BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

SB 514 (Rodrigues) and HB 315 (LaMarca) establish the Statewide Office of Resiliency within the Executive Office of the governor, to be headed by a chief resilience officer appointed by the governor. The bills create the Statewide Sea-Level Rise Task Force to recommend consensus projections of anticipated sea-level rise and flooding impacts along the state’s coastline. They establish a process for appointments to the Task Force and directs the Task Force to convene no later than October 2021. The bills direct the Task Force to submit its recommended consensus baseline projections to the Environmental Regulation Commission by January 2022 and authorize the ERC to adopt or reject the recommendations. If adopted by the ERC, the projections will serve as the state’s official estimate of sea-level rise and flooding impacts along the coast and must be used for the purpose of developing future state projects, plans and programs. (O’Hara)

SB 916 (Brodeur) amends current law provisions that prohibit local governments from requiring permits for the removal of “dangerous” trees on residential property. The bill clarifies what constitutes residential property and clarifies the level of assessment and type of documentation that must be provided by an arborist or landscape architect under the law. (O’Hara)

SB 896 (Brodeur) and HB 539 (Byrd) create definitions for “biogas” and “renewable gas” within existing law provisions for renewable energy. Biogas means a mixture of gases produced by the biological decomposition of organic materials. Renewable natural gas means anaerobically generated biogas, landfill gas or wastewater treatment gas that may be used as a transportation fuel or for electric generation or is capable of being injected into a natural gas pipeline. (O’Hara)

SB 1718 (Berman) and HB 1611 (Hardy) authorize a public educational customer to enter a contract for the installation, maintenance or operation of a renewable energy source device located on property owned or controlled by the educational customer and provides that financing arrangements for such contracts are not considered retail sales of electricity. The bills require electric utilities to provide meter aggregation to public educational customers under specified circumstances. The bills authorize business entities or third parties contracted by business entities to install, maintain and operate a renewable energy source device on or about the structure in which the business entity operates or on a property owned or leased by the business entity and authorize the business entity to sell electricity generated by the device to another business entity located immediately adjacent to the structure. The capacity of such renewable energy source device may not exceed 150% of the business entity’s usage in the prior calendar year. The bills provide that such sales of electricity are not considered retail sales of electricity. Finally, the bills authorize a public customer (including a local government) to install, maintain or operate one or more renewable energy operating systems to offset the public customer’s electricity requirements, but the capacity of such system may not exceed 150% of the public customer’s usage in the prior calendar year. The electricity may be sold to another public customer, and such sale is not considered retail sales of electricity. The bills require electric utilities to provide meter aggregation to public customers consistent with a net metering program. (O’Hara)

SB 1960 (Bean) provides a process for siting solar facilities and restricts local governments’ authority to prohibit or impose requirements on such facilities. It defines “solar facilities” to mean a production facility that converts solar energy to electricity that is consumed primarily off-site via a transmission system. The term includes modules, mounting systems, collection systems and associated components as well as accessory buildings, grid interconnection equipment and energy storage equipment. The bill provides that solar facilities shall be a permitted use by right in all agricultural land use categories of the applicable local government comprehensive plan and all agricultural zoning districts within unincorporated areas. It provides that solar facilities must comply with the same setback, landscaping, buffering, fencing or berm requirements applicable to other uses that do not produce food or fiber in that comprehensive plan category or zoning district. The bill specifies that agricultural land leased for a solar facility shall maintain its agricultural tax exemptions. For solar facilities greater than 75 megawatts in capacity, the bill allows an applicant the option to apply for certification under the state’s Power Plant Siting Act. (O’Hara)

SB 208 (Brandes) and HB 775 (Omphroy) 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 the business owner or 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 that 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)

SB 1348 (Polsky) and HB 1563 (Mooney) require the Department of Environmental Protection to review and update its 2010 Retail Bags Report on the regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings and disposable plastic bags and to submit a report to the Legislature by December 2021. In addition, SB 1348 modifies the current law preemption of local government regulation of these materials by specifying that local governments shall not regulate the use of auxiliary containers, plastic bags and wrappings until the Legislature adopts the recommendations of the Department contained in the report or until July 2022, whichever is earlier. (O’Hara)

HB 1309 (Payne) provides legislative ratification of administrative rules promulgated by the Department of Environmental Protection relating to biosolids. The bill exempts such rules from review and approval by the Environmental Regulation Commission. (O’Hara)

SB 1550 (Rodriguez) modifies provisions of current law adopted in 2020 regarding public financing of construction projects in coastal building zones to include certain inland areas. The bill provides that coastal building zones are at risk due to sea level rise and coastal structures within these areas are potentially at-risk structures. The bill requires state-financed constructors to include certain flood mitigation strategies in sea level impact projection studies. (O’Hara)

CS/HB 387 (Fine) and CS/SB 1208 (Rodriguez, A.) substantially amend current law provisions relating to Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. The bills define terms relevant to PACE programs including commercial and residential property. Under the bills, commercial property with qualifying improvements would be eligible for PACE programs. The bills revise the scope of qualifying improvements eligible for PACE programs to include improvements for storm and flood resistance, installation of back-up power or battery storage systems and wastewater treatment improvements (including the upgrade or replacement of onsite systems or connection to central sewage system), water damage mitigation and resiliency improvements, health and environmental hazards measures or improvements and water conservation or efficiency improvements. The bills impose various requirements on a PACE administrator to reasonably determine a property owner has an ability to pay the estimated annual PACE assessment. The bills impose obligations on a PACE administrator before it may enter a PACE contract for a residential property, such as providing a financing estimate and specified disclosures to the owner, and conducting a recorded telephone call with the property owner to confirm the owner’s understanding of costs, payments, lien status and other implications associated with entering the contract. The bills authorize a residential property owner to cancel a PACE contract within three days of signing without penalty and provide the term of a contract shall not exceed the useful life of the qualifying improvement. The bills prohibit PACE financing for certain residential properties. In addition, they prohibit a PACE administrator from enrolling a PACE contractor that fails to meet specified requirements and require the administrator to make reasonable background checks prior to enrolling a new PACE contractor. They require the PACE administrator to confirm the contractor has performed the applicable work or service before disbursing funds to the contractor and they impose specified marketing and communications guidelines on PACE administrators and contractors. (O’Hara)

SB 994 (Brodeur) modifies current law provisions relating to the permitting of private docks by the Department of Environmental Protection and permit exemptions. It clarifies that a private residential multifamily dock or pier is included within existing provisions relating to permit exemptions and the issuance of general permits. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 1128 (Hutson) and CS/HB 919 (Tomkow) prohibit a local government from taking any action that would restrict or prohibit the types or the fuel sources of energy production which may be used, delivered, converted or supplied by an electric or natural gas utility, petroleum dealer or transmission company. The preemption applies retroactively to existing ordinances. (O’Hara)

HB 6023 (Eskamani) and SB 596 (Stewart) repeal current law provisions preempting specified local government regulations relating to tree pruning, trimming and removal on residential property. (O’Hara)

HB 6027 (Grieco) and SB 594 (Stewart) remove the current law prohibition of local laws relating to regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings and disposable plastic bags. The bills also repeal the current law preemption of local laws relating to the use or sale of polystyrene products. (O’Hara)

HB 6041 (Eskamani) and SB 1174 (Stewart) repeal current law provisions preempting the regulation of over-the-counter proprietary drugs and cosmetics to the state. (O’Hara)

CS/SB 430 (Rodriguez) and 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)

HB 639 (Sirois) and SB 1086 (Hutson) amend various laws relating to vessels, anchoring and mooring restrictions and no-discharge zones. 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 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 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 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. The bills create provisions addressing vessel speeds within specified distances of activated emergency vessels and construction barges. They provide for the establishment of a “no-discharge” zone within the entirety of the state’s territorial waters upon approval by the Environmental Protection Agency and establish penalties and remedies for unlawful discharges by vessels or floating structures. (O’Hara)

HB 287 (Shoaf) and 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. (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)