Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis wants Congress to reverse a federal court decision eliminating a rule allowing Florida to take over part of the federal government's environmental permitting processes.
Patronis wrote to Florida's Congressional delegation asking them to support legislation from the state's U.S. Senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, to essentially reverse that decision.
"Since its enactment over three years ago, the state 404 permitting program has allowed Florida to build enough roads, housing, and businesses to keep up with the influx of new Floridians," Patronis wrote.
"Now, construction projects across the state have come to a grinding halt and placed many of our business owners and their employees in financial straits. I'm appalled that one person in a robe judging from their bench all the way in Washington has been allowed to shut down many of our state's economic development projects."
The ruling from D.C. District Court Judge Randolph Moss in February overturned an action taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the waning days of former President Donald Trump's administration in January 2021. The EPA allowed Florida to take over the permitting process of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Clean Water Act.
Seven environmental groups, led by Earthjustice, sued Florida and the federal government over the move, alleging it violated the Administrative Procedures Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Judge Moss in his ruling noted that the EPA had only twice before approved a state's application to take over the permitting process for a given project — Michigan in 1984 and New Jersey in 1994 — and those were isolated cases.
"In this case, however, Florida proposed something novel: It sought to confer, through the Section 7 mechanism, broad ESA liability protection on all future state permittees for incidental take resulting from state-issued dredge and fill permits," Moss wrote.
"We're talking about the destruction of some of the last remaining habitat for one of the most endangered animals in the world," Earthjustice attorney Bonnie Malloy said in a statement released in February after the ruling. "Restoring the Endangered Species Act protections will ensure that these projects get the analysis and review Congress intended to protect threatened and endangered species."
Earthjustice estimated that a development project in South Florida seeking a wetlands permit under the state's process could result in the deaths of up to 26 Florida panthers.
But for Patronis, the ruling is putting the brakes on Florida's economy.
"Right now, over 1,600 applications have yet to be approved, leaving private and public projects in a state of limbo," Patronis wrote. "Unfortunately, nobody knows how to shoot themselves in the foot quite like short-sighted environmental alarmists who set out to find activist judges who will twist the law to their own ends. This is why we need congressional action immediately."
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