Gov. Rick Scott's re-election promise to increase penalties for polluters fell short in 2015.
Scott's Department of Environmental Protection pointed to one bill linked to his promise. But that measure failed to pass during the spring legislative session. It was also a bill limited to fracking -- a type of oil and gas extraction -- not overall environmental protection. Oil and gas wells equal less than 1 percent of the 81,000 businesses and entities that DEP regulates, from paper mills to wastewater treatment plants.
SB 1468 called for increasing penalties from the current $10,000 a day to $25,000 per day for oil and gas companies using "high pressure well stimulation" for a variety of violations that would have harmed the air, water or ground. Those violations included not following DEP rules, improper storage of gas, or refusing to allow a state inspection.
The bill followed a controversial drilling project that was later shut down in Collier County, where Scott calls home.
The bill ended up dying without a full vote when the House went home a few days early amid a fight over Medicaid expansion and the budget.
"No oil regulatory or trade secret bills passed of any kind," said Jennifer Hecker, director of Natural Resource Policy for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, after the session. "No rulemaking from DEP to do anything either."
Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, sponsored the 2015 bill and has introduced a similar bill, SB318, for the 2016 session, which starts Jan. 12. The bill is similar to HB191, which passed a House committee Dec. 2.
Richter told PolitiFact Florida that Scott supported the bill in 2015. As for 2016, Richter said, "I don't believe his position on it has changed."
The main purpose of these bills, over the objections of environmentalists and local governments, is to make it easier for oil and gas companies to engage in fracking. The bills would take away the power of local governments to ban fracking and put the power in the hands of the state. The bill requires a $1 million one-year study to determine the impact of the chemicals on the state drinking water supply before rules are written in 2017.
Both the House and Senate versions call for increasing the penalty from $10,000 to $25,000.
Overall, environmental fines have fallen during Scott's tenure compared with his predecessor Gov. Charlie Crist, according to Florida Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which has compiled assessment data for a decade.
The amount of fines in 2014 was $1.5 million -- an increase compared to $1.4 million the year before. But it pales in comparison to the record under Crist -- for example the penalties totaled $13.1 million in 2010, the year before Scott took office.
We asked a spokeswoman for Scott if he supports the bills related to oil and gas company fines. "Gov. Scott will review any legislation that makes it to his desk," Jeri Bustamante told PolitiFact Florida.
We'll see if the fracking legislation passes the Legislature in 2016. But it still falls short of Scott's overall promise to increase environmental penalties. For now, we continue to rate this promise Stalled.