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Appeals Court Refuses To Rehear Everglades Drilling Case

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- An appeals court Tuesday rejected a request to hold another hearing after a three-judge panel ruled last month that the state should issue a permit for exploratory oil drilling in the Everglades.

The decision was a victory for 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 Feb. 5 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.

The Department of Environmental Protection, Broward County and the city of Miramar asked the 1st District Court of Appeal for a rehearing after the Feb. 5 decision.

The Tallahassee-based court issued a 14-page ruling Tuesday that clarified a legal issue in the case but rejected the request for a rehearing.

(©2019 CBS Local Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The News Service of Florida's contributed to this report.)

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