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Sierra Club Florida urges Governor DeSantis to invest in Florida’s future and veto HB 1645

Letter to the editor

On March 8, Sierra Club Florida sent Governor Ron DeSantis a letter urging him to veto HB 1645, “Energy Resources.” 

If signed into law, HB 1645 would have far-reaching and devastating consequences for Florida’s health, economy, and environment. The bill was designed to actively prevent local governments and state agencies from taking action on the environment by:

  • Making “resiliency facilities” to store and distributing all kinds of gas a permitted land use in every county and municipality in Florida, including zones for shopping, restaurants, and daycare centers;
  • Discouraging state agencies and local governments from purchasing EVs by striking the requirement that they select the most fuel-efficient models;
  • Reducing public and local government input on and review of gas pipelines by extending the certification exemption for pipelines up to 100 miles in length (up from the current 15-mile threshold);
  • Striking the genuine clean renewable energy grant programs in the state while  providing cost recovery for the gas industry; and
  • Prohibiting Florida from accessing wind energy on or offshore.

The letter makes clear that inaction on climate change is costly and that signing this bill would continue a clear trend of skyrocketing property insurance premiums, increased costs to tax and ratepayers, intensifying storms, and more. As the impacts of climate change grow ever more palpable and the solutions grow ever more beneficial to the health and well-being of Florida’s economy and environment, failure becomes less affordable.

Sierra Club Florida Political Director Luigi Guadarrama said, “Eliminating the few genuine, clean, renewable energy grant programs in the state and at the same time providing cost recovery for the gas industry is a slap in the face of hard working Floridians. It is not our responsibility to prop up large out-of-state corporations with higher bills each month.”

Sierra Club Florida Executive Committee Chair James Scott said, “Why would we trade the ability to set Florida on the right track and prioritize pumping toxic greenhouse gasses into our homes and throughout our communities? People should have a say on whether or not to let that into their neighborhoods.”

Sierra Club Florida stands firmly against HB 1645, and remains committed to holding lawmakers and the Governor accountable for their inaction on climate change and the negative impacts it’s had on Florida’s families and communities.

Leslie Pearsall, Sierra Club Florida

The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.

  • Another line of BS by the Serria Club. Any of the so called renewable energy claims would only cost florida and florida residents millions more. Go save your dump.

  • Nice cherry-picking Sierra Club!

    Allow me to fill in some blanks…

    This legislation is designed to remove federal and international governmental controls away from the state and state chartered municipalities. The feds and UN have no right to govern in this capacity. USA was designed as a democratic republic for reasons like this.

    Issues:

    Bars rouge local governments from restricting your energy source:
    “The bill would preempt local governments from restricting the types of fuel sources, such as natural gas and liquified petroleum, that may be “used, delivered, converted, or supplied.””

    Places financial incentives so EV owners cannot irresponsibly dump their dead batteries:
    “Car dealerships would be required to collect a deposit for EV batteries, with the amount of the deposit depending on the kilowattage of the battery; the range falls between $500 for 50 kWh to $1,000 for more than 100 kWh. Owners can get their deposits back when they sell the car, transfer ownership or move out of state.”

    Bars the use of and highlights the existence of slave labor to mine rare earth elements in places like Congo – who export these elements to places like China where slave labor is again used to manufacture batteries:
    “State agencies and local governments would only be allowed to purchase products from the Department of Management Services’ “Florida Humane Preferred Energy Products List.” “

    Remove barriers of entry and allows for alternative fuels:
    “Natural gas and hydrogen fueling stations: Under this measure, any turnpike that allows gas stations must also allow repowering services such as liquefied natural gas, compressed hydrogen gas and hydrogen.”

    Slowly kick UN Climate Goals out of state govt… by removing previously written goals that were based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals under the guise of Net Zero Emissions:
    “State energy goals: This part of the bill strikes more than 100 lines related to Florida’s current policy, deleting lines that acknowledge “implementation of alternative energy technologies can be a source of new jobs and employment opportunities” and that “the impacts of global climate change can be reduced through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”“

    Removes federal government control over retiring Fla power plants:
    “Power plant retirements: This piece of the legislation would require the Florida Public Service Commission to review any proposed closures of power plants larger than 75 megawatts. If the PSC determines that retirement of a power plant goes against Florida’s state energy goals, even if required by federal regulations, the PSC would support the state attorney general in challenging the federal regulation”

    All quotations above are from Chelsea Rivera (policy organizer at Central Florida Jobs with Justice). I’d like to thank her for unwitting writing my rebuttal to the Sierra Club.The unquoted statements that precede the quotations are mine.

  • More doomsday cult hocuspocus by the green commies seeking one world gumment by the 3% egghead grant funded rulers. Go to California!

  • I’m fairly sure that one way or another the florida sierra-less club will find out where the Guvner thinks they should deeply insert their letter.

  • The Sierra Club has done more harm to this country than even the ALCU. Well, maybe almost as much but more than PETA.

  • The Green New Deal goals have been foisted on us by an ever-encroaching Federal gov’t, with help from progressives in local gov’t like in Gainesville/Alachua Cty and imbedded bureaucrats in myriad regulatory agencies.

    The legislation to push back on that encroachment is exactly what we need to be free people with the resources to take care of our own families, while also caring about the oppressed in other countries who provide slave labor to mine the minerals required for EV batteries.

    Green energy is not as clean and friendly as its advocates pretend.

    The push to make our transportation run on electricity is an assault on our economy, but even more insidious is the control over our ability to move freely. Can you imagine trying to evacuate in the event of a hurricane in an EV? Can you imagine the gridlock and devastation resulting from EVs with nowhere to recharge? What happens when there’s an attack on our power grids?

    The more dependent we are on one source of energy only, the easier we are to control and defeat. Terrorists would LOVE for America to run on EVs – we’d all be grounded if they could cause a blackout.

    The Sierra Club may well have noble intentions – I don’t know them – but one can be sincere and also sincerely wrong.

  • Yeah. The kookoos @ the sierra club
    were for the biomass plant like Ms piggy Hanrahan 🐷 that ruined & bankrupted GRU…great reset can go to hell. The planet is just fine. Global warming is just another fear psyop to
    take away our freedom and create hell on earth global totalitarianism.
    Those sierra club nuts need to triple mask to keep their cO2 in their heads to prevent global warming! They just need to load up on Covid shots to reduce the world population and the planet 🌎 will be saved!

  • They are just another “mouthpiece” for the U. N., the u n desperately needs to get control of the U.S., so that they can insinuate their laws on the people of this country, and bring about their one world guvment desires.

  • I thought they were going to save the planet 🌎by sticking us with paper straws‼️i can make my own decision concerning paper or plastic…my body, my choice, right? Someone have Clemons right a letter to Desantis to get us plastic straws back‼️‼️

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