You're probably going to be driving green, organic, kudzu-powered cars in a few years.
Posted on 07/11/2007 3:20:34 AM PDT by jsh3180
Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to sign a plan enacting tough, California-style car-emissions rules. BY MARY ELLEN KLAS meklas@MiamiHerald.com Florida will adopt California's car-pollution standards -- the toughest in the nation -- and become the first state in the Southeast to enact targets for reducing greenhouse gases, under executive orders Gov. Charlie Crist plans to sign Friday in Miami. PABLO MARTINEZ/AP PHOTO Florida will adopt California's car-pollution standards -- the toughest in the nation -- and become the first state in the Southeast to enact targets for reducing greenhouse gases, under executive orders Gov. Charlie Crist plans to sign Friday in Miami.
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida will adopt California's car-pollution standards -- the toughest in the nation -- and become the first state in the Southeast to enact targets for reducing greenhouse gases, under executive orders Gov. Charlie Crist plans to sign Friday in Miami.
Drafts of the orders released Tuesday would require the state secretary of environmental protection to immediately adopt rules to limit pollution-causing emissions for cars, diesel engines and electric companies. The orders also impose tough new energy conservation goals for state agencies, demand better fuel efficiency from state-owned vehicles and require state cars to ``use ethanol and biodiesel fuels when locally available.''
But the most optimistic step in Crist's green agenda is the requirement to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to 1990 levels by 2025, and 80 percent lower by 2050, in spite of what is expected to be a near doubling of the state's population.
''Florida is the second fastest-growing state in the union with respect to the annual increase of new greenhouse gas emissions,'' the governor's draft order states, adding ``immediate actions are available and required to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in Florida.''
Crist will sign the orders at a two-day climate change summit he is hosting in Miami beginning Thursday. The summit will feature speeches by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and environmental activists Robert Kennedy Jr. and Theodore Roosevelt IV.
The governor's orders say the new rules can be enacted without approval from the Legislature because they are based on existing state environmental laws.
STRICT CONTROLS
The orders would bring Florida's pollution controls up to par with at least two dozen other states on the East and West coasts but would be the strictest in the Southeast.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush rejected appeals from environmentalists to support similar pollution control standards, although he quietly drafted a carbon-reductions policy in the final months of his term.
Crist, who was elected in November, has vowed to make reducing greenhouse gases in Florida a priority. One of the orders he will sign says the state's vulnerability to rising ocean levels and violent weather makes ``global climate change one of the most important issues facing the state of Florida this century.''
Under the California emissions standards, automakers that sell cars in Florida beginning with the 2009 model year would have to reduce greenhouse gas pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, by 25 percent for cars and 18 percent for sport utility vehicles.
At least 12 other states have adopted California's standards, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Automakers are challenging the standards in court and, for two years, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has refused to allow the new law to take effect.
Environmentalists hailed the proposals, and utility executives said they were cautious but encouraged.
''They're very significant and very comprehensive,'' said Susan Glickman, a consultant for the National Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups. ``It's clear from these executive orders that he is dead serious about reducing [carbon dioxide] emissions. The governor's goals now provide the starting point for the Legislature to enact them.''
RENEWABLE SOURCES
The governor's orders also require electric companies to reduce greenhouse emissions to 2000 levels by 2017 and to 1990 levels by 2025. They also ask the Public Service Commssion, the state agency that regulates utilities, to impose rules this year that require electric companies to produce 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, ''with a strong focus on solar and wind energy.'' Regulators would set the deadlines.
Florida Power & Light President Armando Olivera said he hadn't seen the proposed executive order but the company, the largest producer of solar-power and wind-power energy in the nation, generally supports increasing the state's reliance on renewable energy.
''It depends on what the rules are and how those rules are developed,'' he said. ``But we are obviously very supportive of renewables and we think it should be a huge element of our energy policy.''
Crist's orders include several elements of an energy bill passed by legislators that he vetoed last month because it didn't go far enough.
Among them: State agencies must buy cars with the highest fuel efficiency, maintain vehicles to maximize gas mileage and use biofuels when possible instead of gasoline. Rental car contracts must put a priority on fuel efficiency.
The state will also give agencies a preferred products list and require that meetings and conferences take place in hotels or centers that have been given a ''green lodging'' certification from the Department of Environmental Protection.
`ENCOURAGED'
Sen. Lee Constantine, an Altamonte Springs Republican who supported the bill Crist vetoed and authored a bill last year that authorized a state energy plan, said he was encouraged by the governor's proposals but considers it the first step.
''The goal here is to move forward fast,'' he said. ``I'm hopeful the executive order does that, but we still have to do legislation.''
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
no carbon credits from all the kudzu and the like in that state?
People leaving the state and this is what he does???? I live near the sea. No pollution or rising sea levels either.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
You're probably going to be driving green, organic, kudzu-powered cars in a few years.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This is why I voted for Max Linn - I knew full well Crist was like this.
Solar is a bust in the Sunshine State because it's overcast so much. Wind? Well maybe if they can figure out a way of harnessing Florida's hurricanes and tornadoes, otherwise there isn't much of it. Why not tell the utilities to use lightning? Florida is the world capital of it.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Any “serious” attempt would include tidal/ocean wave energy as a major player.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I hope that the Florida Legislature will take a look at this and either (1) if the Governor's position is not correct, then challenge the Governor's assertion that he has been granted such authority or (2) if Governor's position is correct and he does have such authority currently, then change any environmental laws that give the Governor carte blanche authority to make such sweeping regulations.
Yes, and they would embrace Nuke energy also, that is the main give away that they really don't want energy at all, the fact they won't support the cleanest way to produce it.
Single men who run for office have too much time on their hands to do things such as issuing executive orders for their own ideology.
I've lived in Florida my entire life and I've never experienced smog or pollution in South FL or North FL - except for the kind produced by wildfires.
Crist is an idiot with a tan - I voted for Gallagher.
I could only imagine Crist might be talking about methane gas from garbage as a renewable source. Only speculating here, but i did notice over the last few years a few of the larger juice manufacturing plants making deals with their respective counties (St. Lucie, Highlands, etc.) about taping landfills for the methane, running pipe, converting generation units etc.
There is also the new garbage burning electrical plant (Supposedly the most efficient world wide) that was just approved to be put somewhere on the I-4 corridor east of the mouse.
But what are they going to do about the jet engine run electrical plants like the one in Kissimmee? We’ve already got enough nuke plants around the state to make us all glow for a million years.
But the big question is: When does Crist plan to implement a California style vehicle inspection program that will guarantee his first term is his last?
As I recall, when Crist was running, there were many Republicans who had to vote for Crist because he was less undesirable than his opponents. Sound familiar so far?
People think they must choose among those candidates that are “electable”. But who determines which candidates are electable? Most people know that it is our information structure with an assist from the party hierarchies. Anyone think those two entities are on the side of conservatives?
We will only get a conservative if we “build” one. We can only do that by working our collective butts off. We have to define what constitues conservatism (which most of equate with just plain common-sense) and communicate that to the electorate. Our candidates must understand why they are running and who would be responsible for their election.
Why are doomed if we allow others to choose whom we will vote for, because that is voting in the style of the Soviets. We are dooming future generations, when we follow “hero” candidates, who appear by magic to save us from having to choose among those we either do not trust or do not know. In real life, if you do not work, you do not eat.
Anyone else need to know why voting for Rudy is a bad idea?
GONG!! (as in Gong Show)
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