BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/CS/SB 430 (Rodriguez) and CS/HB 991 (Busatta Cabrera) preempt the regulation of petroleum fuel measuring devices to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Current law provides for the regulation of these devices at wholesale and retail establishments by the Department, which includes measures to restrict unauthorized access of customer payment card information. The bills prohibit a state attorney from using Section 525.16, Florida Statutes, to enforce Department rules adopted pursuant to current law. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/CS/HB 639 (Sirois) and CS/CS/SB 1086 (Hutson) amend various laws relating to vessels and anchoring and mooring restrictions. The bills define “human-powered vessel” and impose requirements for the operation of human-powered vessels within the boundaries of a marked channel of the Florida Intracoastal Waterway. The bills make multiple revisions to laws governing derelict vessel identification and removal. They provide that a vessel owner may receive notice that a vessel is at risk of becoming derelict where in-person notice is recorded on an agency-approved body camera. The bills also authorize specified officers and agencies to relocate an at-risk vessel to a location further from a mangrove or upland vegetation. The bills authorize the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to establish a derelict vessel prevention program, which may include provisions for removal of nuisance, derelict or at-risk vessels; a vessel “turn-in” program for owners; and removal of abandoned vessels. The bills specify conditions under which vessels with repeated violations may be declared a public nuisance and provide requirements for notice to vessel owners and remedies. They amend the definition of “derelict vessel” to include criteria for determining whether a vessel is considered wrecked, junked or substantially dismantled. The bills amend provisions relating to anchoring or mooring limitations to clarify that distance restrictions apply to both public and private marinas and apply only to public vessel launching or loading facilities. They authorize municipalities to establish boating-restricted areas within the boundaries of a permitted public mooring field and a buffer around the mooring field of up to 100 feet. They also authorize local governments to establish vessel-exclusion zones within the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway within their jurisdictions, except local governments may not establish such a zone for public bathing beaches or swim areas within the waterway. The bills create provisions addressing vessel speeds within specified distances of activated emergency vessels and construction barges. They require owners or operators of live-aboard vessels to maintain documentation relating to marine sanitation devices. (O’Hara)

HB 287 (Shoaf) and CS/CS/SB 920 (Bradley) amends current law which provides that a property owner who enters an agreement with a state agency for outdoor recreation purposes, where the agreement recognizes the agency is responsible for personal injury, loss or damage resulting from the agency’s use of the property under the terms of the agreement subject to the limitations of Section 768.28, Florida Statutes, owes no duty of care to keep the area safe for entry or use by others or to give warning of any hazardous conditions. The bill expands the definition of “state agency” to include any public entity created by law and revises the “outdoor recreation” purposes included within its scope to include traversing property for the purpose of ingress and egress to or from public lands that are used for outdoor recreation purposes. CS/CS/SB 920 passed the Senate (40-0) and is awaiting action by the House. (O’Hara)

HB 6049 (Eskamani) repeals provisions of current law prohibiting local governments from recognizing or granting certain legal rights to the natural environment or granting such rights relating to the natural environment to a person or political subdivision. (O’Hara)

HB 1561 (Roth) requires $100 million to be appropriated annually from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to the Florida Forever Trust Fund. (O’Hara)

SB 1510 (Stewart) and HB 1211 (Altman) extend the date of retirement of bonds issued for the Florida Forever Program from December 2040 to December 2054. The bills provide for $100 million to be appropriated annually from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to the Florida Forever Trust Fund. In addition, SB 1510 specifies that moneys distributed from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund may not be used for agency executive direction and support services or technology and information services. (O’Hara)

SB 1872 (Rouson) and HB 1623 (Diamond) direct the Commissioner of Insurance Regulation to convene a Climate and Resiliency Task Force to consider the impact of climate change on Florida’s insurance market. The bills direct the Task Force to identify protection gaps in Florida’s insurance market and recommend approaches for reducing, managing and mitigating climate-related risk. The bills direct the Task Force to issue a report to the governor and Legislature every three years, beginning January 2023. (O’Hara)

HB 901 (Bartleman) and SB 1252 (Berman) require the Office of Economic and Demographic Research to include within its annual assessment of Florida’s water resources an analysis of future expenditures by local, regional and state governments necessary to improve resilience to flooding. The analysis must identify gaps between projected and estimated revenues, expenditures and needs. (O’Hara)

SB 1190 (Farmer) is a Senate Joint Resolution expressing the Legislature’s support for investment in resilient infrastructure solutions, projects and policy proposals to support long-term climate resilience. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 1522 (Stewart) and HB 1225 (Goff-Marcil) require the Department of Environmental Protection to implement a stormwater inspection and monitoring program by January 2022 to identify improperly functioning or failing systems. The bills require owners of on-site sewage treatment and disposal systems to have the system inspected once every five years beginning July 2024 and direct the Department to adopt rules to administer and enforce the inspection program. HB 1225 requires basin management action plans to describe potential increases in pollutant loading due to population growth and agricultural growth and provide a comprehensive analysis of options to mitigate increases in pollutant loading. (O’Hara)

SB 1236 (Rodriguez, A.) and HB 617 (Melo) prohibit state agencies from adopting or enforcing state and regional programs to regulate greenhouse gas emissions without specific legislative authorization. (O’Hara)

HB 1173 (Roth) and SB 1480 (Brodeur) extend the retirement date of bonds issued to fund the Florida Forever Act from December 2040 to December 2054. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/CS/SB 88 (Brodeur) and CS/CS/HB 1601 (Williamson) revise the Right to Farm Act to incorporate agritourism activities within the scope of the Act. The Right to Farm Act specifies that no farm operation that has been in operation for one year or more and that was not a nuisance at the time of its establishment shall be a public or private nuisance if the farm operation conforms to generally accepted agricultural and management practices. In addition, the bills provide limitations on liability from nuisance, trespass or tort actions that may be filed relating to farming or agritourism activities. They specify that a farm may not be held liable for operations alleged to cause harm outside of the farm unless the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the claim arises out of conduct that does not comply with state and federal environmental laws, regulations or best management practices. The bills further provide that a nuisance action may not be filed unless the property affected by the activity is located within one-half mile of the activity. The bills limit compensatory damages in a private nuisance action to the reduction in fair market value of the affected property. They prohibit the recovery of punitive damages for nuisance actions under specified conditions. The bills require payment of attorney fees and costs by plaintiffs who fail to prevail in a nuisance action. CS/CS/CS/SB 88 passed in the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/SB 856 (Hutson) and CS/CS/HB 839 (Fabricio) expressly preempt the regulation of fuel retailers and related transportation infrastructure to the state. The amended bills specify that local governments may not take actions that result in jurisdiction-wide bans on gas stations or transportation infrastructure necessary to provide fuel to gas stations. The amended bills also prohibit local governments from requiring gas stations to install specific fueling infrastructure such as electric vehicle charging stations. CS/CS/HB 839 preserves the authority of local governments to take actions or apply regulations relating to the siting, development or redevelopment of gas stations and related infrastructure if such actions do not result in a de facto prohibition within zoning or land use classifications where such infrastructure is consistent with other allowable uses. CS/CS/SB 856 preserves the authority of local governments to take actions or apply regulations relating to the siting, development or redevelopment of gas stations and related infrastructure if such actions do not result in a de facto, jurisdictionwide prohibition of such gas stations or infrastructure. (O’Hara)

HB 333 (Aloupis) and SB 722 (Rodriguez) prohibit the drilling of wells or use of structures for the production of gas or petroleum products within the Everglades Protection Area. (O’Hara)

SB 136 (Brandes) creates the Energy 2040 Task Force within the Florida Public Service Commission to project the state’s electric energy needs over the next 20 years and determine how to best meet those needs while increasing competition and consumer choice. It directs the Task Force to recommend appropriate electric policies and statutory changes, including consideration of the effects of allowing nonutility retail sales of renewable energy; the use of microgrids; emerging electric technologies and concepts; the impacts of state and local government taxes on government revenues and the electric supply; and the environmental impact of electricity production, generation and transmission. The bill specifies Task Force members, authorizes the Task Force to establish any necessary advisory committees and directs the Task Force to submit its recommendations to the governor and Legislature by January 2023. (O’Hara)

HB 1105 (Goff-Marcil) and SB 1360 (Cruz) create a pilot program within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to provide for the energy needs of critical disaster resilience facilities and study the effectiveness of grants for distributed energy generation and energy storage technologies. The bills define “critical disaster resilience facilities” to include emergency operations centers owned by state and local governments, public health facilities, transportation facilities, law enforcement and public safety facilities and utility facilities. The bills direct the Department to establish a grant program for the purpose of offsetting costs for the purchase or lease and installation of on-site solar energy storage systems to serve critical disaster facilities. The bills direct the Department to conduct a study on the effectiveness of using solar energy storage technologies and other renewable energy generation and storage technologies and to publish the results of the study by December 2022. (O’Hara)

HB 993 (Skidmore) and SB 1362 (Polsky) require the Division of Emergency Management’s statewide emergency shelter plan to identify the capacity of backup power generation systems and fuel types available at each shelter. The bills require the Office of Energy within the Department of Agriculture to develop rules that meet certain requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by specified dates. In addition, the bills require the Department to develop and maintain a greenhouse gas registry and inventory and require state and local governmental entities to track and report greenhouse gas emissions data to the Department by specified dates. (O’Hara)

HB 5401 (Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee) and SB 2512 (Appropriations) are committee bills intended to conform to funding decisions made in the 2021-22 Proposed General Appropriations Act. The bills revise documentary stamp tax distributions to several trust funds. The bills reduce distributions paid into the State Housing Trust Fund and the Local Government Housing Trust Fund. They create a distribution of 6.8% to be paid into the Resilient Florida Trust Fund to be used for planning and project grants established by HB 7019 and SB 1954 (relating to Statewide Flooding & Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan). The bills create a distribution of 6.8% to be paid into the Water Protection and Sustainability Program Trust Fund to be used for wastewater grants. The bills prohibit the funds distributed to the State Housing Trust Fund and the Local Government Housing Trust Fund from being transferred to the General Revenue Fund in the General Appropriations Act. The bills expand the use of the Water Protection and Sustainability Trust Fund to include the wastewater grant program created by CS/CS/SB 712, passed in the 2020 Legislative Session. SB 2512 was substituted for HB 5401. SB 2512 passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor.  (O’Hara)

HB 1369 (Driskell) and SB 1764 (Cruz) require a food outlet, a food service establishment or school to ensure that any food waste materials generated by the entity are recycled at an authorized composting facility, at an anaerobic digestion facility or by another recycling method if specified requirements are met. (O’Hara)