In an exciting new development in environmental mitigation yesterday, FPL land use attorney Jeffrey Bercow invented a proffer that can prevent environmental damage just by saying so.

County staff, the South Florida Water Management District and the citizen groups who came to speak to the Miami-Dade County Commission explained that FPL's proposed new six-lane roadway through a wetland would create a dam, slicing the wetland in two and interrupting the return of sheet flow to the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands. When it seemed that commissioners might be swayed by concerns for the wetland, Mr Bercow responded by passing out his one-page proffer to the commissioners. It said, in short, that the roadway would not be allowed to hurt the wetland. Mr. Bercow's single-ply sheet saved the day for FPL, and the roadway was approved.

Given his magical skills at environmental mitigation, we should immediately hire Mr. Bercow to write a proffer for Tamiami Trail, which is to this day damming the Everglades. Even at his hourly rate, it will be much less costly than building the Everglades Skyway.