No. HB 1317
Filed under Environment & Water.
Protection of the Eastern Gulf Test and Training Range; Prohibits construction, installation, operation, maintenance, or expansion of specified oil & gas facilities on, in, over, or across certain waters & sovereignty submerged lands; prohibits Board of Trustees of Internal Trust Fund, state agencies, water management districts, port authorities, & local governments from issuing leases, easements, rights-of-way, authorizations, & permits for such activities; prohibits award of state grants or financial assistance for such activities; provides for enforcement; provides duties of DEP; provides for injunctive relief & civil penalties.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDA new law bars anyone from building, operating, or expanding an oil or gas support facility, or running a pipeline or cable, through state waters or submerged lands east of a north-south line at 86°41′ west longitude in the Gulf.
No state or local agency may issue a lease, easement, permit, or similar approval for any such facility, and public landlords like water management districts and port authorities cannot approve new leases dedicated to supporting offshore drilling east of the line.
State grants and financial assistance cannot fund such facilities either, and heliports or helistops on state land east of the line cannot be built or permitted if their main purpose is supporting offshore oil or gas work there.
The Department of Environmental Protection must treat this as part of Florida's official coastal policy and can object to conflicting federal permits; the department secretary or Attorney General may sue for civil penalties and injunctions, with each day of violation counted separately.
AINo person may construct, install, operate, maintain, or expand a covered oil and gas facility, and no pipeline, cable, or similar linear facility serving offshore drilling east of the line may cross state waters or sovereign submerged lands there.
AIThe Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund and any state or local agency lose authority to issue a lease, easement, permit, or similar approval for anything this new law bars; a matching duty added to the state-lands statute requires agencies to deny applications inconsistent with it.
AIWhen the state, a state university, a water management district, a port authority, or a state agency owns or leases out property, it may not enter a new or amended lease authorizing infrastructure built mainly to serve offshore oil or gas operations east of the line.
AIThe act declares itself an enforceable part of Florida's federally approved coastal management program, requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to formally object to and regulate any federal license, permit, or Outer Continental Shelf activity that conflicts with it.
AIThe DEP Secretary, a designee, or the Attorney General may go to court for an injunction and civil penalties against a violator, and the law counts each day a violation continues as a separate offense.
AIA heliport or helistop on state-owned land east of the line cannot be permitted or built if its primary purpose is to stage or support offshore oil or gas operations there, and state aviation grants cannot fund such a facility at a public-use airport.