More bureaucracy won’t lower energy costs or reduce emissions
State Rep. Lauren Melo, who represents part of southwest Florida in the state House, joined with Chris Hudson, a former state director of Americans for Prosperity-Florida and now vice president of government affairs at AFP, to call on Tallahassee to prevent Washington, D.C., from commandeering Florida’s regulatory regime.
In a joint op-ed in the Fort Myers News Press, Melo and Hudson say President Joe Biden’s recent moves to impose new layers of bureaucracy on states would be counterproductive at best, and likely harmful to Florida’s economy and environment.
“Instead of unproductive, one-size-fits-all dictates from Washington that fail to produce better environmental outcomes,” they write, “we believe a better policy would embrace bottom-up innovation, and empower people in their own communities to be conscientious stewards of the environment.”
Melo has introduced legislation that would require approval from Tallahassee before Florida could be forced to participate in any program created by a regional climate initiative, a federal mandate, or an international agreement to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
The reason is simple: The piles of red tape added by these kinds of mandates delay projects, add millions in costs, and don’t do much (if anything) to reduce emissions.
“Innovation is the key to real progress,” write Melo and Hudson, and legislative accountability is the key to continuing that progress.
Get the details on how Florida has already reduced emissions and how top-down mandates are not the best approach by reading the op-ed.
