Legislation would perpetuate pollution while bolstering utility profits

By Chelsea Rivera, Central Florida Jobs with Justice and MacKenzie Marcelin, Florida Rising

“Renewable” natural gas poses an alarming danger to our planet and pocketbooks, while also wreaking havoc on our health.

The burning of natural gas is linked to respiratory illness, increased rates of asthma, cancer and neurological issues. Like most other fossil fuels, the negative impacts are felt more acutely in Black, Brown and low-income communities, who are often aware of their plight yet powerless against the greed and power of investor-owned utility companies.

One resident of an environmental justice community remarked in a Grist news article: “People have cancer. And yet these industries are allowed to pollute and emit all of this right in our community and nothing is being done about it because it’s going under the radar.”

People of color are more likely to experience energy poverty, or inefficient weatherization and utility infrastructure, causing them to pay a higher percentage of their income on energy bills. Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities are also more likely to be located in areas that border industrial areas, resulting in higher pollution, greater vehicle exhaust emissions and more concentrated emissions than white residents.

A new bill on the schedule for the legislative session will perpetuate this pollution while also bolstering corporate profits for utility companies. HB 683/SB 480 (Expanding Natural Gas Capability and Compensation for Utility Companies) provides handouts to utility companies to continue to pollute our air, water and land with fossil fuels while continuing to suck our bank accounts dry.

Introduced by Nick DiCeglie in the Senate and Brad Yaeger in the House, this bill will prove costly to consumers by forcing them to pay to maintain a dying fossil fuel industry even as renewables emerge presenting cheaper, more efficient and more sustainable alternatives. SB 480 includes a provision that would allow an entire pipeline to be compensated as “renewable” infrastructure by simply adding a single drop of “renewable” natural gas to the supply, thus justifying significant rate increases for consumers. 

Renewable natural gas (RNG), also known as biogas, is methane captured from organic waste at sites such as farms and landfills. The qualifier “renewable” is a misnomer, an attempt by utility companies to greenwash a false solution. Even if it were a feasible alternative, there simply isn’t even enough RNG to fuel our energy needs. Experts estimate that biogas could replace less than 5% of our gas consumption, and the costs could be 3-18 times higher than current market price for methane gas.

HB 683/SB 480 allows utility companies to seek compensation from the Public Service Commission for constructing more natural gas infrastructure. These expenses will be passed along to consumers, with the false claim that after years of higher prices offsetting their construction and development costs, consumer gas prices will drop.

Because investor-owned utilities are a regulated monopoly, they are not allowed to profit on their main product (energy); rather, their profits are made by charging rates to cover infrastructure investments, such as constructing new natural gas infrastructure. They are motivated to find new ways to justify rate increases, and this bill demonstrates a clear example of investor-owned utilities looking for things to build so that they can continue to profit.

Floridians are facing soaring energy bills. Tampa Electric Company already has one of the highest urban utility bills  in the country, yet HB 683/SB 480 would see their rates increase for no change in their service.

Worse even, permitting more natural gas infrastructure would further entrench our reliance on fossil fuels, leading to more greenhouse gas emissions and even hotter global temperatures. Hotter global temperatures mean that we’ll need to crank our ACs even higher. It’s a vicious cycle, and we need our elected officials to intervene to protect our pocketbooks and our planet. 

This bill, like so many others that have emerged from this Legislature, is an attempt to maintain a fossil fuel industry that is less reliable and efficient than existing renewable resources. It is simply another handout to our corporate utility companies to maximize their profits at the expense of hard-working Floridians who are already struggling with high utility bills. 

We demand that our elected officials vote no on HB 683/SB 480 and instead invest our tax dollars in clean, equitable and data-driven renewable energy.

This piece was written by Chelsea Rivera of Central Florida Jobs with Justice and MacKenzie Marcelin of Florida Rising. Both groups are members of the Florida Climate Equity Cohort, a group of 10 organizations across Florida working at the intersection of climate change and social, economic and racial justice.

If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here.