craig pittman, giving green the business - covering the green economy
DESCRIPTION
Craig Pittman, an award-winning environmental reporter at the St. Petersburg Times and the author of two books. Pittman spoke at Covering the Green Economy in June 2010. Pittman also presented a session on turning a good story into a book. Book It! http://www.slideshare.net/BizJournalism/craig-pittmantman-bookitTRANSCRIPT
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Giving “Green” the Business
…or, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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Paving Paradise• Series on Florida’s
vanishing wetlands May 2005-Dec 2006
• Won top awards for investigative enviro journalism
• Led to book contract with University Press of Florida
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They Won’t Say No• Between 1999 and
2003, the Corps approved more than 12,000 wetland permits in Florida
• Number of permits denied: one.
• Efforts to mitigate with man-made wetlands fail repeatedly
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Mitigation Banking
• Touted as free-enterprise solution to wetland losses• Congress & state spending millions on it• Florida permits: Surprise!
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How it’s supposed to work• Entrepreneur buys
drained swamp• Restores flow,
replants wetland flora• Gets credits from
regulators• Sells credits to
developers to make up for destroying wetlands elsewhere
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When Dry Is “Wet’’
• Florida gives credit for dry land as if it were swamp• One bank: 90% of credits for dry land• What about no net loss? “Good luck with that!”
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From top dog to bad apple
• Ecobank in 1996: Top dog firm hailed by both Republicans and Democrats as industry leader
• Ten years later Ecobank is “the bad apple” of the industry• Bankruptcy records led to discovery of civil court case that
exposed how Ecobank really did its business • Records showed Ecobank paid politicians for help landing big-
money contracts with government agencies
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….and one more thing
• Turns out Ecobank founders started as developers• They ran the 1st Florida company charged criminally
with DESTROYING wetlands
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What if there’s no restoration?
• More credits for dry land than wet
• Did no restoration• Got all 138 credits
for preserving land, not for restoring swamps
• Flunks the “no net loss” test
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Where do you mitigate?• Restored 1,600 acres
of wetlands• Mitigation bank lies a
mile off coast• Selling credits for
projects up to 30 miles away on mainland
• Study: Island restoration not a replacement for mainland wetland functions
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Who’s minding the store?
• Sundew “the poster child” for agency neglect
• In 5 years, owner sold 60 credits but did no restoration
• GAO: Sundew one of 10 Florida banks Corps never inspected
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And what about the wildlife?
• Florida panther: State animal & most endangered mammal east of the Mississippi
• Fish & Wildlife Service hasn’t blocked a single development in panther habitat since 1993
• Result: 40,000 acres of habitat paved over
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Solution: Species banking• Preserve ranch land
& sell credits to developers…but:
• Bank on 4,000A not occupied by panthers selling credits to developers of habitat
• Land worth $713,000 selling $144M in credits
• FWS: Ranch important as dispersal zone
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The bottom line• Banks allow regulators
to OK environmentally destructive projects
• But regulatory oversight lacking
• Some banks miss point of why they’re allowed
• End result: Mitigation banks don’t achieve same result as just saying no
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Read the book & the blog
http://www.pavingparadise.org