So, They Fracked Florida, Now What?
As was reported yesterday, Florida got fracked already behind our backs, and the DEP knew last year.
Since Rodrigues’ bill wasn’t in place yet to protect them, Dan A. Hughes has to pay a fine to DEP, even though DEP covered for them in the recent Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee. And they covered for them at the DEP hearing at the Golden Gates Estates. So, in actuality, it would seem DEP is also on the hook here.
Rodrigues’ bill hits all the points from the ALEC template bill which has made the rounds where ever states decide to allow trade secrets to be kept from the public by the fracking industry.
Will this get the EPA involved now that the DEP has been shown to be content to repeatedly betray the public’s trust in order to attempt to engineer consent at public hearings?
Here is Christian Spilker, from the company that leased the land to Dan A. Hughes.
Yeah, well, they did frack.
Oh, and Christian Spilker is on the FGCU Board of Trustees and in a position to reward Rep. Ray Rodrigues who works at FGCU. He was placed there by Gov. Rick Scott who wanted to “cautiously” start drilling the Everglades for years now.
Dan A Hughes and DEP Shown to Be Incompetent
Just when you thought it was safe to frack Florida..
A cease and desist order against Dan A. Hughes Company, Texans trying to make a buck at our expense with the assist of corrupt politicians, has been released.
To say the least, this is an outrage. Incompetent was the wrong headline word. Dan A. Hughes is evil and they need to get out of our beautiful state yesterday. Evil and prematurely ejaculatory with deadly toxins is a bad mix, guys. Get out of the sandbox and await further determinations in the penalty chamber.
They actually started fracking work back in December 23, 2013, as a sort of Christmas bonus for Southwest Floridians.
This throws the DEP’s competence into serious question, since they were aware of this and yet they still rejected the decision of the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that Rep. Ray Rodrigues, in attempting to sell his corporation produced fracking bill, H.B. 157, told the public that fracking was already allowed in Florida and that’s why he wanted to put the bill in place.
Clearly, the bill is intended to protect activities such as those Dan A. Hughes has already engaged in.
My attempt to retrieve documents pertinent to understanding the facts was met with a request for $725.
We can not afford to allow these sorts of things to occur without full disclosure of all the meetings and arrangements politicians are making with businesses and other organizations in the future.
Rodrigues’ bill proposes to allow trade secrets to be kept from the public and only disclosed to state regulatory agencies which the public then has to “just trust.”
The bill in Florida has a remarkable similarity to a bill in Illinois. And his bill was supposedly inspired by Jim Keffer of Texas according to Rodrigues’ statements at the
Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee.
This is, at best, a partial accounting of how H.B. 157 came to be.
If we look at Terry Miller, who runs Ray Rodrigues’ campaign and works for Strategic Advocacy, we can see the bill most likely was produced by Strategic Advocacy.
Roy Lenardson of Strategic Advocacy advertises on their site that he creates legislation.
Strategic Advocacy is an ALEC member. ALEC has been producing big business-friendly producing boiler plate legislation around the country for decades now.
STATE HOUSE REMOVES WARNING MESSAGE
In other news, after I wrote an article complaining about the new warning message on the Florida State House video archive system, it has mysteriously disappeared.
Expand the public record.
LETTER FROM “RICK SCOTT”
In other news, I wrote a letter to Governor Rick Scott complaining of various issues I see as indicative of profound corruption.
I received a letter back from an unnamed party referring me to Ed Garrett of the DEP.
In a previous article, I revealed Ed Garrett ‘s background is in contaminated water treatment.
Why didn’t Garrett mention this at the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee?
Rick Scott’s Suspect Facebook Q &A
Governor Rick Scott held a Facebook Q & A session on 4/17/2014. Unfortunately, he didn’t answer Jeanne Emerick’s topmost question.
She is referring to fracking, or hydrologic fracturing, which is a process on the table if plans to drill the Everglades proceed. It involves the forceful injection of millions of gallons of water into the earth which is laden with some 750 chemicals, many of which are acutely toxic. It has been linked to producing earthquakes since 1951.
Emerick began by asking Scott about the DEP’s greenlighting of drilling permits despite the vote against this by the Governor’s own advisory committee. This comes on the heels of several years of efforts by Scott to get the EPA out of Florida, along with his decision to restructure the DEP so that it will rubber stamp drilling permits.
When ignored, Emerick asked several more questions about drilling and energy-related issues, which were also ignored, despite some being rather easy. Scott also ignored other questioners who brought up environmental issues.
Scott was clear that he is opposed to medical marijuana.
However, his response makes no logical sense. What will be on the ballot is medical marijuana, not recreational marijuana. There are no cases of terrible effects from medical marijuana use. In fact, it has been demonstrated to be a very effective medicine, greatly reducing the suffering of PTSD victims, children with seizures, and cancer patients. This appears to have broad support among Floridians.
Some participants expressed concern about the Governor’s selective answering, which brought this response.
Andreas Lockworth’s account is undeveloped. He told me his name is a pseudonym.
Peter Stuczynski’s question was this:
Scott posted a followup video thanking people for questions. He said he would be doing it again.
Governor Rick Scott still has the opportunity to answer the first question he was asked by Emerick, and Peter Stuczynski’s. Hopefully, he will address these questions, which are of increasingly concern to residents of Collier County, and the rest of Southwest Florida.
Other complaints were that the Governor did not answer questions directly.
The Tampa Bay Times previously noted he has a “bridging pattern” of answering only the questions he wants answered: “He bobs. He weaves. He changes the subject. He walks away with “have a great day” after enduring the part of his job that he seems to like least.”
Aaron Deslatte, of the Orlando Sentinel, noted: “Scott has used social media many times to bypass the media, although Democrats have used the tactic in the past to try and lob nasty questions his way. The last time the governor hosted a Facebook Q&A, he answered some softballs from supporters and dodged most of the harder-edged questions.”
Will District 19 Candidates Take The Netherwood Challenge?
Ray Netherwood, who has personally told me he supports Earth Day more than “Mars day,” has issued a challenge to the other Republican candidates and CD 19.
It’s not necessarily just a challenge to prove you’re drug free either. Netherwood used his drug test results to stimulate some thought on the War on Drugs, and the layers of hypocrisy embedded within it.
Expressing sympathy for Radel and his family, Netherwood pointed out that the President himself is a former user of marijuana. While he states that he believes some professions certainly call for tests to make sure you are not high, his stance as a libertarian is that the War on Drugs is a violation of our freedoms, and just a bad idea.
Netherwood wrote: It is, and will remain my contention, that where we don’t need to “legalize” every drug known to man, provided someone is an adult, and chooses to drink or eat something, provided they don’t harm another, that we should be “at Liberty” to do so. That means decriminalization. It means, if someone has a substance abuse problem, it is a medical issue as opposed to a criminal one. Haven’t we ruined enough lives, jailed enough people, rendered otherwise good teens to forever be under employed, and wasted enough money. It’s like the whole prohibition disaster never happened. I just don’t get it.
That being said, he doesn’t use drugs, except for caffeine. He also mentioned he was partially inspired by what he called Rep. Dane Eagle’s bluff.
Rick Scott asked Radel to resign, starting this special election cycle. He famously refused a drug test when Daily Show cast members showed up with a test kit following his decision to drug test welfare recipients.
However, Netherwood’s challenge is aimed at CD 19 candidates only, I believe.
What do you think? Should we test our congressmen and congresswomen?
And what about Benacquisto, Kreegel, Clawson, and Dreikorn in particular?
Empire in Chinese
Debtor’s prison has been expanded
to include chambers in teacher’s
45s and tax rebates will cause
heartbleed to upload flaming villages
superimposing them upon deplorable
lunches in grammar cafeterias
where alphabet soup brown shirts
flash mugshots of known Arabs
and say this is because of the law
sex ed. and concealed weapon permitting
will be held during visits
to churches in abortion galleries
purity detection rings with engravings
of fetal remains that change
color and smell of death
if your virginity is given away
if it’s legitimately lost
an amber alert goes out.
Rick Scott Still Connected with Hospital Corporation of America?
In the interest of following the money…
As Charlie Crist recently reminded us, Rick Scott has had a colorful past which included being a CEO of a company involved in fraud. The question here: is he still connected with that company?
The company is the Hospital Corporation of America and the quick answer is: YES.
In what way? Well, he gets campaign contributions from HCA East Florida Division & Good Government, and HCA West Florida Division & Good Government, and HCA North Florida Division & Good Government. Why not the South division? I don’t know. Maybe they were too busy with something else, like more fraud in Fort Myers, Florida?
HCA stands for Hospital Corporation of America. Yes, the company Rick Scott oversaw fraud with according to Politifact’s article which seems valid to me, although I don’t always reach the same conclusion they do.
Here’s there contributions, meager though they appear in the face of his massive campaign, they are there for a reason. As a rule, money doesn’t randomly get deposited in other people’s accounts through political action committees in actual real life scenarios.
An honest governor would give that money over to the potential medicaid recipients he has cut off from healthcare, some of whom have died as a result.
More shall be revealed…
Write Governor Rick Scott about the DEP
I am writing you to include you in an ever widening conversation about environmental concerns of Southwest Florida residents.
I have been covering (via blog) the plans to oil drill in the Everglades region.
I have friends on 24th Ave SW in Golden Gate Estates, where the exploratory well is getting dropped on a Florida panther refuge and over fragile aquifer systems. Your man, Ed Garrett, has evinced a lack of knowledge of or concern for the likely possible contamination of water, which the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee admits as possible. They cited “permanent adverse impact” on the water, sheet flow, on vegatation and wildlife, with “special emphasis” on rare and endangered species of which the Florida panther is but one. (http://preserveourparadise.org/files/DEP%27s%20Status%20Report%20&%20Request%20for%20Status%20Conf%20%28disregarding%20BCSAC%29.pdf)
Ed Garrett made blithe comments like Florida was “naturally fracked” while being reluctant to eventually reveal he has an extensive background in contaminated water treatment which will come in handy if drilling plans move ahead.
Furthermore, I am a grad student at FGCU, where you have appointed Blake Gable and Christian Spilker, two guys who lease land to oil companies. However, FGCU’s mission statement says they are committed to “environmental sustainability.”
You have violated their mission statement, and forced students to fund the destruction of their own environment and poisoning of their water.
I have also complained to Pam Bondi because I have been repeatedly rejected, rebuffed, ignored, and asked for money from the Office of Open Government.
Is this standard operating procedure?
Furthermore, your DEP, which you have turned into a rubber stamping agency for oil companies and land developers, has rejected the advice of the Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee which you formed, while you are rejected the notion of investigating agencies involved in transactions in foreign realms of which the public has little knowledge (http://www.wctv.tv/news/floridanews/headlines/New-Call-For-Enterprise-Florida-Investigation-247361501.html).
Tammy Hall flew with you to Chile while working for the FBI, I take it. Your partners at the Barron Collier Companies are being sued for 66.5 million dollars by the DOJ. What is coming next before the election? Elections which you famously thwart in anyway you can? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Kz66-y0Ps).
Now, I see that there is a connection with Saudi Aramco, who are employing people in Jacksonville to create LNG whereas David Mica, who voted for the drilling on said committee, works for people connected with said Saudis.
Also, you and local politicians have gotten direct contributions from Koch Industries to your campaign, and your age-old Frist connections are currently funding Lizbeth Benacquisto.
On top of all that, an FGCU employee, Rep. Ray Rodrigues, has been placed in position to be directly rewarded by your appointments of Barron Collier men to the FGCU Board of Trustees (again Blake Gable and Christian Spilker).
Additionally, Rodrigues’ campaign is managed by Terry Miller, who is advised by the famously corrupt Chuck Quackenbush, who has moved all over the country evading his reputation and now sits in the Lee County Republican Executive Committee.
Terry Miller works for Strategic Advocacy, and admitted they lobby either for Exxon or Aramco in other states. Meanwhile, another employee denied that the website said that “the nation’s largest energy company” was a client, while I repeatedly read it to him. It was soon thereafter changed, but this is public record now at my website.
The icing on the cake is that my professors can’t afford to make paper copies of papers because Ray Rodrigues, who is the budgeting manager of Arts and Sciences, has cut off their paper allotments, while he is paid twice what they are (according to your website that posts University salaries). The university seems hostile to critical thinking members of the humanities department and elsewhere as pertains to budgetary concerns.
Please address these issues immediately in this vital election season.
Thank you,
Carljohn X Veraja
6031 Perthshire Lane
Fort Myers, FL 33908
239-322-6014
Nightly Citizen–Creator
