Everglades Drilling Ban Goes To Supreme Court

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - A legal battle about exploratory oil drilling in the Everglades has gone to the Florida Supreme Court.

Broward County and the city of Miramar have filed a notice that is a first step in asking the Supreme Court to take up the dispute. The county and city are challenging a ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal in favor of Kanter Real Estate, LLC, a major Broward County landowner that has battled the Florida Department of Environmental Protection over a permit to drill a well on about five acres in the Everglades.

A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled February 5th that the Department of Environmental Protection improperly rejected a recommended order by an administrative law judge, who said in 2017 that a permit should be approved for Kanter to drill the exploratory well on land it owns.

Kanter, which has about 20,000 acres in Broward County, applied in 2015 for the permit, which the department denied. That led Kanter to take the case to an administrative law judge.

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