Marco Rubio Takes Aim at EPA Proposed Standards for Florida

Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Chairman U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and ranking Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi calling on them to back a proposal looking to pull the plug on the federal EPA water-quality proposals for Florida.

As we continue debate of the fiscal year 2011 continuing appropriations' legislation, I respectfully request that Section 4035, as amended by Rep. Tom Rooney, be included in the legislation considered by the full Senate,wrote Rubio, going to bat for fellow Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney. This provision would temporarily halt numeric nutrient criteria for the state of Florida finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Dec. 6, 2010.

There have been numerous concerns raised regarding the numeric nutrient criteria set by the EPA, continued Rubio. Cost estimates have been widely disparate. The EPA estimates that implementation of the standards would cost $135.5 millionto $206.1 million annually. However, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has determined that the new standards would cost $1.148 billion annually.Despite the massive discrepancy, to date the EPA has refused a congressional request to conduct an independent analysis of the economic impacts. Furthermore, there have been questions raised regarding the scientific basis and methodology used for the EPA standards.

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