BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

HB 663 (Salzman) and SB 1294 (Brodeur) deal with the regulation of “cottage food” operations which encompasses any person or entity that produces or packages certain foods at their residence intended to be sold. The bills increase the current sales cap on cottage food operations from $50,000 to $250,000. The bills also preempt the regulation of cottage food operations to the state and prohibit local governments from prohibiting or regulating cottage food operations. (Taggart)

SB 152 (Diaz) and HB 65 (Sabatini) – Regulatory Reform

HB 77 (Overdorf) and SB 1082 (Albritton) – Diesel Exhaust Fluid

HB 103 (Thompson) and SB 1204 (Thurston) – Elections

HB 143 (Fabrico) and SB 962 (Diaz) – Construction Materials Mining Activities

SB 336 (Rouson) – Large-scale Agricultural Pollution Reduction Pilot Program

SB 358 (Berman) – Water Safety

HB 217 (Hunschofsky) and SB 588 (Book) – Conservation Area Designations

SB 82 (Baxley) – Sponsorship of Identification Disclaimers

SB 658 (Taddeo) – Violations of the Florida Elections Code

SB 546 (Farmer) creates the Stop Fracking Act. It defines extreme well stimulation to include various forms of fracking to increase the production at an oil or gas well and prohibits well stimulation in the state. (O’Hara)

SB 64 (Albritton) and HB 263 (Maggard) require certain domestic wastewater utilities to submit a plan to the Department of Environmental Protection by November 2021 for eliminating non-beneficial surface water discharges (e.g., treated effluent, reclaimed water or reuse water) within a five-year time frame.  The bills require DEP to approve such plans if a plan meets the following conditions: The plan will result in eliminating the surface water discharge, the plan will result in meeting statutory requirements relating to ocean outfalls, or the plan does not provide for the complete elimination of the surface water discharge but affirmatively demonstrates that specified conditions are present. The conditions are: The discharge is associated with an indirect potable reuse project, the discharge is a wet weather discharge in accordance with a permit, the discharge is into a stormwater system for subsequent withdrawal for irrigation purposes, the utility has a reuse system that achieves 90% reuse of reclaimed water, or the discharge provides direct ecological or public water supply benefits. In addition, the bills require DEP to also approve a plan if a utility demonstrates that it is technically, economically or environmentally infeasible to implement the requirements within five years; that implementing the requirements would create severe undue economic hardship on the community served, and that the plan implements the requirements to the extent feasible. Plans approved by DEP must be fully implemented by January 2028 except for plans that implement a potable reuse project, in which case such projects must be implemented by January 2030. A utility that fails to timely submit an approved plan may not discharge to surface waters after January 2028. Violations of the bills’ requirements are subject to administrative and civil penalties. The bills require utilities to update plans on an annual basis and demonstrate whether statutory conditions and exemptions remain applicable. The bills require DEP to submit an annual report to the governor and Legislature detailing implementation status. The bills exempt the following domestic wastewater facilities from its requirements: facilities located in a fiscally constrained county, facilities located in a municipality that is entirely within a rural area of opportunity, and facilities located in a municipality having less than $10,000 in total annual revenue. The bills authorize DEP to establish a potable reuse technical advisory committee, provide that potable reuse projects are eligible for alternative water supply funding and provide that potable reuse projects are eligible for expedited permitting and priority state funding. The bills require local governments to offer density or intensity bonuses to developers to fully offset the developers’ capital costs of purchasing and installing residential graywater technologies in proposed or existing developments containing at least 25 residential dwellings. (O’Hara)

HB 283 (Eskamani) and SB 720 (Berman) prohibit the drilling, exploration or production of petroleum products in the state. In addition, the bills direct the Office of Energy within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to develop a statewide plan to generate 100% of the electricity used in the state from renewable energy by 2040 and for the state to have net zero carbon emissions statewide by 2060. The bills create the Renewable Energy Workforce Development Advisory Committee within the Department. (O’Hara)

SB 856 (Hutson) and HB 839 (Fabrico) expressly preempt the regulation of the construction of energy infrastructure to the state. “Energy infrastructure” means infrastructure used to support the production, import, storage and distribution of natural gas, petroleum, electricity, biomass, renewable fuels, hydrogen, solar, wind or geothermal energy. The bills prohibit a local government from implementing or enforcing any policy, resolution or ordinance that has the effect of prohibiting, restricting or requiring the construction of new or the expansion, upgrade or repair of existing energy infrastructure. The bills also prohibit local governments from imposing requirements that are more stringent than state law. (O’Hara)

SB 1008 (Hutson) and HB 761 (Overdorf) provide that solar facilities (including solar farms and related buildings, transmission lines and substations) are a permitted (as-of-right) use in local government comprehensive agricultural land use categories and certain agricultural zoning districts within unincorporated areas. The bills require solar facilities to comply with minimal criteria such as setbacks and buffering applicable to similar uses within the agricultural district. The bills authorize counties to adopt ordinances specifying buffer and landscaping requirements for solar facilities if the requirements do not exceed requirements for other permitted uses within an agricultural district. The bills also include solar facilities with capacities of less than 150 megawatts within the current definition of “electrical power plant” in the Power Plant Siting Act and allow such solar facilities the option of whether to use the Act’s certification process for siting the facilities. (O’Hara)

HB 705 (Andrade) provides airports are not liable for costs, damages or penalties relating to contamination, discharge, evaluation, assessment or remediation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and directs the Office of Program Policy Accountability and Analysis (OPPAGA) to conduct a study of assessment and cleanup of soil and groundwater contamination in other states and submit a report on its findings to the governor and Legislature. (O’Hara)

SB 1058 (Burgess) and HB 773 (McClure) amend current law that authorizes municipalities and counties to create an evaluation and rehabilitation program for sanitary sewer laterals on private property for the purpose of reducing leaks. The bills authorize a local government to access any sanitary sewer lateral within its jurisdiction for the purpose of investigating, cleaning, repairing or replacing the lateral. The bills establish procedures for implementing the lateral program. The bills require the local government to notify the property owner that it intends to access the owner’s property to address the problem and that the owner will not be held liable for the repair. The bills provide that under a locally established program the local government is responsible for repair and cleanup and also must specify requirements for repair work. (O’Hara)

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 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)

HB 387 (Fine) and 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, including whether the property owner is not in bankruptcy and that the estimated annual payment amount does not exceed 10% of the property owner’s household annual income. 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, 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)

SB 1128 (Hutson) and HB 919 (Tomkow) prohibit a local government from enacting or enforcing an ordinance or resolution that restricts or prohibits, or has the effect of restricting or prohibiting, a property owner, tenant or utility service customer from choosing his or her electric utility service regardless of energy source. The bills do not restrict a local government’s power to levy taxes on public services or the right of a municipality to receive revenue from any public utility. (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)

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)