May 31, 1997

Group looking for new way to pay for Everglades restoration

MIAMI (AP) -- Blocked in their bid to tax Florida sugar to pay for Everglades restoration, environmental groups have turned their attention to foreign growers.

They say the United States, which imports more than a million tons of sugar a year, should auction off some of the rights to sell that sugar in this country.

The environmentalists estimate foreign growers would be willing to pay around 7 cents a pound -- seven times the tax that environmentalists unsuccessfully tried to impose on Florida growers last year. The auctions would generate an average of $72 million a year, according to an analysis presented Thursday by the National Audubon Society.

Supporters say the plan would raise some of the $3 billion to $5 billion they estimate Everglades restoration will need in coming decades.

"It doesn't cost consumers, taxpayers or (domestic) sugar growers anything," said society President John Flicker. Instead, it would reap the "windfall profits" that some foreign growers earn in the U.S. market, where a federal program keeps prices well above the world average.

The state's sugar industry joined with a representative of Caribbean and Central American growers in denouncing the plan. They said it would devastate poor nations, violate trade agreements and upend the world sugar market, perhaps leading to shortages in the United States.

"We don't think Everglades restoration should be built on shattered economies," said Robert Buker, senior vice president of U.S. Sugar Corp. Representatives of sugar giant Flo-Sun, the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative and the Florida Sugar Cane League also denounced the idea.

That reaction disappointed proponents of the plan.

"Since it really does not impact domestic sugar producers, we hoped we would have gotten some positive feedback from the industry but that doesn't seem likely," Save Our Everglades spokesman Joe Garcia said Friday. "We thought this might be a point where we could come together and start pursuing things in common."

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