Guest commentary: SCCF provides legislative update for Week 4
The fourth week of Florida’s legislative session included the presentation of House budget proposals and the advancement of positive bills on protecting aquatic resources from the impacts of oil and gas exploration.
HOUSE BUDGET PROPOSALS
Chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resource Budget Sub-Committee, Rep. Tiffany Esposito, presented her recommendations for the Agriculture and Natural Resources budget for fiscal year 2025-26. To align with the House Speaker’s priorities for efficiency and a fiscally responsible budget, the base budget was reduced by 8.6%, in part, by eliminating 324 vacant positions in the agriculture and environmental agencies.
The budget proposes $822 million for Water Resource Projects, some of which include:
– $357 for Everglades Restoration (smaller allocation than last year, but accounts for unspent funds from previous years)
– $50 million for Total Maximum Daily Load projects
– $220 million for the Resilient Florida Program to address flooding and sea level rise
– $284 for land acquisition and land management across agencies
The Senate will pass its own budget proposals soon, and then the House and Senate will form budget conference committees to reconcile the differences before voting on a final budget by May 2 — the scheduled end of the 2025 legislative session.
HB 1143
Permits for Drilling, Exploration and Extraction of Oil and Gas Resources — HB 1143 by Rep. Jason Shoaf — passed unanimously on March 25 in the House Natural Resources and Disasters Sub-Committee.
Uncharacteristic of most resource extraction bills tracked by the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF), the bill provides for added natural resource protections to be considered by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) when reviewing permits for oil and gas exploration wells within 10 miles of the state’s three Natural Estuarine Research Reserves — located in Apalachicola Bay, Rookery Bay in Naples, and the Guana Tolomato Matanzas in St. Augustine.
While the SCCF would prefer that no drilling off the Florida coast be approved, we support this bill for the added natural resource balancing test to be applied before any permit for exploratory drilling is approved.
The bill has one last committee, House State Affairs, before it will be voted on by the full House. The sponsor, Shoaf, is in the natural gas profession but is a strong proponent for the protection of our natural resources. Other comments from traditionally business-backed interests were that there needs to be a balance between energy security and food security, related to abundance of seafood produced in Florida’s waters.
The comparable Senate version of the bill — SB 1300 — also passed unanimously last week in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, where it will be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government next.
CS/SB 1580
Infrastructure and Resiliency Planning — CS/SB 1580 by Sen. Ana Maria Rodriquez — passed by a vote of 8-0 in the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee last week. The bill grants the DEP the exclusive authority to execute coastal resiliency projects through public-private partnerships and authorizes the department to take certain action to encourage investment from the private sector in coastal resiliency projects.
To encourage private sector investment in coastal resiliency projects, the bill allows for the DEP to enter into long-term revenue sharing agreements and provides for expedited permitting for construction. The bill now moves to its second stop, Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government.
The comparable House Bill — HB 1345 — had not yet been scheduled in its first of four assigned committees.
The SCCF supports the bill but is watching carefully for amendments that may change its positive intent.
Visit the 2025 SCCF Legislative Tracker at https://sccf.org/what-we-do/2025-legislative-session/.
Holly Schwartz is policy associate for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF). Founded in 1967, the SCCF’s mission is to protect and care for Southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems. For more information, visit www.sccf.org.