Despite opposition, Senate panel OKs energy infrastructure preemption bill

(The Center Square) – Florida’s Legislature is cranking up the “preemption train” again with a bevy of Republican-sponsored bills seeking to dilute local authority, including proposals to prohibit cities and counties from regulating vacation rentals and seaports.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee advanced two more preemption measures Tuesday, including one that would ban local governments from regulating “energy infrastructure,” including production and distribution of electricity, natural gas and petroleum products.

Senate Bill 856, sponsored by Sen. Travis Hutson, R-St. Augustine, was approved 7-2 and moves onto the Senate Community Affairs and Rules committees for hearings before reaching the Senate floor.

Its House companion, House Bill 839, filed by Rep. Tom Fabrico, R-Miramar, makes its debut hearing Wednesday before the House Appropriations Tourism, Infrastructure & Energy Subcommittee. It, too, must pass through three committees to secure a chamber floor vote.

HB 839 (2021) – State Preemption of Energy Infrastructure Regulation | F…

If Tuesday’s Senate panel hearing is indicative, the bills will be heatedly opposed to the bitter end of the 60-day session, which began last week.

“This is an appallingly bad bill,’’ said Sierra Club of Florida lobbyist David Cullen. “It would destroy everything.”

SB 856/HB 839 would invalidate county and city comprehensive plans that restrict land use related to fossil fuel and renewable energy. The measures would prevent local governments from prohibiting natural gas fracking, nullify solar permitting ordinances, end renewable energy grant programs and eliminate county authority over pipelines along roadways.

Proponents maintain it is necessary to streamline regulations that can be uniformly applied statewide instead of a patchwork of local rules and ordinances.

“Most local governments don’t pass stupid ordinances, but some jurisdictions have passed really stupid ordinance,’’ said Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. “The problem is, in order to get rid of it, you have to sue them. But you know how long it takes to get to the courts?”

SB 856/HB 839 would negate agreements between 11 local Florida governments and manufacturers to purchase electric vehicles to achieve net zero dependence on fossil fuels goals while not providing a state plan.

“I applaud them trying to get to clean energy but we don’t need to apply to a ZIP code or county line. Energy has no boundaries,’’ Hutson said. “Let’s get this to the state level and hit the pause button and figure out what clean energy looks like.”

Florida’s 412 cities are “not advocating for any ban on fossil fuels or any ban on types of energy sources or bans on gas stations,” Florida League of Cities Deputy General Counsel Rebecca O’Hara said, adding the bill “goes much further than that.”

SB 856/HB 839 “will have unfathomable consequences for local policy and local safeguards decades in the making and will cause widespread confusion about countless other local ordinances,” Florida Conservation Voters Deputy Director Jonathan Webber said, warning it will “become a lightning rod for litigation.”

Other critics called the bill “a shocking power grab” by “monopoly utilities and their allies,” noting SB 856/HB 839 is model legislation written by the America Natural Gas Association.

Indeed it is, Hutson replied, noting model legislation written by advocates’ lawyers is a “part of the process” for all sorts of legislation.

The bill does not inhibit development of new energy sources, he said. “We’re just prohibiting the elimination of current energy sources. You can’t completely wipe out any energy that’s already on the grid,” he said.

Hutson is also sponsoring two more energy-related preemption bills: SB 1128, which would prevent local governments from banning natural gas in new construction, and SB 1008, which would limit local solar installation rules.

SB 1128 also passed through the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Tuesday in an 8-1 vote.

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