RSS Feed MenuLefty politicians and left-leaning enviros have a natural inclination towards top-down bureaucratic solutions when it comes to solving environmental problems.
Sometimes, there is no practical alternative, but more often than not, it means throwing a lot of taxpayer dollars at a problem with little real progress to show for it. This is particularly true when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is involved.
Such has been the problem with the Everglades restoration effort. Restoring the River of Grass means much more than doing a good turn for roseate spoonbills and green tree frogs. The Everglades are a bearing wall for South Florida’s economy, supporting tourism, recreation, and commercial fishing.
The National Research Council’s 2008 report, Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades, noted that the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan initiated in 2000 “has made only scant progress toward achieving restoration goals and is mired in budgeting, planning, and procedural matters.”
Enter Florida Governor Charlie Crist.
To move things along, Crist quietly negotiated a willing-seller deal with U.S. Sugar last year for the state to buy out the company’s land and other assets for $1.75 billion.
The NRC report points out, “Successful Everglades restoration depends on the acquisition of particular sites and the protection of general areas within the ecosystem.” Crist’s bold deal will free up 180,000 critical acres that are currently being used to grow sugar cane.
On May 13, Crist won the blessing of the South Florida Water Management District for a down payment: a $536 million purchase of 73,000 acres. The deal includes a 10-year option to buy an additional 107,000 acres from U.S. Sugar. The land will be used to store and cleanse water flowing to the Everglades.
Fixing the Everglades is essentially a gigantic plumbing project to deliver clean water to the River of Grass at the right times and in the right places. Crist recognizes that gaining the participation of business is vital for making the project work.
Unlike too many well-meaning folks on the left, Governor Crist takes a pragmatic, business-like approach to environmental issues and sees the private sector as a valuable partner in the cause of good stewardship.
But no good deed goes unpunished. Crist’s environmental leadership, combined with his broad, bipartisan appeal, has put him in the crosshairs of faux conservative ideologues who have spent decades trashing the conservative tradition of stewardship and giving the issue away to Nancy Pelosi and other statists.
Crist’s candidacy to succeed retiring Senator Mel Martinez will no doubt mean more of the same from radicals who have lost touch with many of the underlying tenets of conservatism and the Grand Old Party’s long conservation legacy, but nonetheless feel qualified to impose their own rigid doctrinal purity on the party.
Crist’s conservation ethic has a conservative taproot, dating to the days of Edmund Burke. Framing the economy and nature as irreconcilable foes is both a disservice to the public and a grotesque distortion of true conservatism.
To put a green twist on a Benjamin Franklin aphorism, those who would give up the economy for the environment, or vice versa, in time will have neither.
Charlie Crist gets that.
dragonlady // May 17, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Crist is a popular, moderate GOP governor. Even though some may disagree with his policies, I hope most in the GOP will see he’s clearly an asset and belongs in the big tent.
midcon // May 18, 2009 at 4:54 am
I wish would run as an Independent. He has sufficient credibility that lack of a party affiliation would not be an impediment and is likely to appeal to the majority of voters who are moderate independents.
joemarier // May 18, 2009 at 5:03 am
I’m sorry, but nobody that I know of opposes Crist because of his Everglades policy. It’s his support of the stimulus. It’s his property insurance policies, which I perceive as as straightforward a vote-buying scheme as Palin’s. It’s his McCain endorsement in the primary, which still rankles among Romney supporters. It’s the NRSC’s getting involved this early (I don’t agree with that one)What next? Are we going to buy Arlen Specter’s line that he was kicked out because he supports cancer research?
ottovbvs // May 18, 2009 at 5:12 am
What Di Peso doesn’t mention is that most of the support for Crist’s everglades policy came from lefty politicians and enviros and most of the oppostion came from right wing Republicans in the state. There were also a bunch of other areas where he collided with conservative notably on property insurance and tolerance of gay unions and abortion choice. In many ways he’s much closer to Obama than he is to today’s GOP mainstream.
Churl // May 18, 2009 at 6:15 am
$1.75 billion for 180,000 acres.This means a price of $9,722 per acre. For Florida swampland. No wonder the sellers were willing.”‘Swampland in Florida’ refers to decades-old but still recurring real estate scams involving swamp lands misrepresented as being possible to develop, or “buildable”. These scams became widely known and now also have meaning as a common figure of speech.”Thus spake Wikipedia.
barker13 // May 18, 2009 at 6:34 am
Re: Churl; wrote 11 minutes ago –My thoughts exactly; thanks for saving me some typing!Re: Joemarier; 5:03 AM –Yep. With all due respect for Mr. DiPeso’s sincere focus on environmental issues, it’s Crist’s support of the Porkubus bill and his opposition to increasing domestic oil production capacity that makes him… er… Schumer lite.Re: Dragonlady; 8:58 PM –Convince me. (*SHRUG*)Re: Midcon; 4:54 AM –Ya know… I could actually see myself being more likely to support “Independent” Crist than Republican Crist. BILL
dragonlady // May 18, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Barker13, Crist has to govern with a 50-50 state. Despite that, he has high approval ratings in the 60s across party lines: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/15/poll-crist-approvalhighWhile I was not crazy about his stimulus support, even hard core GOP governors accepted some of the stimulus money. And I lived in FL for well over a decade. With its beautiful beaches, everglades, and coral, people there care about the environment. Most of them oppose off shore drilling, although there was some movement on this when gas prices went thru the roof. Crist is pro-gun, tough on crime, pro-death penalty, supports a culture of life and traditional family although there is evidence that he is a moderate with respect to the last two issues. He worked with state insurers to provide a variety of low cost health care plans to FL residents and has avoided the panacea of universal coverage. He has appointed more conservatives than moderates to the state court. He is generally in favor of lower taxes. He has good relations with minorities in the state even though he is against affirmative action. And he supports school choice. What is this, a GOP purity test? Crist is a moderate, not really a conservative, but I do not believe he is an Arlen Specter type. If anything, he is a center-right pragmatist, and in my opinion, somewhat of a panderer. But are we really going to purge a guy with such high approval ratings in a key battleground state out of the party?