TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Florida has no interest in adopting the federal government’s proposed environmental regulations, a strongly worded letter revealed on Tuesday.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Secretary Shawn Hamilton’s missive to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Michael S. Regan denounced the agency’s new rule proposals related to carbon emissions announced in May.
“The EPA relies on a ‘hydrogen economy’ that does not currently exist to expedite the ‘transition’ of the nation’s power grid through unfounded technologies,” Hamilton wrote. “By prioritizing the use of unfounded technologies to force a reduction in readily available generation assets, the Agency places the reliability, affordability, and capacity of the nation’s energy supply at risk.”
“ARBITRARY MEASURES” AND “NET ZERO WORLD”
The 181-page proposal aims to repeal the Trump Administration’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule and establish more “protective standards” for green house emissions from new and reconstructed fossil fuel-fired stationary combustion turbine electric-generating units.
Hamilton requested the EPA “terminate rulemaking and decline to adopt the proposed rules.”
The letter contends that some of the rules are banking on technological innovations that “have not been adequately demonstrated.”
One proposal, Hamilton says, relies on “several complex projections and expectations that must work in unison” to make implementation of this rule even possible.
“The American public should not be kept in the dark,” he continued. “It is unclear if the EPA is truly seeking constructive feedback or if it is attempting to expedite rule adoption to support the ‘net-zero world’ that the World Economic Forum so desires.”
The letter also touted Florida’s “robust air quality monitoring networks in the country,” including a graph demonstrating how the state has lowered air pollution despite steady increases in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and population.
Hamilton contended that “the state has accomplished this through ingenuity and smart governance – rather than instituting arbitrary mandates.”
