Environmental activists cheered the passage of a resolution by the Tampa City Council last week that calls for supporting a transition of “stationary municipal operations” to one hundred percent, clean renewable energy by 2035. Similar resolutions have been passed in recent years in St. Petersburg, Dunedin, Safety Harbor and Largo.

But the measure, sponsored by City Councilman Joe Citro, isn’t nearly as robust as the one that he originally proposed last fall. That resolution called for a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, such as pipelines, compressor stations and power plants. It was scaled back after the Florida legislature passed and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that preempts local government from regulating local utilities and energy infrastructure.

“So the bold aspirational statements that were being made about regulating or moving off of fossil fuels were in direct contrast with that law,” says Brooke Errett, the Florida senior organizer with Food and Water Watch.

Last week’s resolution passed 6-1, with only councilman Charlie Miranda dissenting. He said he wasn’t sure what the measure actually calls for.

“The people are going to say, ‘We passed a resolution,"" Miranda said prior to the council's vote. "Oh, well that’s wonderful. But what does the resolution do? Can anybody explain it to me?” 

(You can read the official resolution below).

Some of the language in one energy preemption bill sponsored this past session by Palm Coast House Republican Travis Hutson originally would have prevented Tampa any other local governments from taking any action on climate, but that was removed from the final legislation. 

There are now 12 cities in Florida that have made a committment to a clean energy future.

In 2018, the Largo City Commission voted to approve an organizational commitment to achieve 100 percent renewable, zero-emission energy by 2035. Among the measures the city is taking to reach that goal is conducting a full audit of its energy usage and solar potential at its wastewater treatment plant in the coming year – the single heaviest user of energy in the city.

Laura Thomas, the sustainability program administrator for Largo, says the city has established new standards for facilities, such as the new City Hall building scheduled to begin construction next year. The building “will highlight our commitment to sustainability, and maximize renewable energy at that site, including a large solar array and geothermal wells.”

St. Petersburg led the way in 2016, becoming the first city in Florida to publicly commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

“Our overall greenhouse gas inventory or reduction in energy use and clean energy use will be measured every few years, but with all the collaborations that we have across the city, the direction is going very well,” says Sharon Wright, the city’s director of sustainability and resiliency.

Wright says that the city came just short of meeting some short-term goals by the end of last year, such as reducing 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that the city committed through the “American Cities Climate Challenge” sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

St. Pete also had set a goal of getting 1.8 MW solar PV of municipal energy produced by the end of 2020 (about 4 percent). The current status is about 1.2 MW solar PV capacity.

In Dunedin, the City Commission in late 2018 unanimously approved setting a goal of having 100 percent of their municipal operations with renewable sources of energy by 2035, with the whole community going net zero emissions by 2050.

Some of those measures include installing ten electric charging stations for electric vehicles around the city and a solar energy system for the new city hall, standby generator and solar system on the roof of the city’s Emergency Operation Center.

City officials say that a third of Dunedin’s residents and businesses consume approximately a billion gallons of reclaimed water for landscape irrigation, “demonstrating our community’s commitment to environmental sustainability and water conservation.”

While Bay area communities work towards increasing their clean and renewable energy portfolio, similar efforts around the country have had mixed success, according to a report published by the Brookings Institution published last fall. The study reviewed hundreds of local governments around the country which have developed proposals to reduce their use of global greenhouse gas emissions. It found that approximately two-thirds of cities were “lagging” in their targeted emission levels.

Here is the language of the resolution supporting sustainability and resiliency goals that the Tampa City Council approved on August 5:

"Supporting a just and equitable transition of stationary municipal operations to one hundred percent clean, renewable energy by 2035; supporting a just and equitable community-wide transition to carbon-free electrification by 2035; urging the State of Florida and the federal government, to enact and enforce bold state and federal policies necessary for a one hundred percent clean, renewable energy transition; supporting energy efficiency in residential, commercial and government buildings; supporting the transition to an accessible and affordable transportation system centered on walking, biking and zero-emission public; supporting the goals set by the Mayor's Vision Zero Plan; supporting the transition by the City of Tampa to an electrical vehicle municipal fleet; supporting the continued tracking, monitoring greenhouse gas emissions; recognizing that the full participation, inclusion, support, and leadership of community members are integral to achieving an equitable and just community-wide transition to one hundred percent clean, renewable energy; providing an effective date.