BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

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)

SB 1690 (Hutson) requires the Department of Environmental Protection to update its list and report on critically eroded beaches and the associated comprehensive long-term management plans to include certain beaches eroded by Hurricanes Matthew, Irma and Michael and identified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as critically eroded. (O’Hara)

HB 779 (Altman) and SB 1730 (Stewart) remove a provision in current law that requires income from conservation lands to be used in a specified way to retain its exemption from ad valorem taxes. In addition, the bills authorize conservation easement agreements to allow recreational activities. (O’Hara)

HB 1133 (Leek) and SB 1504 (Wright) define the terms “upland structure,” “vulnerable” and “wave runup” for purposes of the Dennis Jones Beach and Shore Preservation Act. The bills require, rather than authorize, the Department of Environmental Protection to issue permits for coastal armoring if it determines private structures or public infrastructure is vulnerable to damage from coastal storms or sea level rise. Similarly, the bills require, rather than authorize, the Department of Environmental Protection to issue permits for present installations of coastal armoring. (O’Hara)

SB 652 (Taddeo) and HB 1237 (Casello) impose an excise tax upon bottled water operators at a rate of 12.5 cents per gallon of water extracted from waters of the state. The bills direct proceeds of the tax to be deposited into the Wastewater Treatment and Stormwater Management Revolving Loan Trust Fund and direct that proceeds must be used to provide grants and loans to local governments, with priority given to projects that connect septic systems to central wastewater facilities. (O’Hara)

SB 1776 (Cruz) requires the Department of Environmental Protection to charge bottled water companies a fee of 5 cents per gallon of water extracted and requires the Department to distribute the funds collected from fees to the appropriate water management district to be used for the purposes of replenishing aquifers, creating alternative water supplies and addressing water quality impacts. (O’Hara)

SB 1774 (Cruz) requires the Department of Environmental Protection to monitor the consumptive use permits for all bottled water companies to ensure compliance with the limits of allowable water extraction from an approved source. The bill exempts bottled water companies that are permitted to extract less than 55 million gallons per year. (O’Hara)

CS/HB 1177 (Avila) and CS/SB 1482 (Garcia) establish the Biscayne Bay Commission to develop coordinated plans, projects and budgets to improve the bay. The bills authorize the Commission to accept any functions delegated to it by any governmental entity through a memorandum of understanding. The bills provide for membership, powers and duties of the Commission. The bills prohibit sewage disposal facilities from disposing of wastes into Biscayne Bay without providing advanced waste treatment. (O’Hara)

SB 1240 (Hutson) provides a specified annual appropriation (the lesser of $100 million or the total amount requested to fully fund the annual project list) from the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to the Department of Environmental Protection to fund beach and inlet projects. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/HB 1515 (Duggan) and CS/CS/SB 1946 (Polsky) authorize counties to establish anchoring limitation areas in densely populated urban areas. The bills grandfather existing anchoring limitation areas from the new requirements imposed by the bills. The bills provide size and other criteria for the designation of an anchoring limitation area, including a requirement that a person may not anchor a vessel for more than 30 consecutive days in any six-month period in an anchoring limitation area. The bills revise provisions prohibiting and authorizing anchoring of vessels in anchoring limitation areas and provide for vessel owners and operators to present certain proof that a vessel has not exceeded certain anchoring limitations. The bills revise provisions of current law authorizing removal and impoundment of certain vessels from anchoring limitation areas and declare that a vessel that is the subject of more than three violations within 12 months is a public nuisance. The bills authorize the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to develop rules to implement the new provisions. (O’Hara)

HB 57 (Andrade), SB 1194 (Hooper) and SB 1500 (Harrell) – Transportation

SB 178 (Cruz) – Public School Transportation

SB 422 (Rouson) and HB 389 (Mariano) – Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority

SB 684 (Brandes) and HB 707 (Chaney) – Department of Transportation

HB 729 (Gregory) and SB 1364 (Perry) – Transportation Projects

HB 785 (Busatta Cabrera)  and SB 708 (Brandes) – Peer-to-peer Car Sharing

SB 862 (Gruters) and HB 695 (Duran) – Digital License Plate Pilot Program

SB 924 (Hooper) – Multi-use Corridors of Regional Economic Significance Program

SB 978 (Hooper) and HB 677 (Rommel) – Motor Vehicle Dealers

SB 1126 (Harrell) and HB 1385 (LaMarca) – Department of Transportation

HB 1289 (McFarland) and SB 1620 (Brandes) – Autonomous Vehicles

SB 1134 (Harrell) – Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

HB 1143 (Grall) and SB 1466 (Hutson) – Airports

SB 278 (Baxley) and HB 1643 (McClain) provide criminal penalties for a person who commits a moving violation that causes serious bodily injury to or causes the death of a vulnerable road user. Of interest to cities, current law defines “vulnerable road user” to include a person engaged in work on a highway such as a utility service worker. (Taggart)

HB 1283 (Beltran) and SB 1660 (Burgess) rename the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority as the West Florida Expressway Authority. The West Florida Expressway Authority shall assume the governance and control of the expressway system operated by the former Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority including its assets, personnel, contracts, obligations, liabilities, facilities and tangible and intangible properties. The governing body shall initially consist of a board of seven members but shall be subject to increase to no more than 13 members upon the expansion of the authority’s jurisdiction. (Taggart)

SB 1130 (Brandes) dissolves the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority. The bill requires the Authority to discharge its liabilities and settle and close its activities and affairs. The bill also provides for the distribution of the Authority’s assets or the proceeds of such assets, such that each local general-purpose government represented on the Authority’s board receives a distribution generally in proportion to each entity’s contribution to the acquisition of the assets. (Taggart)