Combatting Nonsensical Bills in the Florida Government

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Our planet is facing a global climate crisis caused by increased levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, causing a heat-trapping blanket, which is caused by the burning of fossil fuels by humans. Instead, switching to renewable energy will help Florida move to a cleaner, safer, and better future. Ten Florida cities, including St. Petersburg, have already made commitments of 100% renewable energy in the near future. 

Unfortunately, a new bill was moved quickly through the Florida state legislature that can reverse this progress, effectively banning all 100% renewable energy commitments. Essentially, this bill will prohibit the banning of fossil fuels as an energy source, exactly what a renewable energy pledge would guarantee, making commitments to 100% clean energy virtually impossible. 

Senate Bill 1128 and linked House of Representatives Bill 919, titled “Preemption on Restriction of Utility Services,” prohibits municipalities from restricting any fuel source that a company or organization may want to use or sell. If both these bills pass through the Florida legislature, St. Petersburg and other Florida cities will have to rescind their 100% renewable energy pledge. We chose a project targeting a system instead of an individual because systemic change can have a larger impact than individual change on carbon emissions (Blumberg and Johnson, 2021). 

To learn more about this bill and the dangers it poses, click here for an article written by Sofia McNally for The Current on April 19th. Ashley Ebling and Sofia McNally were inspired to act against this nonsensical piece of climate legislation and ran a campaign to promote other Eckerd students to contact their Florida representatives. What we did is listed below: 

  • 4/12/21- First meeting with PIRG to develop ideas on possible collaborations on events to promote action against SB 1128 and HB 919. We chose to reach out to students within the Eckerd community because as Stoknes mentioned in Chapter 9, “The Power of Social Networks”, people do more change in groups and are likely to imitate those around them. We hoped to inspire the Eckerd community, which already has a ‘green’ ideology, by speaking with PIRG and other Eckerd students (Stoknes, 2015). 

  • 4/18/21- Spoke directly with Alex Gordon (from PIRG) to discuss event ideas and the best ways to reach out to Eckerd College students. Also, discussed event dates that would not interfere with PIRG events.

  • 4/19/21- We joined a PIRG meeting to ask PIRG members to call representatives about SB 1128 and HB 919. During this meeting, we also promoted our calling event that was set for Wednesday 4/21/21.

  • 4/21/21- Our action event occurred. This event was created to educate participants through a presentation explaining in depth the bills and their importance, followed by an action session.  During this event, one student attended and everyone in attendance called and emailed both Republican Senator Jeff Brandes and Republican Rep. Linda Chaney, in total three emails and phone calls were made.

  • The rhetoric used during the phone calls and emails followed the idea of a pressure campaign, where we urged our politicians to act and told them our disappointment if they voted for these bills (Xie, 2021).

  • During this time we found multiple different sites that would allow us to reach out to the members of different committees. A couple of those sites included:

  • These were our calling scripts:


Where We Are Now:

Florida’s state legislative session, the period when bills are made and passed, ended on April 30. This bill had moved through various committees in the House and Senate quickly in March and early April, and unfortunately, both bills eventually passed both legislative branches. House Bill 919 passed 81-34 on April 22, 2021, and Senate Bill 1128 passed 27-13 on April 26, 2021. Rep. Linda Chaney did not vote on the bill and Senator Brandes voted for the bill. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has not yet signed or vetoed these bills.

Overall, despite the results of Senate Bill 1128 and House Bill 919, there is still the need to work together to act against future bills that may threaten sustainable practices. The main takeaway that we hope to express is the need to get more individuals involved in making a difference in their communities, especially through reaching out to government officials and voting. We need to simplify the language used and offer a positive change in a more social and supportive environment (Stoknes, 2015). Through our action event, we worked to simplify the language used in the bill to help students understand how they may be affected by these bills. Also offered students easier accessibility to contact their representatives. From this, we hope that the students we reached out to felt as though they were making a difference. 


Sources:

Blumberg, Alex, and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, editors. “Is Your Carbon Footprint BS?” Spotify, Spotify, 18 Mar. 2021.

Stoknes, Per Espen. What We Think about When We Try Not to Think about Global Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015. 

Xie, Dan. “How to Plan a Successful Advocacy Campaign.” Climate Change Communication. 31 Mar. 2021, Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Links:

-https://www.sierraclub.org/ready-for-100/map?show=committed

-http://www.theonlinecurrent.com/opinion/a-ban-on-bans-nonsensical-climate-legislation-in-florida-government-requires-our-action/article_1c4afef0-a161-11eb-8e09-bf73e329aa8a.html

-https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/S24

-https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/contactmember.aspx?MemberId=4778&SessionId=90

-https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Committees/committeesdetail.aspx?CommitteeId=3098

-https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/show/RC

-https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/919

-https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/919/Vote/HouseVote_h00919c2260.PDF

-https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/919/Vote/SenateVote_h00919c2015.PDF
-https://fcvoters.org/ 
-https://www.sierraclub.org/florida/clean-energy
-https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne-legislative-explainer-advance-20190303-story.html

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