Floriduh Legislature Also Working To Gut Local Gov Climate Efforts, Because More Freedumb
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Jacksonville is currently the only major city in Florida without a CRO. The city was on track to have someone fill that position thanks to funding from the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative, which awarded cities around the world $1 million each to address extreme weather, crime and sea level rise. But in 2016, shortly after Mayor Curry took office, Jacksonville dropped out of the program. The mayor now supports hiring someone for the position and included funding for the role in this year’s city budget. After more than 50 public meetings over a period of 14 months, Jacksonville’s Resiliency Committee developed a list of observations and recommended action steps which were compiled into a final report that was unanimously approved in late February of 2021.
The goal of this final report (a draft of which can be seen here) is to provide Jacksonville’s future CRO with a foundation to begin their work. However, there are bills currently making their way through the Florida Legislature that, if passed, could make it much harder or even impossible for the city of Jacksonville and its future CRO to follow through on some of the recommendations in the report.
SB 1236, for example, would prohibit the adoption and enforcement of programs to regulate greenhouse gas emissions without legislative authorization. Creating and implementing a greenhouse gas inventory and reduction plan is one of the recommendations in the Resiliency Committee’s final report. “To lose the ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions at the local level is highly problematic when you have a state legislature that is not willing to step up to the plate,” said Jane West, Policy and Planning Director for 1000 Friends of Florida, a statewide nonprofit advocacy organization. The bill’s sponsor, Doral Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, did not respond to a request for comment by this story’s deadline.
Other preemption bills that could prevent local governments like Jacksonville’s from acting on climate change include SB 856, which would prohibit local governments from regulating infrastructure supporting the production, importation, storage and distribution of fuel and electricity used for transportation, and SB 1128, which would prohibit local governments from restricting or prohibiting the types or the fuel sources of energy production used by utilities, including city-owned utilities like JEA. Both of these bills were filed by St. Augustine Republican Sen. Travis Hutson.
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https://news.wjct.org/post/local-efforts-fight-climate-change-could-be-stymied-state-lawmakers