Senate approves carbon cap-and-trade, sends to Crist

The Florida Senate voted Wednesday on energy legislation that will make Florida the first in the Southeast to pass carbon cap-and-trade legislation, joining more than 20 states that have imposed similar rules meant to combat the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming.

The Florida Senate voted 39-1 to send the energy bill to the governor, including some controversial last-minute amendments added by the House on Tuesday. Only Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville, voted against the legislation, which the House passed unanimously yesterday.

The bill, identical to H.B. 7135 which passed the House unanimously yesterday, generally writes into law many of the executive orders that Gov. Charlie Crist signed last summer when it comes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. It also creates a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, which would come back for legislative approval.

The bill also includes lots of give-aways to utility companies, making it easier for them to speed eminent domain and run transmission lines through state land. It also eases regulatory oversight of power plant siting.

The Florida House ended up ultimately taking the lead in working with the governor's office on the energy package. House energy chief, Rep. Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, said Tuesday that when the governor vetoed the Legislature's energy bill last year, "at first I didn't really agree with  him. But I will tell you, in retrospect, having worked on this 18 months since that, I think he was right. His veto made us focus our efforts on things we omitted...I would thank him for that veto now," Mayfield said.

The Senate ended up agreeing to a last-minute House addition to the bill, pushed forth by lobbyists for   big auto-makers, which now requires the Legislature to sign off on DEP's efforts to lower car emissions standards to the same levels set in California. That amendment was lobbied for by Ron Book and Wade Hopping. DEP said yesterday that they were disappointed with that amendment.

"Overall the bill is a step in the right direction," said Melissa Meehan, lobbyist for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. She pointed out that many of the measures are left up to state regulators. "There's a lot of work left to be done."

Read more about the bill here.

-Jennifer Liberto, Steve Bousquet, and Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writers

The Florida Senate voted Wednesday on energy legislation that will make Florida the first in the Southeast to pass carbon cap-and-trade legislation, joining more than 20 states that have imposed similar rules meant to combat the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming.

The Florida Senate voted 39-1 to send the energy bill to the governor, including some controversial last-minute amendments added by the House on Tuesday. Only Sen. Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville, voted against the legislation, which the House passed unanimously yesterday.

The bill, identical to H.B. 7135 which passed the House unanimously yesterday, generally writes into law many of the executive orders that Gov. Charlie Crist signed last summer when it comes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. It also creates a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, which would come back for legislative approval.

The bill also includes lots of give-aways to utility companies, making it easier for them to speed eminent domain and run transmission lines through state land. It also eases regulatory oversight of power plant siting.

The Florida House ended up ultimately taking the lead in working with the governor's office on the energy package. House energy chief, Rep. Stan Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, said Tuesday that when the governor vetoed the Legislature's energy bill last year, "at first I didn't really agree with  him. But I will tell you, in retrospect, having worked on this 18 months since that, I think he was right. His veto made us focus our efforts on things we omitted...I would thank him for that veto now," Mayfield said.

The Senate ended up agreeing to a last-minute House addition to the bill, pushed forth by lobbyists for   big auto-makers, which now requires the Legislature to sign off on DEP's efforts to lower car emissions standards to the same levels set in California. That amendment was lobbied for by Ron Book and Wade Hopping. DEP said yesterday that they were disappointed with that amendment.

"Overall the bill is a step in the right direction," said Melissa Meehan, lobbyist for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. She pointed out that many of the measures are left up to state regulators. "There's a lot of work left to be done."

Read more about the bill here.

-Jennifer Liberto, Steve Bousquet, and Asjylyn Loder, Times Staff Writers

Comments

[Steve Nellis]

Another great bill passed, What a joke. Carbon credits etc. We should be building nuke plants and be drilling for oil off the coast. The Chinese are already doing that off our coast. We have nothing but a spinless Crist and the rest of them kneeling down to GLOBAL WARMING TERRORIST. What a scam.

[Russ]

What they really should have done was create a greater incentive for home owners to install distributed solar generation. It really works but not enough people install them to drive down prices and power companies only pay wholesale rates back to customers for power generated.

If 5% of homes in FL had a 5000 Watt solar array putting energy back in the grid it would significantly reduce the need for new power plants and because it is distributed reduce the need for building more transmission and distribution lines.

As it is now, it costs approx $35,000 for an installation and the incentive for homeowners from the state is $20,000 back IF they fund the budget again. This makes the payback on an install possible for home owners.

Instead FL will probably just pay power companies to do business the same old inefficient but HIGHLY PROFITABLE way they do now. How else will they pass on fuel charges to customers, BTW, the power companies OWN the coal mines, rail car industry, barge fleets, and engine yards that produce and move that fuel so it is 100% PROFIT for them! Passing on fuel costs from their wholly owned subsidiaries outside of regulation is their forte!

The heck with carbon footprint, lets make it economically feasible. This IS the SUNSHINE STATE after all.

[Tino]

Okay, you have just offered the sunny-happy-idealistic view of energy. Let's look at the actual math:

From govt census data, there are 8.5 million Florida households. If 5% had 5000 watt solar arrays at $7/watt (a reasonable price), we are talking about a capital investment of

(8,500,000 * 0.05 * 5000 * 7) = $14.875 billion

You are fantasizing that the state govt should pay for $8.5 billion of that. Hmmm....that's a lot of money. Well, how much peak power would that save?

Solar panels in Florida can get about a 25% capacity factor, so for $15 billion we would receive 531 MW of equivalent round-the-clock power.

Let's compare that to the evil, evil companies that make power. Even at an outrageous price, investing $15 billion in CO2-free nuclear units (which run all the time, not just during the day), you can probably get 3,000 MW of power.

Economically feasible? If paying six times as much helps you assuage your guilt and sleep better at night, then it's a great deal. For those of us that are concerned about getting the most for our money, no way.

[So companies that produce power are inherently evil but companies that build and sell you solar panels are not? Interesting take on capitalism.]

Veto HB 679

Well, the "home court advantage" HOA bill passed and boy are homeowners going to be sorry!!!! This is another "full employement for attorneys" bill. If your HOA doesn't like something you're doing - their attorney will be contacting you - if you agree to stop doing it you pay the fine, you fix the problem AND you pay their attorney's bill - the HOA never has to give you notice - your notice is from the attorney.

If you disagree with the HOA about what you're doing you'll need to WRITE A BIG CHECK to pay for - up front - 1/2 the cost of a lawyer/mediator SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION'S ATTORNEY.

If you don't reach "settlement" and you want to proceed - you'll need to WRITE ANOTHER BIG CHECK to pay for -up front - 1/2 the cost of a lawyer/arbitrator SELECTED BY THE ASSOCIATION'S ATTORNEY. If you win you get your money back. If you lose you pay all of the assocation's cost (mediator and arbitrator), plus the fine, plus change whatever they were compling about but never gave you notice about.

If you don't want to go the mediation/arbitration amount you can go to court but if you do that you won't be able to get your attorney's fees if you win and, if you lose, you'll pay for the association's attorney, plus fine, plus change or fix whatever they complained about but didn't give you notice.

Yep - attorney's are going to make out like bandits with this bill unless CHARLIE VETOS IT!!