Despite the old saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk," the Environmental Protection Agency is doing just that.

In what likely will become fodder for upcoming lawsuits, a stinging federal report scheduled for release next week shows that shortcuts, mistakes, questionable technology and overall poor management led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott picked the director of a Jacksonville shipyard on Monday to run his Department of Environmental Protection, turning to an unconventional source for the state’s top natural resources watchdog.

Florida senators and state officials Thursday took up where so many of their litigious-minded colleagues left off earlier in the week, taking the federal Environmental Protection Agency to task over its water quality standards.  Those standards are set to be finalized in August 2012.

This Week’s Heroes: Barney Bishop, Adam Putnam, et al.

Barney Bishop is a Mississippi gambler if ever I saw one – and I’ve seen a few. An EPA administrator overplays her hand, the Associated Industries of Florida president calls her bluff and bets the farm. EPA folds. Game over, Bishop triumphs.

Take no comfort in the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest “gift.” Florida doesn’t need another 15 months to comply with a monumentally bad decision, it needs to fight back.

Florida received a one-month reprieve before the enactment of new regulations for some bodies of water, but state regulators are still looking for flexibility from the federal Environmental Protection Agency in developing new regulations that will govern different bodies of water.

As the Florida Department of Environmental Protection prepares to discuss proposed water pollution standards that are opposed by businesses and farmers, Florida ’s two United States senators – who don’t often agree – both think federal officials should back off.