11-November-07
Editorial: Hope for the Everglades
Seven years ago, Congress and the Clinton administration set in motion the most
ambitious environmental initiative on the planet: an $8 billion, 40-year project
to restore South Florida’s ecosystem and, in particular, the Everglades, which
had been punished by a half-century of uncontrolled development and starved of
fresh water.
It was a 50-50 deal, and so far Florida has lived up to its share of the
bargain, contributing more than $2 billion already. The federal response,
crippled by an inattentive president and a divided, ineffectual Congress, has
been pathetic — a mere $363 million — putting the whole enterprise way behind
schedule.
Now, at last, comes some good news. Overriding a rare veto by President Bush,
Congress this week approved a $22 billion water resources bill that has been
hanging around for seven years. Like all big infrastructure bills, this one
includes a little something for every member of Congress. But in addition to the
pork, the bill also contains several necessary projects. Among them are coastal
restoration in Louisiana and two big wetlands restoration projects in the
Everglades.
© New York Times
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09-November-07
Congress Turns Back Bush’s Veto in a Test of Power
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — The Senate dealt President Bush the first veto override of
his presidency on Thursday, with a resounding bipartisan vote to adopt a $23.2
billion water resources bill that authorizes popular projects across the
country.
The vote of 79 to 14 sent a clear signal that the Democrats in control of
Congress plan to test the power of the White House on other fronts, and it gave
Republicans a chance to show distance from an unpopular president heading into a
tough election year.
“We have said today, as a Congress to this president, you can’t just keep
rolling over us like this,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California,
who led the charge on the water bill as chairwoman of the Environment and Public
Works Committee.
“You can’t make everything a fight because we’ll see it through,” Ms. Boxer
added. “And that’s a big deal. It isn’t easy for members of the other side to
stand up to a president in their own party. I know. I know what that’s like.
It’s hard.”
Thirty-four of the Senate’s 49 Republicans voted to override.
©
New York Times
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03-November-07
Bush Vetoes Water Bill, Citing Cost of $23 Billion
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — President Bush on Friday vetoed a bill authorizing $23
billion in water resource projects, calling it overly expensive, and
Congressional Democrats responded angrily, accusing him of insensitivity to the
hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast, a big beneficiary of the legislation. They pledged
to override him.
The bill, the Water Resources Development Act, would authorize $3.5 billion in
work for hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, nearly $2 billion for efforts to save the
Everglades and additional sums for a host of other projects favored by
lawmakers. Critics said the bill not only was costly but also failed to provide
vital changes to the often criticized Army Corps of Engineers, which would do
most of the work.
Mr. Bush has now cast five vetoes as president, four since Democrats took
control of Congress in January. None have been overridden, although this
legislation passed both houses with more than the two-thirds majorities needed
to override.
In his veto message, the president noted that when the bill emerged from a
House-Senate conference committee, its cost had risen more than 50 percent above
the cost of legislation originally passed by the two houses. He also said a
backlog of projects for the Corps of Engineers meant that many projects in the
bill would never be financed or completed.
“This bill lacks fiscal discipline,” he said. “This authorization bill makes
promises to local communities that the Congress does not have a track record of
keeping.”
© New York Times
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02-November-07
Effort to Save Everglades Falters as Funds Drop
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
MIAMI, Oct. 31 — The rescue of the Florida Everglades, the largest and most
expensive environmental restoration project on the planet, is faltering.
Seven years into what was supposed to be a four-decade, $8 billion effort to
reverse generations of destruction, federal financing has slowed to a trickle.
Projects are already years behind schedule. Thousands of acres of wetlands and
wildlife habitat continue to disappear, paved by developers or blasted by rock
miners to feed the hungry construction industry.
The idea that the federal government could summon the will and money to restore
the subtle, sodden grandeur of the so-called River of Grass is disappearing,
too.
Supporters say the effort would get sorely needed momentum from a long-delayed
federal bill authorizing $23 billion in water infrastructure projects, including
almost $2 billion for the Everglades.
But President Bush is expected to veto the bill, possibly on Friday. And even if
Congress overrides the veto, which is likely, grave uncertainties will remain.
The product of a striking bipartisan agreement just before the 2000 presidential
election, the plan aims to restore the gentle, shallow flow of water from Lake
Okeechobee, in south-central Florida, into the Everglades, a vast subtropical
marshland at the state’s southern tip.
That constant, slow coursing nurtured myriad species of birds, fish and other
animals across the low-lying Everglades, half of which have been lost to
agriculture and development over the last century.
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New York Times
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07-June-07
Artificial Sweetener Settlement Turns Sour
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A settlement
reached between the makers of Splenda and Equal
has taken a new twist and is back in court.
By LYNNLEY
BROWNING
Published: June 8,
2007
The sugar wars
have a sour new chapter.
A undisclosed
settlement between the makers of Equal and
Splenda over Splenda’s contested slogan of “made
from sugar, so it tastes like sugar” came apart
yesterday, prompting renewed fighting between
the two rival makers of artificial sweeteners.
Lawyers for Equal’s maker, Merisant,
filed court papers yesterday accusing Splenda’s
maker, McNeil Nutritionals, of backing out of a
settlement reached May 11.
Merisant asked
the federal district judge in Philadelphia who
oversaw a five-week jury trial between the two
rivals to do one of two things: enforce the
settlement, which was reached hastily in her
chambers moments after the jury reached its
verdict, or announce the jury’s decision.
Because of the
settlement, the verdict was never entered into
the record and was not publicly disclosed.
Merisant, in its court filings yesterday
in Federal District Court in Philadelphia,
suggested that the jury had found against
Splenda’s maker, McNeil, which is a unit of
Johnson & Johnson.
“As reported in
the press, that verdict found for Merisant on
liability issues, concluding that McNeil’s
Splenda campaign was false and misleading,”
Merisant’s filing yesterday said.
McNeil took exception to the claim that
it was backing out of the deal.
© New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/business/08sour.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times
Topics/Subjects/S/Sugar&oref=slogin
20-May-07
Funding Delays threaten projects
Source: BRIAN SKOLOFF Associated Press
ON THE KISSIMMEE RIVER -- A 10-foot alligator bakes in
the sun. Wading birds pluck food from the shallows. Fish feed in pools
where water ebbs and flows.|Despite progress along the Kissimmee River,
overall Everglades restoration is lagging due to a lack of money. Life
has returned. The Kissimmee River is a success story of nature restored
after years of dikes, dams and diversions for flood control left it an
ecological mess. But it's also a tale of bureaucracy and politics.
Published on May 20, 2007, Page 6B, Miami Herald, The (FL)
herald.com
17-May-07
Bill boosts
Everglades cash
Source: LESLEY CLARK lclark@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON -- Everglades restoration efforts would get
a major boost, Miami-Dade's port would get cash for widening and
deepening, and the crumbling dam along Lake Okeechobee would be studied
under a massive water-projects bill that cleared the U.S. Senate on
Wednesday -- but still faces hurdles.|A measure passed by the U.S.
Senate would provide a financial boost to Everglades restoration, as
well as other South Florida projects. The measure, which passed the
Senate by a vote of
Published on May 17, 2007, Page 6B, Miami Herald, The (FL)
herald.com
19-March-07
Editorial:
Still not fixing the Army Corps
Editorial scores Democrats on House
transportation committee for approving huge $40 billion development bill
that is devoid of any serious reforms to Army Corps of Engineers, agency
that over years has inflated economic payoffs of its projects while
underestimating their potential damage to environment
Correction: March 27, 2007, Tuesday An editorial on
March 19 stated incorrectly that the House version of the
2007 Water Resources and Development bill would cost $40
billion. The anticipated cost is $14 billion to $15 billion.
© New York Times
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09-March-07
American
Journeys: Everglades National Park
Chip Litherland for The New York Times
Visitors can experience the Everglades National Park by plunging into thigh-deep water on ranger-led swamp hikes or paddling through mangrove forests in a canoe.
By BETH GREENFIELD
Published: March 9, 2007
IF you heed
just one bit
of advice on
a trip to
the
Everglades,
let it be
this: Slow
down. The
stunning
beauty of
the place
can be
elusive
unless
you're
willing to
move as
gently and
languidly as
the River of
Grass
itself.
Not
quite the brackish swamp that many
imagine it to be, the Everglades
(first named Pa-hay-okee, for
“grassy water,” by the Calusa
Indians) is actually a wide, shallow
river flowing through Florida's 80
southernmost miles of mainland and
in many places blending into the
shores of the Atlantic or the Gulf
of Mexico. It flows like molasses,
at the rate of just a quarter-mile a
day.
Living within those million-plus
acres of wetlands are 200 types of
fish, 350 species of
birds, 120 different kinds of
trees and more than 1,000 kinds of
plants, just for starters, all only
an hour south of
Miami.
“When people go to national parks,
they expect to be blown away by the
scenery, to be entertained by a
canyon or a mountain,” said Brian
Ettling, an
Everglades National Park ranger.
“We don't have that here. But we
have biodiversity. And that makes
this a beautiful place all on its
own.”
© New York Times
nytimes.com
article
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/travel/escapes/09American.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1181761249-xjGMYnKgyjTLq5VMHqnJSA
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