Fla. revises Everglades deal with U.S. Sugar

updated 6:32 p.m. ET Nov. 11, 2008

MIAMI - Florida has agreed to pay the nation's biggest producer of sugar cane $1.34 billion under a revised deal to obtain vast tracts of farm land to restore the Everglades.

The amount to be paid U.S. Sugar is significantly less than the $1.75 billion price tag initially projected for the state. The deal no longer includes the company's high-tech mill, railroad lines or a citrus processing plant.

U.S. Sugar made terms of the deal public in statements Tuesday.

Gov. Charlie Crist had planned to make an announcement at the historic home of a Florida environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglass. But he rescheduled a news conference for Wednesday after his plane had to make an emergency landing because of mechanical problems.

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