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.

Better than a James Bond movie.

Gwen Fleming, regional administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, last week scoffed at Florida officials’ calculations that implementing the agency’s new water standards would cost the state $20 billion.

Barney Bishop

Don’t be ridiculous, she said. It’s all speculation and guesswork. We’re looking at a figure between $135 million and $206 million. It won’t cost Florida any more than that.

Hand overplayed.

Without a blink, nerves of steel, AIF’s Bishop looks across the table. Here comes his bet and his bluff: "Those numbers are out of fantasy land," he says. "They have no basis in fact."

Bishop offers to write a $130 million check to the EPA if they agree to pay anything over that.

"(Fleming & Co.) didn't take the deal,” says 007.

EPA folds.

Of course they didn’t take the deal. And they won’t. More than two-thirds of the municipalities in the state of Florida have significant retooling work to be done on their utilities – in many cases millions of dollars in replacements – all to meet a standard for which the science has not been proven.

I'm going to sign up Barney Bishop for the World Series of Poker.

And then there's Adam Putnam.

EPA buster Putnam caught my eye and won my heart not two weeks after he trounced Democrat Scott Maddox in the Florida agriculture commissioner race.