Well I'll Be Damned: Florida Buys 20k Acres In Everglades To Block Oil Drilling Plan

[hatrack]

The state will buy 20,000 acres of wetlands in the Florida Everglades for no less than $16.5 million to block the possibility of oil-drilling there, officials announced Wednesday.

It’s not a certainty that the owner, Kanter Real Estate LLC, would have struck oil there or would actually have tried to, but it recently secured an exploratory drilling permit after waging a legal battle with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

That triggered alarm in Broward and Dade counties, which get drinking water from the Everglades. “This is guaranteeing that the heart of the Everglades is in public ownership and secure for future generations,” said DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein in a press conference in Fort Lauderdale. “We haven’t seen a land acquisition like this in more than a decade.”

EDIT

For years, state and federal authorities have been working to restore the damaged Everglades, where swaths of the famous River of Grass were drained and converted to land for development and agriculture, and parts of it are polluted and choked with invasive species. Categorized as a “biosphere of international significance” and widely known as a natural wonder, the Florida Everglades is home to thousands of rare species of plants and animals living in an ecosystem like no other in the world. Chauncey Goss, chairman of the South Florida Water Management District, praised the plan, which has yet to be executed. He and Valenstein said money for the purchase would come from the Water Management District’s restoration funds and/or DEP’s Florida Forever land-acquisition fund.

EDIT/END

https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2020/01/15/florida-will-buy-20000-acres-in-everglades-to-block-oil-drilling-plan/

[IndyOp]

1. Yes! Maybe the red tides have changed some minds? (nt)

[lark]

2. First important good move by DeSantis.

Color me very surprised. He's created some good commissions (although this is still a delaying tactic) but this is the first actual action he's taken (that I know of) that is good for the environment and the state. I'm really surprised and would love to know the back story on this, as I bet there definitely is one.

[Mickju]

3. I'll be surprised if his motives are clean.

But this seems like a good thing.