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Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) provided the following testimony to the EPA regarding Florida’s water standards. The remarks were delivered on his behalf by his District Director:

“I want to take just a couple of minutes to express my concerns about the proposed regulations and how they would adversely impact our local businesses, our state’s critical agricultural community, and state and local government budgets.

“There is strong opposition to the proposed EPA regulations based on sound reasons. In fact, 23 members of Florida’s Congressional delegation wrote EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on December 2, 2009, expressing our concerns about the proposal and its adverse economic impact on the state. Concerns over the regulations have been expressed to me by small business owners, agricultural producers and elected officials. I would urge the EPA to listen to the concerns that are expressed today, to take these concerns into consideration, and to adjust your approach to accommodate these concerns in this particularly trying economic time.

“The state of Florida has been a national leader in making our waters cleaner. Florida has in place today some of the most robust standards to support water quality improvement. Unfortunately, the proposed regulations fail to recognize this and instead impose a blanket approach to water quality that fails to recognize the variability of Florida’s water resources and the positive steps Florida has already taken. Furthermore, rather than this being a science-driven approach, it has been a timeline driven approach that lacks the transparency that our local governments and businesses deserve. If allowed to be implemented, these regulations will cause serious economic harm to our state while having uncertain environmental benefit. If, that is, the proposal is even economically attainable.

“The EPA should set aside the proposed regulations and begin to work again closely with the State of Florida to utilize the state’s existing efforts to enhance water quality, rather than disrupt Florida’s successful ongoing efforts and divert limited resources to initiatives that may not be the most effective.

“Agriculture faces higher costs and increasing pressures due to overseas competition. The proposed regulations would further compromise Florida’s competitiveness, result in further job loss, raise the cost of agricultural production, and impede our recovery from the recession. Additionally, in this era of heightened awareness of the threats of terrorism and the need to secure our nation’s food supply, it is critically important that we retain our domestic agricultural production. Regulations that lead to the loss of domestic production could result in greater reliance on foreign producers, thus potentially compromising the safety of our nation’s food supply.

“Many businesses are struggling to keep their doors open. Costly regulations would raise the cost of doing business in Florida and the United States, hampering our ability to remain competitive and create jobs here in Florida. With an unemployment rate of nearly 12 percent, we cannot afford to see the costs of doing business in Florida increased further.

“Finally, state and local budgets are stretched thin. Not only would the loss of additional agricultural production and small businesses limit our state’s ability to create more jobs, but the loss would also make it more difficult for the state and local governments to balance their budgets. The costs of complying with these proposed rules do come with a cost. There will be budget tradeoffs for local governments. Costly regulation should not be imposed in a vacuum because they do impact every sector of our economy.

“Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for listening to the concerns of Florida residents.” 

CLICK HERE to read the letter from the Florida Delegation to the EPA Administrator.