No conflict in my new job, state environment chief says

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sat, Jan. 31, 2004

FLORIDA GOVERNMENT
No conflict in my new job, state environment chief says

The chief of the state Department of Environmental Protection denies his move to International Paper is a payback for a pipeline deal that will help the giant.
BY CURTIS MORGAN
[e-mail]

The state's top environmental enforcer Friday dismissed criticism over his lucrative new job with International Paper, a company that owns a polluting paper mill in Pensacola that stands to benefit from a deal struck by his agency.

David Struhs responded to the latest accusations that he was too cozy with industries he regulated as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection with the same genial smile and shrug he employed during a five-year tenure marked by controversy. (snip)

For decades, the plant has dumped about 25 million gallons of polluted wastewater a day into a creek that spills into Perdido Bay. DEP had fined the plant for years, long before Struhs took office, but still approved temporary permits to allow it to continue operating.

Under the loan deal, which still has not been finalized, the mill would use about 80 percent of the new pipeline's capacity -- but also pay back 80 percent of the cost over 20 years.

Carol Moore, executive director of the Pensacola Gulf Coast Keepers, told The Miami Herald on Wednesday that the deal forced taxpayers to bear most of the burden for the mill's mess.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/7839064.htm

[usrbs]

1. These people simply make me sick...

This Struh guy was at one time being considered for replacing Christine Whitman. And look at all of his ties to the Bushes.

I guess International Paper is even more lucrative.



Florida's David Struhs mentioned as possible Whitman successor
By CURTIS MORGAN AND LESLEY CLARK
[e-mail]

Struhs has strong personal and political connections to the Bush administration. He served as chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality during the first Bush administration. His wife, Sara, also is the sister of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/5914508.htm

[pinniped]

2. Polluting assholes.

"genial smile and shrug"

Same goes double for the dummy pres..

[TreasonousBastard]

3. On the other hand...

Jeb and his people have managed to keep those nasty oil wells off the Florida coast.

Ain't gonna be no oil drilling off of Florida while Jeb's in office and ANWAR exists, and those people in Louisiana and Texas can have all the wells.

Draining Lake Okeechobee, sugar growers poisoning the Everglades, low water tables and salinization of drinking water... all OK, but no oil wells.

[BiggJawn]

4. Another Fox in charge of the Henhouse....

Bidness as Usual in Murka.