EPA gets $2 billion settlement
Back in October of 2015, Florida fertilizer giant, Mosaic (yes that Mosaic) reached a settlement with the EPA (of nearly $2 billion) after the feds had accused them of improperly handling 60 billion pounds of hazardous waste (byproducts of phosphate mining that could AND DID seep into soil and groundwater).
Florida gripes about EPA
Any of this sounding familiar yet? Seems as if nothing has changed- Florida politicians still don’t care about protecting the environment. And Mosaic is still rotten to the core.
“For the past few years, Gov. Rick Scott and his fellow Cabinet officers have been on a campaign to get the EPA to butt out of Florida’s business.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam actually penned an op-ed a few years ago, titled: “We don’t need the EPA.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi sued the EPA, trying to stop the agency from mandating clean water in the Sunshine State. Gov. Rick Scott argued the same thing.”
Even back then, politicians were more concerned with cozying up to Mosaic than regulating them:
- Mosaic cut checks to candidates from both parties.
- The company sponsored summits and political gatherings, including Putnam’s “Fresh from Florida” breakfast at the 2012 Republican National Convention.
- One Mosaic rep was even caught paying $10,000 for a chocolate cake, at a county fair, baked by Putnam’s daughter.
After all that terrible behavior they still wanted the EPA out or to ignore what was going on because Florida was “perfectly capable of regulating pollution“. It seems that wasn’t true then and it certainly isn’t now.
Someone remind me, why is Scott still in power? HOW did he get elected?
Source: Orlando Sentinel
