EPA Moves to Curb Public Input on Data Centers | The Salt Lake Tribune
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate a federal requirement that states publicize and solicit public comment on air pollution permit applications for industrial facilities, including data centers and the gas-fired power plants built to run them. Nearly 200 advocacy groups and more than a dozen states have voiced opposition, noting that in some states the permitting process is the only point at which residents are notified a project is coming.
Permit Applications for 2026 Florida Bear Hunting Season to Open Soon | MyPanhandle.com
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will accept bear harvest permit applications from 9 a.m. CST Sept. 11 through Sept. 21, with permits allocated by random drawing for a Dec. 5-27 season across four zones in the Panhandle, north Florida and parts of central and south Florida. Applicants must be at least 18 by Oct. 1 and pay $5 per entry, and successful applicants pay $100 for Florida residents or $300 for nonresidents.
An area of low pressure tied to a tropical wave several hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands carries a 70 percent chance of development, and the National Hurricane Center expects a tropical depression to form within a day or two. Forecast models move the system westward to west-northwestward across the tropical Atlantic, with track and intensity uncertain by late weekend, while South Florida stays unsettled with daily storms and highs in the low 90s.
RFK Jr. Pushes Regenerative Farming Program at Florida Farm | Politico Pro $
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Life Farms in Clearwater on Tuesday for a roundtable centered on a $1 billion multi-agency federal pilot program that pays farms to adopt regenerative practices, which he said has drawn more than 60,000 applications. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who attended, praised state first lady Casey DeSantis’s Healthy Florida First campaign and credited HHS with helping defeat a plan that would have given liability protections to companies using glyphosate.
New State Law to Protect Consumers From Data Center Costs Faces Its First Test | The Florida Trib
Florida’s Public Service Commission heard about five hours of testimony on Duke Energy’s proposal for serving large load customers, the first filed under Senate Bill 484, which requires utilities to ensure data centers bear their own full cost of service rather than shifting it to ratepayers. Duke’s plan sets a 20-year minimum contract term and early termination fees but no specific large load rates, which the state’s consumer advocate and the group Florida Rising argue violates the law.
Elevated Lead Levels Found in Okeechobee Drinking Water, Schools Take Precautions | CBS12
The Okeechobee Utility Authority tested 70 water samples in June and July and found more than 10 percent exceeded the EPA’s lead action level, though the utility said its own lines are lead free and the source is likely older service lines, pipes or fixtures inside buildings. Okeechobee County Schools stopped tap water use at sites built before 2014 and began providing bottled water to students and staff while conducting its own lead testing.
Even a Protected Florida Wetland Isn’t Safe From Microplastic Pollution | StudyFinds
Florida Atlantic University researchers found microplastic in 38 of 40 sediment samples collected at Spruce Bluff Preserve, a 97-acre freshwater wetland along the St. Lucie River in Port St. Lucie, with the highest concentrations along the outlet canal and river edge rather than in vegetated interior zones. Infrared testing confirmed only 82 of 197 particles as plastic, yielding a corrected estimate of 97 particles and showing that visual counts alone more than double the true tally.
Tampa’s University Area, an unincorporated community of about 10,000 residents with a per capita median income near $12,000, received a $15 million EPA Community Change Grant in December 2024 for pond restoration, flood control, septic-to-sewer conversions and a new community center. The Trump administration rescinded the funding in May 2025 and cancelled the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program, and a July federal ruling ordering the EPA to resume administering it is now under appeal.
UF Wins $1.79M NSF Grant to Advance AI Environmental Forecasting | The Boca Raton Tribune $
The National Science Foundation awarded a $1.79 million grant to a University of Florida research team developing artificial intelligence tools to model the connections between water and carbon systems, from drinking water availability and flood prevention to carbon storage in forests and wetlands. The project will use AI to predict how changes in land use, water availability and climate affect those systems, drawing on UF’s HiPerGator supercomputer to process large volumes of environmental data.
A 14-member team of teenagers with UF/IFAS Extension Broward and Palm Beach counties designs, welds, wires and races a solar-powered electric car through the 4-H TechGarage Solar Car Club, now based at South Plantation High School. The team won its second consecutive national championship this summer, set a 760.5-mile track record in 2025 and completed all 656.7 available miles of the 2026 Tour of Texas, earning two major awards and two inductions into the Order of the Solar Cell.
