Florida moves backwards on electric cars

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Photo credit: Håkan Dahlström Photography

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Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in Tallahassee teamed up to strip local communities across Florida of the power to do pretty much anything at all about charging stations for electric vehicles.

The idea, records show, was pushed by lobbyists for Publix Super Markets, the nearly $60 billion-a-year grocery chain — and one of the biggest corporate contributors to Republican politicians in Florida.

Publix never said peep about the issue in public. But the lawmakers who sponsored Senate Bill 1084 said they were trying to put an end to a patchwork of local rules that require commercial property developers — like Publix, which builds dozens of grocery stores each year — to pre-wire new parking lots for electric vehicle charging stations.

These are often known as “EV readiness” or “make ready” rules, and they are meant to ensure that charging stations for electric vehicles can be more quickly and affordably deployed as more consumers switch from gasoline-fueled vehicles to battery-powered cars and trucks.

EV readiness rules have spread across the country in recent years — including in Florida. Miami-Dade County, for instance, passed an ordinance requiring commercial developers to install charging station circuitry in at least 20 percent of the spaces in parking lots with 10 spaces or more. Leon County and the cities of Orlando, Tampa, Coral Gables, and Hollywood, among others, had adopted EV readiness rules, too.

Senate Bill 1084 essentially wiped all those local laws off the books. But that’s not all the legislation did. It also gave the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services the power to set statewide rules for EV charging stations. And Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee repeatedly implied that these new statewide rules would likely include some kind of EV readiness requirement, too.

The goal, they insisted, wasn’t to give developers a pass — it was simply to ensure uniformity and predictability across Florida.

“If this bill passes,” Sen. Tina Polsky (D-Boca Raton), asked during a hearing on SB 1084, “the developer will have no obligation to put in any spots for electric vehicles. Is that correct?”

“No. It is not a zero. It is a maximum,” responded the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jay Collins (R-Tampa). “We’re going to say you can have up to a certain percentage.”

Sen. Jay Collins (R-Tampa) presents SB 1084 to a Senate committee in February 2024. (Source: The Florida Channel)

That was, it turns out, not true.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services recently unveiled the new statewide rules for EV charging stations — and there is no EV readiness requirement at all. Publix and other developers in Florida won’t be required to prewire any more parking spaces.

Spokespeople for the state agency declined to say why it opted not to include an EV readiness requirement in the new statewide rules. The agency is run by prominent Republican politician Wilton Simpson, who may run for governor in 2026 — and who, records show, has raised close to $1 million from Publix over the years.

The omission has disappointed EV supporters. Readiness requirements “create and foster faster EV charging deployment at the lowest possible cost,” said Ben Prochazka, the executive director of the Electrification Coalition, a lobbying group that works with everyone from environmental groups to corporations like Florida Power & Light and Ford Motor Co. “When we’re doing this at the moment of development, adding conduit and some of that simple stuff, it’s pennies on the dollar that can save tens of thousands of dollars later.”

It's also utterly ridiculous. This is the same Republican-controlled state government that supported EV readiness rules just a few years ago.

In fact, in July 2021, the DeSantis administration specifically called for collaboration “with state and local government partners to establish minimum EV-ready parking requirements.” It was one of the core recommendations from an “EV Infrastructure Master Plan” developed by the Florida Department of Transportation — a plan commissioned by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

An excerpt from FDOT’s 2021 “EV Infrastructure Master Plan.”

But too many politicians in Tallahassee have since decided that serious state-level policymaking is not nearly as important to their personal political futures as shameless national pandering — and that any issue supported by people concerned about climate change should be turned into a clout-chasing culture war.

It’s essentially Fox News performance art — a performance that big companies like Publix are happy to exploit when it might save them a buck.

This is how a Harvard- and Yale-educated attorney like Ron DeSantis ends up ranting about “the global elite” forcing people to eat bugs — while shielding the beef cattle industry from competition.

It’s how he ends up claiming a national gas-stove conspiracy — “they want your gas stove” — while approving a tax break written by lobbyists for a large natural gas company.

And it’s why he puts his staff to work on legislation that purges the phrase “climate change” and bans windmills that don’t exist — while also rolling back regulations on gas pipelines.

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.

The end result

After a year of headwinds, more Floridians are buying EVs. But is momentum slowing? (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Is Lab-Grown Meat Cooked Under Trump? (Heatmap)

Oh by the way

Home insurance costs in Florida spiked in third quarter. Are more increases on the way? (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

Electric rates are rising, too

FPL to file for new rate plan, would raise residential rates 2.5% through 2029; $2 billion in total (WUSF)

See also: Tampa Electric, Duke seek big bill increases to pay for 2024 hurricanes (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Former lobbyist to help oversee Florida utility watchdog (Florida Times-Union) ($)

Because ‘indoctrination’ is not the target, it’s the goal

Why do so many Florida universities hire politicians as presidents? (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: As Florida colleges change protest rules, some see voices stifled (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

This could be an ugly week in Orlando

Will grand jury block Worrell from retaking State Attorney’s post? (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

See also: Bain intervened to drop charges against former Rep. Amesty (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

See also: Political titan Katherine Fernandez Rundle under fire: Wayward prosecutor, botched cases, a fed-up judge (Miami Herald) ($)

Perspectives

Hugs for Nemours hospital expansion. Slugs for Florida bankers targeting legal aid (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

Is it time to move on from the Rays deal? Here’s one answer (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

For party-switching lawmaker, betrayal brings rewards (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)