Gov. Ron DeSantis signed three measures that will push the state to divest from Chinese companies, bar contracts with companies engaging forced labor and overhaul the state's energy policies.
"The legislation I signed today — HB 1645, HB 7071 and HB 1331 — will keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and China out of our state," DeSantis posted on X. "We're restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots. Furthermore, we're going to ensure foreign adversaries like China have no foothold in our state."
The most contested bill in the trio was HB 1645, which includes a ban on windmills, both within the state and offshore and removes an incentive for state and local governments to purchase electric vehicles by eliminating a requirement that the most fuel-efficient vehicles be selected.
Those provisions garnered opposition from environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, which wrote to DeSantis in March urging a veto.
"Governor, this administration and legislature have consistently failed to address climate change," says the letter from James Scott, Executive Committee Chair of Sierra Club Florida.
"Instead of expanding investments in clean, renewable energy and directly creating jobs and savings for ratepayers, homeowners, and the public, this bill does the opposite. It strips local communities of the freedom to make their own choices, and forces an expensive and dirty fuel into our homes."
The bill passed along party lines, with Democrats opposed, 28-12 in the Senate and 81-29 in the House.
The two other bills, though, passed unanimously.
Under HB 7071, the State Board of Administration is directed to start an inquiry of state investments in companies which are majority owned by the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party and affiliated companies by June 1. The SBA is also directed to develop a plan by Sept. 1 for selling off the state's interest in those companies, with completion expected by Sept. 1, 2025.
And under HB 1331, state and local governments are prohibited from contracting with a company found to have used forced labor to produce goods.
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