The platform lists positions and goals the Club will work to achieve through the coming year and provides a resource for volunteer members and supporters to use when meeting with their elected representatives.
2017 Legislative
Platform
CLEAN ENERGY
Prioritize transitioning from fossil fuels to
renewable, clean, and efficient energy to mitigate the impacts of climate
change and sea level rise.
Promote supply-side and demand-side
efficiencies and introduce competition. Facilitate distributed generation.
Eliminate the emission of CO2 and
methane as much as possible and require the social cost of carbon to be
included in energy policy decisions.
Decouple power company profits from sales;
incentivize service, reduced emissions and better water use; and define future
investment in fossil fuel infrastructure as imprudent.
Oppose hydraulic fracturing, acid
fracturing, and acid matrix stimulation for natural gas and oil in Florida and
oppose new extraction of fossil fuels in the state.
MASS TRANSIT AND
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Promote mass transit, associated
infrastructure, and alternatives to automobile use such as walkable communities
and safe lane barriers for bicycles.
Co-locate mass transit in existing
transportation corridors to serve transit oriented development and foster urban
density.
Expand tax incentives and rebates for
electric vehicles, improve local government parking policies, and ensure EV
owners can responsibly install and use charging equipment, HOA and condo rules
notwithstanding.
WASTE MINIMIZATION /
RECYCLING
Real recycling saves energy and
conserves natural resources. Foster robust recycling and recovered material
markets, ban landfilling of biodegradables and use them for soil composting or
anaerobic digestion for natural gas.
Require manufacturer take back programs for non-recyclable items.
Regulate littering, including disposal of
cigarette waste on Florida’s beaches and allow localities to impose bottle
deposits and bans or fees on single use plastic bags and polystyrene
containers.
Stop counting the incineration of
municipal solid waste as renewable energy.
GROWTH MANAGEMENT
Identify “significant state resources” and
establish policies to protect them. When
practicable, use Florida Forever funds to acquire them in fee simple or
perpetual conservation easements.
Promote development that is
environmentally and fiscally sustainable by encouraging urban infill and
redevelopment to take advantage of existing infrastructure, services, and
facilities.
Discourage development that ties residents to
an automobile-dependent lifestyle and expensive upgrades for energy efficiency,
wastewater and stormwater management, and inconvenient and distant shopping and
employment locations.
Monitor all Consumptive Use Permit water
use, promote water conservation, adhere to “local sources first”, and reserve
sufficient water for natural systems and ecosystems. Establish Minimum Flows and Minimum Levels
for all surface watercourses and for the
groundwater supplying springs, rivers, lakes, and streams as required by
statute.
Oppose state preemption of local growth
and land use rules or ordinances more restrictive than state provisions.
WILDLIFE
CORRIDORS AND HABITAT PROTECTION
Acquire (in fee simple or by perpetual
conservation easement), restore, conserve, and buffer wildlife habitat and
corridors (to protect habitat for bears, panthers, manatees, and other species
at risk).
Coordinate Florida Forever and Florida Trail
acquisitions to augment wildlife habitat in conjunction with the conservation
of natural resources and preservation of lands providing aquifer recharge.
Minimize negative impacts on habitat: sprawl,
new or expanded transportation corridors and interchanges, off road vehicles,
and utility generation and transmission facilities.
WETLANDS AND
EVERGLADES PROTECTION
Protect wetlands with strict permitting
standards and enforcement.
Fully fund Everglades restoration, including
acquisition of additional land in the Everglades Agricultural Area and an
additional 5.5 miles of bridging for Tamiami Trail.
Increase the freshwater table height in southeast
coastal Everglades; stop diverting freshwater to Turkey Point cooling canals,
and deliver more freshwater to Florida Bay.
Oppose near-shore or offshore drilling
for oil/gas or any expansion of oil/gas activities in the Everglades, Big
Cypress, or elsewhere in the greater Everglades watershed.
WATER QUALITY
PROTECTION
Control point and non-point source
nutrient pollution from fertilizers, manure, stormwater, wastewater treatment
facilities, and onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems (septic tanks) at
the source. Set clear numerical
standards and enforce them.
Mandate best management practices (BMPs),
evaluate them for efficacy, upgrade them when necessary, and enforce them.
Oppose preemption of local control of
fertilizer management and Support a ban on phosphorous in lawn fertilizer.
DEMOCRACY AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
Spend Water and Land amendment funds
(1/3 of documentary stamp revenues) to acquire and restore Florida conservation
and recreation lands.
Oppose voter suppression and guarantee
unfettered citizen access to voter registration and the polls.
Ensure reasonable public notice, access,
and ability to participate in agency and district hearings, meetings, and
proceedings.
Guarantee a level procedural and legal
playing field.
Adequately fund agencies’ environmental missions
and protect staff from undue political influence. Oppose environmental trust
fund sweeps and the inappropriate surplussing of conservation lands.
Sierra Club Florida, a
chapter of the national Sierra Club, is made up of volunteer
leaders and civic activists representing over 31,000 members from all over the
state. Our mission is to enjoy, explore and protect Florida’s natural places,
to understand and teach others about the fragile environment in which we live,
and to practice and promote the responsible use of our ecosystems and resources
at the local, state, and national level. The Chapter’s strength comes from the
efforts of local, grass roots volunteers in the 15 Sierra Club Groups serving
communities across the state. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/florida.
