I talked to Jerry Phillips of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility about this. He said the state could be passing laws to make pollution rules stronger, require more inspections and monitoring, even shorten the timeline and increase the penalties for violators.
“We need stronger protections for our waterways,” he told me. But we’re not getting them “in spite of all the talk from the governor about him wanting to be viewed as an environmental governor.”
Don’t get me wrong – our governor and legislature did throw a lot of money at the manatee die-off.
