoping for something stronger.”

"The time lines are still somewhat underwhelming," said George Cavros, a consultant for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"The bottom line is that we're still reviewing it," said Scott Sutton, a spokesman for St. Petersburg utility Progress Energy. Sutton said the utility supports guidelines that are "achievable" and "cost effective."

A draft proposal put forward in August won acceptance from the state’s utilities, but earned derision from environmentalists who called it the weakest renewable energy requirement in the nation.

The August proposal called for the state’s investor-owned utilities to produce 2 percent of power from renewable energy sources by 2010, 3.75 percent by 2017, 6 percent by 2025 and 20 percent by 2050 — 30 years later than Gov. Charlie Crist had called for.

Download the proposal here: Download staffreconRPS100208.pdf

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Fla. cap & trade program to be endorsed by Gov. Crist's advisers?

Gov. Charlie Crist's Action Team on Energy and Climate Change holds its final series of meetings starting today in Tallahassee. The advisory panel is putting the finishing touches on its latest report to Crist, due Oct. 15. The agenda for this week's two-day meeting calls for a discussion of whether Florida should join other states in a cap-and-trade program.

One option: Joining the ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states that form the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or Reggie for short. Reggie just conducted its first auction of carbon credits, as the Fueling Station reported earlier this week. That sale brought in $38.5-million which the states plan  plan to invest the funds in energy efficient and renewable technologies as well as programs to benefit utility rate payers.

Another option: Join the newly announced Western Climate Initiative, or WCI (sorry, no catchy nickname.) That one has the advantage of pairing Crist up with his fellow climate crusader from the GOP, former action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, a.k.a. California's Governator (shown here with Crist last year).

Fueling Station readers may recall that the big difference between Reggie and WCI is that Reggie focuses only on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, while the Western plan would include transportation, too, since that's the largest source of greenhouse gases there. The other big difference: Reggie is up and running, while WCI is still in the planning stages.

There is a third option: "Explore the creation of a Southern regional climate initiative to reduce GHG emissions." But that would mean starting from scratch, and joining forces with two states that Florida is currently battling with regarding water.

No matter what else they recommend, though, the Action Team's members are likely to urge Crist to lobby Congress to create a national cap-and-trade program. To read the Action Team's draft report on Florida cap-and-trade possibilities, click here: Download DraftCapAndTrade.pdf

[Photo: Getty Images]

--Craig Pittman

Florida sugar company pushes renewables debate

There's an emerging player in the renewable energy debate in Florida, according to an article today in the St. Petersburg Times. The sugar company, Florida Crystals, is mounting an offensive to get rules changed in the state to encourage greater renewable energy.

That's because the company operates a large biomass power plant next to its Okeelanta sugar mill that produces energy for the mill and sells excess power to the grid. The company says it wants to expand its renewable energy business.

The company is also looking into using the sugar cane waste (bagasse) to make ethanol, rather than burn it. Using its sugar cane for ethanol wouldn’t make sense, the company says, because of the price it gets for refined sugar under a federal program.

Crist endorses building ethanol plant at U.S. Sugar mill being bought for Everglades restoration

Gov. Charlie Crist has endorsed a plan to build an ethanol plant on land that the state is trying to buy from U.S. Sugar for Everglades restoration.

Because he’s concerned about the fate of the 1,800 U.S. Sugar employees who depend on the company to survive, converting that land to ethanol production “is one of the things I’d like to see,” Crist said Wednesday in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times.

Although Crist did not endorse a project by a specific company, an ethanol manufacturer backed by General Motors has already spent several months negotiating with U.S. Sugar to build a plant on its land.

Negotiations with the ethanol company, Coskata, have been on hold while talks about the buyout proceed, said Robert Coker of U.S. Sugar, “but depending on what happens in the next month or so, we’ll probably be sitting back down with them.”

Most ethanol manufacturing plants are built to produce 50 million gallons a year, Coker said. “We were talking about a facility that was substantially larger,” the sugar executive said.

Coskata, an Illinois-based firm, is backed not only by GM but also by Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, who was one of the keynote speakers at Crist's 2007 climate change summit in Miami. The company specializes in turning waste products such as sugar cane leaves into ethanol, and its executives boast that when their demonstration plant in Madison, Penn., opens next year they will be able to produce ethanol for about $1 a gallon.

[AP photo of U.S. Sugar's mill in Clewiston]

--Craig Pittman and Steve Bousquet

Crist reappoints Lisa Edgar to PSC

Gov. Charlie Crist reappointed Lisa Polak Edgar to the Public Service Commission, passing over former state Rep. Luis Rojas and relative unknown William Dawson, who works for the Orlando Utility Commission.

The commission's work isn't sexy, and is often excruciatingly dull, but it has an enormous impact on the lives of most Floridians. The commission sets electric, gas and phone rates, and approves (or not) power plants. Over the next several years, the commission will oversee the billing of billions of dollars in new nuclear construction. The commission will also play a lead role in determining how the state will meet Crist's goals to slash greenhouse gas emissions while supplying electricity to the state's growing population.

“Lisa has served our state well, and I am pleased she will continue to advocate on behalf of the people,” Crist said.

"Lisa Edgar hits the ground running," said Susan Glickman, southern regional director for the Climate Group and former environmental lobbyist. "Given the huge challenge of transforming how we create and use energy, her experience will be invaluable."

Name: Lisa Polak Edgar, 45, Tallahassee
Experience: Edgar has served on the Public Service Commission since 2005, and chairwoman in 2006 and 2007. She served as deputy secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from 1999 to 2004. She also served as the state’s representative to the U.S. Department of Interior’s policy committee on offshore drilling. She served as a policy analyst on the governor’s office from 1993 to 1999.
Education: B.S., Florida State University, 1985; J.D., Florida State University College of Law, 1988; Harvard University john F. Kennedy School of Government, certificate, 2000
Assets: Joint assets including bank accounts, property, retirement accounts.
Liabilities: credit card debt, car payments, and mortgages
Source of Income: PSC salary of $132,000
Personal: Married to Michael Edgar, they have two children

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Gov. Crist interviewing three PSC finalists

Yes, they have long, boring meetings. They speak in jargon, and follow rules so arcane that even lawyers get confused. The state's five-member Public Service Commission also wields an enormous influence over the state's energy future, and over the wallets of most Floridians. So pay attention. This won't take long.

Gov. Charlie Crist will interview three finalists starting at 11 a.m. today for an upcoming vacancy on the commission. Crist has until early October to make his decision, but could make it sooner. His staff won't say when Crist plans to make the appointment.

"All three are qualified candidates," Crist told the Times this morning. "As far as personal interaction with any of them, it's limited at best."

Up for the spot is incumbent commissioner Lisa Polak Edgar, whose term expires early next year; lobyist and former state Rep. Luis E. Rojas; and William Dawson, a relative unknown who works for the Orlando Utilities Commission.

Crist's comments could portend Edgar's ouster. "Generally speaking," Crist said he favors regular rotation of high-level appointees after they serve a term. "But there are always exceptions." (Edgar was a Jeb Bush appointee to the PSC).

The three finalists were handed up by the legislature's 12-member PSC nominating council. Critics have complained that the nominating process was politicized. Really? Politicians playing politics with a political appointment? We're shocked. Shocked!

While it’s an unsurprising part of the process, the behind-the-scenes horse trading could have an enormous impact on the lives of Floridians for years to come. The new commissioner will be in place to approve billions of dollars of nuclear cost recovery, to “streamline” rules for the telecommunications industry, and oversee Crist’s push to slash greenhouse gas emissions and move the state toward more renewable energy.

"Straw man" to strong man? We'll see

Efforts continue at the Public Service Commission to set a renewable energy target. The original “straw man” proposal aimed to get 20 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2050.

The draft proposal fell 30 years short of Gov. Charlie Crist’s goal of 20 percent by 2020, and if enacted would make Florida’s renewable portfolio standard the weakest in the nation. Utility executives proffered their support for the proposal, while environmentalists called it a joke. The straw man proposal called for renewable energy to supply 2 percent of the state’s power by 2010, 3.75 percent by 2017, 6 percent by 2025 and 20 percent by 2050.

Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, a proponent of renewable energy, said he hopes the straw man proposal is just a starting point, and that it will be significantly strengthened. “It wouldn’t get us where we want to be,” Constantine said. “I think that was the first salvo. Or at least I hope it was. And I’m still hoping for some fine tuning.”

The commission staff is now back at the drawing board, and will bring forward a draft proposal for a meeting on Oct. 14. A public hearing will be held on Dec. 3, and the commission is scheduled to vote on the standard at a Jan. 9 meeting.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Your chance to have a say in state energy and climate policy

The new Florida Energy & Climate Commission is seeking applicants to be appointed in the coming weeks by Governor Crist, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson.

There's only one more week to apply for the Commission which was created by new legislation this year.
The Commission is comprised of nine members serving three year terms. Applications are due to the Florida Public Service Commission Nominating Council by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

The way it works, Governor Crist will appoint seven of the commissioners, with the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Chief Financial Officer appointing the final two. Applicants should be experts in one or more of the following fields: energy, natural resource conservation, economics, engineering, finance, law, transportation and land use, consumer protection, state energy policy, or another related field.

The Commission holds a variety of energy and climate related responsibilities, including administering financial incentive programs; completing annual assessments of Florida’s Energy and Climate Change Action Plan; and providing recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature.

For more information on how to apply for the Commission.

- David Adams

Florida utilities commission undermines Governor Crist's renewable energy targets

A year ago Governor Charlie Crist made headlines by announcing ambitious goals to move the Florida towards greater use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power. But staff at the state’s Public Service Commission, which regulates power companies, appear to have other plans.

A draft proposal unveiled this week is so timid, say critics, that it would do little of nothing to stimulate the development of alternative energy. Under the PSC’s plan, the state’s investor-owned utilities would only be required to produce 2 percent of  power from renewable energy sources by 2010, increasing to 3.75 percent by 2017, 6 percent by 2025 and 20 percent by 2050.

Compare that to Crist’s goal of 20 per cent by 2020.

"The (PSC) targets aren't ambitious enough to drive any kind of investment in renewable energy technology in Florida," says George Cavros with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. The targets were “the weakest in the nation. Dead last,” he added, noting that the state already gets 1.9 per cent of its power from renewables. Under the proposal the per centage would “remain stagnant” for the first seven years (2010-2017), he added. “Gov. Crist would be 94 before his proposed 20 percent target is realized," he said.

Crist made headlines last year when he proposed the 20 percent standard in a series of executive orders laying out his bold new energy policy for the state. The order did not set a fixed timetable, though he has repeatedly stated 2020 as his preferred date. In its last session, the state legislature also declined to set a timetable, instead requiring the PSC to make recommendations. The PSC staff presented the draft proposal to a public workshop in Tallahassee on Wednesday, with another round of discussions set for next Tuesday.

Florida energy companies are resisting a more ambitious renewable portfolio standard, arguing that it would drive up costs for customers because the state does not have good potential for wind or solar power.

Crist's press secretary, Sterling Ivey, says the Governor is sticking to his 20 per cent by 2020 goal. "The Governor believes that the 2020 deadline is certainly achievable," he told me. "We'll continue working with the PSC as it's proposal makes it's way through the process.

Seminole Electric plans solar plant with Spanish company

Tampa’s Seminole Electric Cooperative on Tuesday announced plans to negotiate with a Spanish company for a new solar power station.

The negotiations were announced in conjunction with a trip to Spain by Gov. Charlie Crist and state business leaders. Seminole, which generates and purchases power for 10 electric cooperatives throughout the state, signed a letter of intent to begin negotiations with Renovalia, an energy company based in Madrid.

Seminole sells wholesale power to its member cooperatives, who are responsible for 900,000 meters in portions of 46 Florida counties, said Michele Collet-Kriz, spokeswoman for the company. The company would like to build a solar thermal plant with Renovalia, but it is too early to speculate on the size, location or cost of the plant, she said. Seminole would like to conclude negotiations by the end of 2008, but has no firm time line. Seminole has 100 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, most of it from a waste-to-energy plant in Lee County and landfill gas capture projects around the state.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Offshore drilling splits GOP lawmakers

The high price of gasoline has cracked the once solid wall of antidrilling sentiment in the Florida Legislature.

"I'm tired of spilling blood in the Middle East for oil," said Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, a drilling proponent whose son is a Marine. "If we're going to protect our nation, you've got to protect resources."

Pruitt was one of a half-dozen prominent Republican lawmakers who told the St. Petersburg Times they would support offshore drilling now. Among those opposing it, though, stands one mighty powerful lawmaker: incoming House speaker, Rep. Ray Sansom of Destin, a town famous for its pristine white beaches, and thus a place where the beach IS the economy.

"I earned the title of 'the Sandman' for protecting our white fluffy beaches to attract tourism," Jones said. "Drilling for oil is dirty and nasty and not economical. I don't care if McCain is president. That wouldn't change my mind one bit."

The tension among the Legislature's Republican majority promises a tense debate should the federal government lift its offshore drilling moratorium in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and leave the issue up to states. Last month Gov. Charlie Crist backed such a plan by Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee.

[Photo courtesy Destin Area Chamber of Commerce]

--Jennifer Liberto and Steve Bousquet

Crist's energy adviser under fire for conflict of interest with utilities

Florida Governor Charlie Crist's special energy adviser, Chris Kise, has come under attack for an ethical conflict of interest. Besides advising the Governor, he represents utility companies. That relationship is being questioned by Nancy Argenziano, who sits on the state's Public Service Commission.

Argenziano, a former Republican state senator, "is the first Crist appointee to publicly question the ethics of a governor who has sought to place a premium on propriety and openness in government," The St Petersburg Times reports this morning.

- David Adams

Ethanol in Florida: Lots of hype, lots of $, but so far not much to show for it

Our colleagues at the business magazine Florida Trend have produced an in-depth look at ethanol production in Florida, and whether it's living up to the hype -- and the taxpayer dollars that have been spent on trying to turn it into an industry.

The story begins by noting Gov. Charlie Crist's boast at last year's climate summit in Miami that no state could match Florida's potential for producing ethanol, because of a year-long growing season and robust agricultural lands. Then it goes on to look at each potential source: sugar, citrus waste etc., and the problems each of them faces, some of which we covered in a St. Petersburg Times story in March.

"Ethanol’s difficulties," the story notes, "also prompt other questions: If ethanol, which has been around as vehicle fuel for more than 100 years, is so difficult to pull off, how tough will it be to achieve Crist’s other energy goals?"

[AP photo 2007]

--Craig Pittman

Highlights of the Miami Climate Change Summit #2 from solar to PHEVs.

Looking back at Governor Crist's Climate Change Summit this week, here are some of my favorite moments, featuring a former day-trader turned solar enthusiast, Progress Energy's plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius, a new $20 million clean energy prize offered by the Scottish government, a Spanish company that is investing $8 billion in alternative energy in the United States, a new $20 million clean energy prize, and of course, the return of Arnold, The Terminator, and much, much more .....

Arnold puts down Crist and McCain over offshore drilling

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made a guest appearance today at the Florida Climate Change Summit in Miami hosted by Governor Charlie Crist.

Arnold had lots of praise for Crist's leadership in Florida on tackling climate change.

But he appeared to issue a firm rebuke to politicians (including Senator John McCain and Crist) who have suggested ending a ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. "Anyone who tells you this will lower our gas prices anytime soon is blowing smoke," he said.

Schwarzenegger's press spokesman Aaron McLear called me a short while ago to stress that this comment was NOT directed at Crist or McCain, and instead was targeted specifically at the impact of offshore drilling on gas prices. "He was not referring to either one of them. Neither Crist nor McCain has said offshore drilling is going to immediately reduce gas prices," McLear said.

However, the California Governor remained firmly opposed to offshore drilling, McLear added. "He doesn't believe in offshore drilling. Her certainly doesn't agree with McCain and Crist on that."

My own view: it seems pretty clear to me that when McCain and Crist raised the offshore drilling issue last week, they both had gas prices in mind. Our paper's reporting certainly reflected that.

For the record, here's are Schwarzenegger's exact words today:

"Politicians have been throwing around all kinds of ideas in response to the skyrocketing energy prices, from the rethinking of nuclear power to pushing biofuels and more renewables and ending the ban on offshore drilling, it goes on and on the list. But, anyone who tells you this will lower our gas prices anytime soon is blowing smoke."

(more speech highlights below)

- David Adams

Highlights from Florida's 2008 Climate Change Summit

Florida Governor Charlie Crist's second Climate Change Summit this week was never going to match the novelty of last year's groundbreaking event.

Even so, Crist once again deserves enormous credit for bringing together a wide-ranging group of policy makers, businessmen, researchers and activists in another thought-provoking, two-day search for answers to the challenge of global warming. He even managed to get his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, to join in the debate, with a passionate plea to save what remains of the world's rain-forests.

Last year's summit established climate change action as a state priority. "This year it's time to make it happen," Crist said on Wednesday.

Continue reading below for some of what I consider to be the highlights of the summit so far.

Crist clarifies his position on offshore drilling

Addressing his Climate Summit in Miami this morning, Florida Governor Charlie Crist could not ignore the thorny issue of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Clarifying his apparent reversal last week over offshore drilling, he called for an "open discussion" of the issue "without compromising Florida's sensitive eco-sytems and her natural beauty."

He went on: "Only when we are able to do so far enough from Florida's coast, safe enough for our people, and clean enough for our beaches, should we even consider increasing our oil supply by drilling off Florida's shore. Let me repeat: far enough, safe enough and clean enough."

As someone sitting next to me said: "That's a lot of qualifications!"

- David Adams

[St. Petersburg Times photo by Scott Keeler]

- David Adams

Crist's 2nd Climate Summit: defining "our next step forward"

Florida Governor Charlie Crist opened his second climate summit in Miami this morning saying he hoped the meeting would "chart the course of the green future of the Sunshine State."
He used the occasion to sign the state's new Energy Bill #7135, calling it "Florida's most comprehensive energy economic policy in the history of our great state."
When he hosted his first summit last year, Crist said people were not entirely convinced about his plans. "After one year everyone is on board," he said. Now it was time to "define our next step forward," he added.
That meant exploring every possible way to protect Florida from the threat of global warming by tapping into its "entrepreneurial spirit." He compared the task ahead to the challenge in the 1960s set by the Kennedy administration to put a man on the moon. "Just as America continues to reach for the stars from our great state, Florida can once again launch America into the coming green tech business boom," he said.
In order to "liberate us from our current addiction to fossil fuel ... we must be innovative, we must reach higher," he added.
That meant training new talent and expertise to fill a new era of "high wage, high demand jobs" in the green tech field. "We must equip our workforce ... a trained workforce is key to developing the alternative and renewable energy sources and energy efficiency we must have in order to reduce our carbon emissions," he said.

- David Adams

Florida launches second Climate Change Summit

Florida Governor Charlie Crist hosts his second Climate Change Summit in Miami Wednesday and Thursday.

The Governor will use the occasion to sign the state's new Energy Bill passed by the legislature, which includes provisions to establish a cap and trade system to control the gases believed to cause global warming. In an overview of the summit published in today's St Petersburg Times I take a look at what has been achieved since last year's landmark summit.

Watch the summit live here.

- David Adams

Crist's $1.75 billion plan to save the Everglades. Could it involve ethanol?

It's not strictly about climate change or energy, which is what we deal with here at The Fueling Station. But you might want to read this excellent article anyway about Florida's stunning $1.75 billion plan to purchase sugar cane fields as part of Everglades restoration.
It would be the largest conservation purchase in state history, The St Petersburg Times reports.

The story is the latest chapter in the on-going evolution of our unpredictable Governor, Charlie Crist, who last week endorsed oil drilling in the Everglades. Readers should note the reference half way down the story to the head of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, Mike Sole, saying some of the land might be used to grow energy crops for ethanol.

- David Adams

Offshore drilling = kiss your clean beach buh-bye

Stephen Leatherman has seen every kind of beach in America, and he really likes the ones in Florida. The man known as Dr. Beach usually ranks them among the prettiest in America. This year he picked Pinellas County's own Caladesi Island as No. 1.

If oil companies start drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, that's likely to change. "We've got some of the finest, whitest sand in the world," said Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University in Miami. "Oil doesn't seem to go with that. … This could lower the value of our beaches."

Where there's offshore drilling, the beaches suffer, and so does the water. There are spills large (like the fiery Ixtoc blowout that dumped 3-billion barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 1979, pictured here) and small, as well as a plethora of pollution. Oh, and all those fish swimming around the derrick? Don't eat 'em.

Here's the full story about the consequences of offshore drilling from today's St. Petersburg Times, and here's one about Gov. Charlie Crist's about-face on the issue, and here's an excellent examination of whether all this will have any impact at all on rising gas prices.

[Photo of Ixtoc oil spill from NOAA]

--Craig Pittman

Jeb Bush on oil drilling

Our sister blog The Buzz caught up with the former Florida governor today at an education summit in Orlando. Here's what the president's brother had to say (note foreshadowing: Yeah, he's backing McCain's position).

Read it.