Sugar buyout, I wonder what the republicans have up their sleeve

[Rebellious Republican]

I posted this as a reply in another thread, but thought it worthy enough to post all on its own.

Here is a little trip down memory lane, most people did not realise or still do not realise that the whole Everglades restoration thing was a product of Jeb Bush. And for a reason, Jeb and friends thought they could still Florida's water rights and make a bundle of cash selling it back to Floridians. As I recall seeing the news sometime after Enron went bust, all of a sudden Jeb suddenly lost interest in restoring the Everglades, funny how that worked. Out of the blue started opposing it because of the cost and tried blocking it. By that time it was to late, he had already sunk a lot of time, money and propaganda into it. Here are some snippets from articles, be very aware of what may actually be taking place.

snip>While Jeb Bush was running for Florida's governor in the summer of 1998, Enron Corp., a fast-growing Houston energy broker, was diversifying into a potentially lucrative new field - privatization of water supplies.

Even as Bush's secretary for the Department of Environmental Protection was settling into his office in February 1999, top executives of Enron's new water venture, Azurix Corp., were seeking audiences with the new governor and his DEP chief David Struhs.

Although Bush generally kept his distance from Azurix, his man Struhs stood on the sidelines like a cheerleader throughout Enron-Azurix's unsuccessful two-year attempt to privatize Florida's water market.

Struhs promoted two ideas near and dear to Azurix: auctioning off blocks of water to the highest bidder, and boosting underground water and storing it there for later withdrawal, a process called aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR.

By May 2001, as Enron was getting ready to junk Azurix and sell it for its parts, Struhs cooled on ASR, citing concerns by environmentalists and legislators.

Enron's attempt to duplicate its success in energy brokerage with a free-market approach to water resulted in $900 million in Azurix debt - a factor in Enron's decision to seek protection from creditors in bankruptcy court.

Azurix's Florida proposals died with the dismantling of the company during 2001 - for which Jeb Bush and the people of Florida might want to thank their lucky stars.

Had Enron and its billion-dollar water baby Azurix succeeded in landing major Florida contracts, taxpayers might now be deeper in the cross-currents of the unfolding Enron bankruptcy and potential fraud case.<snip
http://www.afn.org/~iguana/archives/2002_03/20020314.ht...


snip>In 1999, Enron subsidiary Azurix proposed a scheme under which it would help pay for Everglades restoration in exchange for water rights. Approximately two weeks after Enron's plan was proposed, you appointed James Garner III, an Azurix lobbyist, to the Governor's Commission for the Everglades;<snip
http://www.counterpunch.org/claybrookjeb.html

:think:

[lib2DaBone]

1. Whatever they are doing it will cost more....

Whatever Jeb and Company are up to, you can believe it is no good. (And it will cost more while they are at it.) Gov Crist has flip-flopped on offshore drilling. Watch Crist and the Oil companies and Bush.. they are up to something with the offshore leases in S.W. Florida.

[Rebellious Republican]

2. Agreed, you can take that to the bank.

Did you see Arnie the Govenator's comments on off shore drilling. I don't think Crist or McCain was real happy about it.

:toast:

[bluevoter4life]

3. Land Reclaimation or......

Planting the seeds for development? Of course the other, though far less likely option, turning all that sugar into ethanol. My momney is on the first.