HB 0933

1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to renewable energy; creating s. 366.91,
3	F.S.; providing legislative findings; providing
4	definitions; requiring public utilities, municipal
5	electric utilities, and rural electric cooperatives to
6	offer a purchase contract to producers of renewable
7	energy; providing requirements for such contracts;
8	requiring that a producer pay the costs for
9	interconnection; amending s. 366.11, F.S.; specifying that
10	requirements for the purchase of renewable energy apply to
11	certain utilities; amending s. 403.7061, F.S.; revising a
12	permit requirement for a waste-to-energy facility;
13	encouraging specified applicants for a landfill permit to
14	consider construction of a waste-to-energy facility;
15	providing an effective date.
16
17	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
18
19	Section 1.  Section 366.91, Florida Statutes, is created to
20	read:
21	366.91  Renewable energy.--
22	(1)  The Legislature finds that it is in the public
23	interest to promote the development of renewable energy
24	resources in this state. Renewable energy resources have the
25	potential to help diversify fuel types to meet the state's
26	growing dependency on natural gas for electric production,
27	minimize the volatility of fuel costs, encourage investment
28	within the state, improve environmental conditions, and make
29	Florida a leader in new and innovative technologies.
30	(2)  As used in this section, the term:
31	(a)  "Biomass" means a power source that is comprised of,
32	but not limited to, combustible residues or gases from forest-
33	products manufacturing, agricultural and orchard crops, waste
34	products from livestock and poultry operations and food
35	processing, urban wood waste, municipal solid waste, municipal
36	liquid waste treatment operations, and landfill gas.
37	(b)  "Renewable energy" means electrical energy produced
38	from a method that uses one or more of the following fuels or
39	energy sources: biomass, solar energy, geothermal energy, wind
40	energy, ocean energy, hydroelectric power, municipal solid
41	waste, material from municipal liquid waste treatment
42	operations, landfill gas, or hydrogen produced from sources
43	other than fossil fuels.
44	(3)  On or before January 1, 2006, each public utility must
45	continuously offer a purchase contract to producers of renewable
46	energy containing payment provisions for energy and capacity, if
47	capacity payments are appropriate, which are based upon the
48	utility's full avoided costs, as defined in s. 366.051. Each
49	contract must provide a contract term of at least 10 years.
50	Prudent and reasonable costs associated with a renewable energy
51	contract shall be recovered from the ratepayers of the
52	contracting utility, without differentiation among customer
53	classes, through the appropriate cost-recovery clause mechanism
54	administered by the commission.
55	(4)  On or before January 1, 2006, each municipal electric
56	utility and rural electric cooperative whose annual sales, as of
57	July 1, 1993, to retail customers were greater than 2,000
58	gigawatt hours must continuously offer a purchase contract to
59	producers of renewable energy containing payment provisions for
60	energy and capacity, if capacity payments are appropriate, which
61	are based upon the utility's or cooperative's full avoided
62	costs, as determined by the governing body of the municipal
63	utility or cooperative. Each contract must provide a contract
64	term of at least 10 years.
65	(5)  A contracting producer of renewable energy must pay
66	the actual costs of its interconnection with the transmission
67	grid or distribution system.
68	Section 2.  Subsection (1) of section 366.11, Florida
69	Statutes, is amended to read:
70	366.11  Certain exemptions.--
71	(1)  No provision of this chapter shall apply in any
72	manner, other than as specified in ss. 366.04, 366.05(7) and
73	(8), 366.051, 366.055, 366.093, 366.095, 366.14, and 366.80-
74	366.85, and 366.91, to utilities owned and operated by
75	municipalities, whether within or without any municipality, or
76	by cooperatives organized and existing under the Rural Electric
77	Cooperative Law of the state, or to the sale of electricity,
78	manufactured gas, or natural gas at wholesale by any public
79	utility to, and the purchase by, any municipality or cooperative
80	under and pursuant to any contracts now in effect or which may
81	be entered into in the future, when such municipality or
82	cooperative is engaged in the sale and distribution of
83	electricity or manufactured or natural gas, or to the rates
84	provided for in such contracts.
85	Section 3.  Subsection (3) of section 403.7061, Florida
86	Statutes, is amended to read:
87	403.7061  Requirements for review of new waste-to-energy
88	facility capacity by the Department of Environmental
89	Protection.--
90	(3)  An applicant must provide reasonable assurance that
91	the construction of a new waste-to-energy facility or the
92	expansion of an existing waste-to-energy facility will comply
93	with the following subsections:
94	(a)  The facility is a necessary part of the local
95	government's integrated solid waste management program in the
96	jurisdiction where the facility is located and cannot be avoided
97	through feasible and practical efforts to use recycling or waste
98	reduction.
99	(b)  The use of capacity at existing waste-to-energy
100	facilities within reasonable transportation distance of the
101	proposed facility must have been evaluated and found not to be
102	economically feasible when compared to the use of the proposed
103	facility for the expected life of the proposed facility. This
104	paragraph does not apply to:
105	1.  Applications to build or expand waste-to-energy
106	facilities received by the department before March 1, 1993, or
107	amendments to such applications that do not increase combustion
108	capacity beyond that requested as of March 1, 1993; or
109	2.  Any modification to waste-to-energy facility
110	construction or operating permits or certifications or
111	conditions thereto, including certifications under ss. 403.501-
112	403.518, that do not increase combustion capacity above that
113	amount applied for before March 1, 1993.
114	(c)  The county in which the facility is located has
115	implemented a solid waste management and recycling program that
116	is designed to achieve the waste-reduction goals established
117	pursuant to s. 403.706(4). The county in which the facility is
118	located will achieve the 30-percent waste reduction goal set
119	forth in s. 403.706(4) by the time the facility begins
120	operation. For the purposes of this section, the provisions of
121	s. 403.706(4)(c) for counties with populations of 75,000 or less
122	do not apply.
123	(d)  The local government in which the facility is located
124	has implemented a mulching, composting, or other waste reduction
125	program for yard trash.
126	(e)  The local governments served by the facility will have
127	implemented or participated in a separation program designed to
128	remove small-quantity generator and household hazardous waste,
129	mercury containing devices, and mercuric-oxide batteries from
130	the waste stream prior to incineration, by the time the facility
131	begins operation.
132	(f)  The local government in which the facility is located
133	has implemented a program to procure products or materials with
134	recycled content, pursuant to s. 403.7065.
135	(g)  A program will exist in the local government in which
136	the facility is located for collecting and recycling recovered
137	material from the institutional, commercial, and industrial
138	sectors by the time the facility begins operation.
139	(h)  The facility will be in compliance with applicable
140	local ordinances and with the approved state and local
141	comprehensive plans required by chapter 163.
142	(i)  The facility is in substantial compliance with its
143	permit, conditions of certification, and any agreements or
144	orders resulting from environmental enforcement actions by state
145	agencies.
146	(4)  For the purposes of this section, the term "waste-to-
147	energy facility" means a facility that uses an enclosed device
148	using controlled combustion to thermally break down solid,
149	liquid, or gaseous combustible solid waste to an ash residue
150	that contains little or no combustible material and that
151	produces electricity, steam, or other energy as a result. The
152	term does not include facilities that primarily burn fuels other
153	than solid waste even if such facilities also burn some solid
154	waste as a fuel supplement. The term also does not include
155	facilities that burn vegetative, agricultural, or silvicultural
156	wastes, bagasse, clean dry wood, methane or other landfill gas,
157	wood fuel derived from construction or demolition debris, or
158	waste tires, alone or in combination with fossil fuels.
159	Section 4.  Requirements relating to solid waste disposal
160	facility permitting.--Local government applicants for a permit
161	to construct or expand a Class I landfill are encouraged to
162	consider construction of a waste-to-energy facility as an
163	alternative to additional landfill space.
164	Section 5.  This act shall take effect October 1, 2005.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.