DeSantis’ office quietly backed Florida ban on wind energy

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ workplace quietly helped write a invoice to curtail wind vitality within the state of Florida, e-mail data offered to the Tampa Bay Instances present.

A model of that invoice is now awaiting DeSantis’ signature to grow to be legislation, which is able to ban offshore wind turbines in state waters. It additionally proposes to delete nearly all of references to local weather change present in state legislation, the Instances beforehand reported.

Florida lawmakers handed the payments, Senate Invoice 1624 and Home Invoice 1645, in early March, although the state has no operational wind farms as a result of Florida usually has slower wind speeds. Nonetheless, the ban on offshore generators in state waters puzzled and annoyed opponents, who pointed to the truth that wind vitality expertise is quickly bettering and offshore wind energy may grow to be extra possible within the close to future. The payments’ sponsors, together with Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, mentioned if that occurs, they’d repeal the ban.

Whereas debate over the invoice continued within the halls of the Legislature, DeSantis’ workplace weighed in by way of e-mail. Cody Farrill, a deputy chief of employees within the governor’s workplace, despatched wording associated to the wind ban a number of instances to Collins and his employees in late January and early February. A few of the emails embrace Rep. Thad Altman, R-Indialantic, who, together with Collins within the Senate, sponsored a standalone ban on wind vitality. That invoice acquired no hearings, which by February meant it was at risk of dying.

“As discussed with Rep. Altman and Senator Collins, this is the preferred alternative for” the payments banning wind vitality, wrote Farrill in a single e-mail addressed to the 2 lawmakers. It included an attachment with proposed invoice language that will prohibit “the construction, operation, or expansion of a wind energy facility or an offshore wind energy facility in this state.”

That ban on all wind vitality within the state is extra expansive than the offshore-specific language ultimately handed by lawmakers. In mid-February, related language curbing wind vitality was tacked on to a bigger vitality omnibus invoice that had momentum within the Legislature, and was ultimately handed by lawmakers.

The emails had been first reported by unbiased journalist Jason Garcia of the Searching for Rents e-newsletter. They had been offered to the Tampa Bay Instances by the Vitality and Coverage Institute, a utilities watchdog group, which obtained them by a public data request.

The governor’s workplace didn’t reply to emails asking about his employees’s involvement and why the governor was excited about banning wind vitality. Collins and Altman didn’t reply to voicemails in search of remark. Neither did Rep. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, who sponsored the Home model of the vitality omnibus invoice.

It is unclear whether or not the governor’s workplace authored the unique language that appeared within the first model of the wind vitality ban, filed in early January. The primary e-mail included within the data request displaying Farrill suggesting language tweaks was from Jan. 30.

In among the recommendations, the governor’s workplace targeted on banning wind vitality amenities close to “critical infrastructure.” At one level, a draft borrowed language from a separate legislation that limits land purchases by residents of sure overseas adversaries—together with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela—close to related infrastructure.

“The close involvement of the governor’s office in the wind energy ban really seems to indicate that this is another DeSantis culture war in an attempt to win political points as opposed to addressing any serious issues that Floridians are actually concerned about,” mentioned Alissa Jean Schafer, a analysis and communications supervisor on the Vitality and Coverage Institute. She mentioned that the makes an attempt to ban wind generators close to crucial infrastructure may “lay a foundation for anti-renewables fear-mongering.”

Through the legislative session, rumors unfold that DeSantis was backing the offshore wind ban. A Instances/Herald reporter in late February requested Florida Home Speaker Paul Renner whether or not it was one thing the governor needed.

“I don’t know who wanted it,” Renner mentioned on the time, including that the prohibition made sense for the state. “It’s very similar to offshore drilling: Floridians don’t want to sit on the beach and look at oil derricks and they don’t want to sit on the beach and look at big windmills right off the beach.”

DeSantis’ workplace referenced the vitality bill in a information launch touting victories from the legislative session, beneath the part title of “Stopping the Woke.” The modifications guarantee “Florida’s energy policy focuses on the viability and availability of energy resources in the state, without subjecting the reliability of Florida’s grid to the pressures of the global Green New Deal regime,” his workplace wrote.

Different states, together with Texas and people within the Midwest, have embraced wind as a clear supply of vitality. The ability produced by the rotations of wind generators helps the US keep away from 336 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions yearly, in line with the federal authorities, lowering the air pollution that contributes to local weather change.

A 2021 report from the nonpartisan Pew Analysis Middle discovered that the majority People—77%—assist increasing wind vitality. However pollsters discovered {that a} wedge was beginning to type, as backing amongst Republicans and conservative independents had dropped 13 share factors simply because the earlier yr.

It was the widest partisan hole since Pew began asking about wind energy in 2016.

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