BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/SB 198 (Rodriguez, A.) and CS/HB 349 (Overdorf, Sirois) authorize the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund to establish seagrass mitigation banks under certain conditions. (O’Hara)

HB 303 (Truenow) and CS/SB 608 (Brodeur) authorize counties and municipalities to access sanitary sewer laterals within their jurisdiction to investigate, repair or replace the lateral. A sanitary sewer lateral is a privately-owned pipeline connecting a property to the main sewer line. The bills require municipalities and counties to notify private property owners within a specified timeframe if the government intends to access the owner's sanitary sewer lateral and an anticipated timeframe for the work. The bills specify that local governments who establish sanitary sewer lateral programs are legally and financially responsible for all work that is performed and authorize such programs to use specified state or local funds to evaluate and rehabilitate impaired laterals. CS/SB 608 was amended to clarify that a municipality or county may elect to establish and implement an alternative evaluation and rehabilitation program to identify and reduce extraneous flow from leaking from sanitary sewer laterals. (O'Hara)

CS/SB 1238 (Polsky) and HB 1019 (Duggan) require coastal counties to conduct vulnerability assessments that analyze the effects of saltwater intrusion on their water supplies. The assessments must be conducted by September 2022. The bills require each coastal county to provide copies of its assessment to the Department of Environmental Protection and the respective water management districts. The bills require water management districts, in collaboration with coastal counties, to submit annually to DEP a list of proposed projects based on the assessments. (O'Hara)

CS/HB 101 (Fine) and CS/SB 228 (Rodriguez, A.) amend current law relating to Property Assessed Clean Energy programs (PACE), whereby local governments, alone or in partnership with a program administrator, may finance qualifying improvements on residential property relating to energy conservation and efficiency or renewable energy. The bills add several consumer protections to the current PACE program, including: capping the total of all non-ad valorem assessments, plus any mortgage debt on the property at 97% of a residential property’s fair market value, requiring a determination that a property owner meets certain creditworthiness requirements, and allowing property owners to cancel a financing agreement within three days of execution. The bills also require the local government to post an online annual report documenting certain PACE activities. (Hughes)

CS/SB 518 (Brodeur) and HB 1555 (McClain) amend current law provisions that prohibit local governments from requiring permits for the removal of "dangerous" trees on residential property. The bills clarify what constitutes residential property and clarify the level of assessment and type of documentation that must be provided by an arborist or landscape architect under the law. CS/SB 518 passed the Senate (38-0) and is awaiting action by the House. (O'Hara)

SB 182 (Brandes) allows the owner of a business or a contracted third party to install, maintain and operate a renewable energy source device on or about the structure in which the business operates or on any property the business leases. The bill provides that the business owner or the third party may sell the electricity that is generated from the device to another business immediately adjacent to or within the same parcel as the business, and such sales shall not be considered or regulated as retail sales of electricity. The bill provides that if the energy-producing business or its customers require additional related services from a utility, such as backup generation capacity or transmission services, the utility may recover the full cost of providing those services. The bill authorizes a utility to enter a contract with a business to install, maintain or operate any type of renewable energy source device on or about the structure from which the business operates and to sell the electricity to an adjacent business and the bill provides that such electricity sales shall not be considered or regulated as retail sales of electricity. The bill specifies that if the Public Service Commission determines the level of reduction in electricity purchases by customers using renewable energy source devices is significant enough to adversely impact the rates that other customers pay in the rate territory, the Commission may approve a utility's requests to recover its costs of providing the electricity needed by all customers, including customers using a renewable energy source device. The bill provides for methodology of such cost recovery, a process for customers to challenge the cost recovery and authorized rulemaking by the Commission. The bill may have a negative fiscal impact on municipal revenues, including potential impacts to municipal electric franchise revenues and municipal public service utility taxes. (O'Hara)

HB 1145 (Mooney) and SB 1580 (Rodriguez, A.) authorize certain coastal communities as defined in the bills to establish pilot programs to regulate single-use plastic products. The bills also require the Department of Environmental Protection to submit updated retail plastic bag reports with conclusions and recommendations to the Legislature by specified dates. (O'Hara)

CS/SB 1434 (Rodriguez) and CS/HB 1077 (Hunschofsky) revise current law provisions that require certain public-financed projects and infrastructure to undergo a Sea-Level Impact Projection Study prior to construction. The bills expand the types of projects and infrastructure subject to the requirement by including "potentially at-risk" projects within an area that is "at risk due to sea-level rise," as defined in the bills. The bills also add a requirement that a public-financed constructor provide a list of flood mitigation strategies evaluated as part of the design of the potentially at-risk structure or infrastructure and identify the flood mitigation strategies that have been implemented or are being considered as part of the structure or infrastructure design. (O'Hara)

HB 393 (Hinson) and SB 604 (Berman) require the Department of Health to adopt and enforce certain rules and issue health advisories for public bathing places if the results of bacteriological water sampling at the site fail to meet health standards. The bills require the Department to notify a municipality or county if a health advisory is issued against swimming in public bathing places and require the county or municipality to place signage around public bathing places warning of the bacterial contamination until such time the bacterial contamination is resolved. (O'Hara)

HB 6025 (Eskamani) and SB 316 (Stewart) repeal current law preempting specified local government regulations relating to tree pruning, trimming and removal on residential property. (O'Hara)

SB 320 (Stewart) and HB 6063 (Grieco) remove the current statutory preemption of local laws regarding the regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings or disposable plastic bags. In addition, the bills remove the statutory preemption of local laws regarding the use or sale of polystyrene products to the Department of Agriculture. (O'Hara)

HB 6019 (Eskamani) repeals current law provisions preempting the regulation of over-the-counter proprietary drugs and cosmetics to the state. (O'Hara)

HB 1151 (Sirois) creates a 15-member task force within the Department of Environmental Protection and specifies its members, which include a representative from the League. The bill directs the Task Force to develop recommendations for enforceable regulatory standards, a mechanism for identification and cleanup of contaminated areas, methods to address liability for contamination and responsibility for cleanup, appropriate methods and technologies for cleanup, funding sources for cleanup and remediation, methods to manage PFAS waste, appropriate testing for PFAS, and methods to eliminate workforce exposure. The bill directs the Task Force to issue an annual report to the Governor and Legislature, beginning October 2023. (O’Hara)

HB 1125 (Caruso) directs the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to administer an onsite sewage treatment and disposal system periodic inspection program. It requires owners of certain systems to have periodic inspections of such systems every five years and to pay for the costs of such inspections, as well as any repairs or replacements. It authorizes local governments to create grant programs for homeowners' replacement costs. It directs DEP to submit program reports to the Governor, Legislature, Chief Science Officer and the Blue-Green Algae Task Force. (O'Hara)

SB 1454 (Ausley) and HB 1081 (Skidmore) establish the Office of the Blue Economy within the Department of Economic Opportunity and provides duties of the Office. The term "blue economy" means the economic uses of ocean and coastal resources with a focus on sustainable practices and the competitive positioning of the state in a global economy affected by climate change. It includes maritime industries as well as tourism and outdoor recreational activities. It also requires the Office of Economic and Demographic Research to conduct a biennial evaluation of the blue economy for inclusion in its annual state water resources assessment. (O'Hara)

CS/CS/SB 1024 (Bradley) and CS/CS/HB 741 (McClure) revise current law relating to net metering to avoid the consequence of ratepayers that do not use renewable energy sources from subsidizing electric service costs of other ratepayers who use net metering and renewable energy sources. The bills require the Public Service Commission to propose new net metering rules that will ensure that utility customers using renewable energy generation pay the full cost of electric service and are not subsidized by the utility's general body of ratepayers. The bills authorize certain customers who own or lease renewable generation before January 1, 2023, to remain under existing net metering rules for a period of 20 years. CS/CS/HB 741 passed the House (83-31) and is awaiting action by the Senate. (O'Hara)

SB 886 (Jones) and HB 515 (Robinson, F.) require a municipal water or sewer utility that serves customers in another recipient municipality using infrastructure located in the recipient municipality to charge consumers in the recipient municipality the same rates, fees and charges as it does the consumers inside its municipal boundaries. (Branch)

CS/CS/SB 1764 (Albritton) and CS/CS/HB 1419 (Mariano) create the Municipal Solid Waste-to-Energy Program within the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services and require the department to provide financial assistance grants to municipal solid waste-to-energy facilities that have entered into power purchase agreements with electric utilities that include capacity payments, and the facility will no longer receive capacity payments under the agreement. The bills also direct the department to provide incentive grants to waste-to-energy facilities to assist with constructing, upgrading, or expanding a facility. Grant funds may not be used for a residential collection system that does not separate solid waste from recovered materials. The bills appropriate $100 million in recurring funds to the Department for the new program. CS/CS/SB 1764 passed the Senate (38-0) and is awaiting action by the House. (O’Hara)

SB 1944 (Baxley) and CS/CS/HB 1241 (Hawkins) address local governments’ contractual remedies against a solid waste or recycling vendor if the vendor fails to perform under the contract with the local government. SB 1944 prohibits local governments from seeking liquidated damages, administrative fees, or other similar charges against a solid waste management or recycling entity for action or inaction during a local, state or federal emergency. SB 1944 also caps the amount of liquidated damages, administrative fees or other similar charges that may be sought against a waste or recycling company to 50% of the amount billed to the customer for collection services at the daily rate. CS/CS/HB 1241 would prohibit a local government from assessing liquidated damages against a vendor that misses a scheduled collection during a declared emergency, so long as the vendor provides the missed collection service within 36 hours of the scheduled service. If the vendor fails to provide the collection service after 36 hours, the local government is not required to pay for that service. The bill does not apply to missed collections that are due to the fault of the vendor, and the bill does not apply to contracts or contractual provisions for the collection of storm-generated yard trash. Both bills apply to contracts executed or renewed on or after July 1, 2022. (O’Hara)

SB 1448 (Ausley) establishes the Florida Board of Tree Experts within the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and requires the Board to develop or designate a licensure examination for licensed Florida arborists. The bill provides requirements for licensure as a licensed Florida arborist and a licensed tree care practitioner and provides grounds for the Board to suspend, revoke or refuse to issue or renew a permit. The bill requires a business engaged in tree care services to biennially register with the Board. (O'Hara)