Bill Amendment: FL S1174 | 2014 | Regular Session

Florida Senate Memorial 1174 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: For additional amemendments please see the Bill Drafting List

Bill Title: Carbon Dioxide Emissions Guidelines

Status: 2014-05-09 - Signed by Officers and filed with Secretary of State [S1174 Detail]

Download: Florida-2014-S1174-Senate_Committee_Amendment_217776.html

       Florida Senate - 2014                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SM 1174
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì217776QÎ217776                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
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       (Abruzzo) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the resolving clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
    6  
    7         That the Congress of the United States is urged to direct
    8  the United States Environmental Protection Agency, in developing
    9  guidelines for regulating carbon dioxide emissions from existing
   10  fossil-fueled electric generating units, to:
   11         (1) Respect the primacy of Florida and rely on state
   12  regulators to develop performance standards for carbon dioxide
   13  emissions which take into account the unique policies, energy
   14  needs, resource mix, and economic priorities of the state.
   15         (2) Issue guidelines and approve state-established
   16  performance standards that are based on reductions of carbon
   17  dioxide emissions determined to be achievable by measures
   18  undertaken at fossil-fueled electric generating units.
   19         (3) Allow Florida to set less stringent performance
   20  standards or longer compliance schedules for fossil-fueled
   21  electric generating units.
   22         (4) Give Florida maximum flexibility to implement carbon
   23  dioxide performance standards for fossil-fueled electric
   24  generating units.
   25         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   26  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   27  Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection
   28  Agency, to the President of the United States Senate, to the
   29  Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to
   30  each member of the Florida delegation to the United States
   31  Congress.
   32  
   33  
   34  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   35  And the title is amended as follows:
   36         Delete everything before the resolving clause
   37  and insert:
   38                           Senate Memorial                         
   39         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
   40         urging Congress to direct the United States
   41         Environmental Protection Agency to use specified
   42         criteria in developing guidelines for regulating
   43         carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil-fueled
   44         electric generating units.
   45  
   46         WHEREAS, a reliable and affordable energy supply is vital
   47  to Florida’s economy and job growth, as well as the overall
   48  interests of its citizens, and
   49         WHEREAS, Florida supports an all-inclusive energy strategy
   50  because it is in the best interest of the state and the nation,
   51  and
   52         WHEREAS, the United States has an abundant supply of coal
   53  that provides economic and energy security benefits, including
   54  affordable and reliable electricity, and
   55         WHEREAS, carbon regulations for existing coal-fueled
   56  electric generating units could threaten the affordability and
   57  reliability of Florida’s electricity supplies, and
   58         WHEREAS, such regulations impose additional financial
   59  burdens on electric generating units that have invested in
   60  pollution controls to meet the recent mercury regulations of the
   61  United States Environmental Protection Agency, and
   62         WHEREAS, such burdens risk the closure of electric
   63  generating units resulting in substantial job loss, and
   64         WHEREAS, carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fueled electric
   65  generating units in the United States represent only 3 percent
   66  of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and
   67         WHEREAS, the United States Energy Information
   68  Administration projects that carbon dioxide emissions from the
   69  nation’s electric sector will be 14 percent below 2005 levels in
   70  2020, and
   71         WHEREAS, the United States Energy Information
   72  Administration projects that carbon dioxide emissions from the
   73  nation’s coal-fueled electric generating units will be 19
   74  percent below 2005 levels in 2020, and
   75         WHEREAS, on June 25, 2013, the President of the United
   76  States directed the United States Environmental Protection
   77  Agency to issue standards, regulations, and guidelines to
   78  address carbon dioxide emissions from new, existing, modified,
   79  and reconstructed fossil-fueled electric generating units, and
   80         WHEREAS, the President of the United States has recognized
   81  that states will play a central role in establishing and
   82  implementing carbon standards for existing electric generating
   83  units, and
   84         WHEREAS, the Clean Air Act requires the United States
   85  Environmental Protection Agency to establish a procedure under
   86  which each state must develop a plan for establishing and
   87  implementing standards of performance for existing fossil-fueled
   88  electric generating units within the state, and
   89         WHEREAS, the Clean Air Act expressly allows states, in
   90  developing and applying such standards of performance, to take
   91  into consideration, among other factors, the remaining useful
   92  life of an existing fossil-fueled electric generating unit to
   93  which such standards apply, and
   94         WHEREAS, the existing regulations of the United States
   95  Environmental Protection Agency provide that states may adopt
   96  less stringent emissions standards or longer compliance
   97  schedules than the agency’s guidelines based on factors such as
   98  unreasonable cost of control, physical impossibility of
   99  installing necessary control equipment, or other factors that
  100  make less stringent standards or longer compliance times
  101  significantly more reasonable, and
  102         WHEREAS, it is in the best interest of electricity
  103  consumers in Florida to continue to benefit from reliable,
  104  affordable electricity provided by coal-based electric
  105  generating units, NOW, THEREFORE,