The Florida Legislature already has banned cities and counties from regulating locally important issues, like smoking on public lands or banning plastic bags.

BOWLING GREEN, FL, USA, March 21, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Did you know it’s illegal for a city to prohibit smoking in a park or beach it owns, restrict fertilizer sales or even ban single-use plastic bags? And if proposed legislation passes, it will also be illegal for them to ban sunscreens that are lethal to coral reefs and wild-life impacting plastic straws.

It’s called pre-emption and it makes life much easier for the lobbyists in Tallahassee who only have to deal with 180 legislators rather than the thousands of city councilmen and county commissioners who are elected specifically to make the kind of decision that impacts their local communities.

This year’s legislative calendar includes regulations that call for studying the impact of plastic straws, currently banned in St. Petersburg, and overrides the legislation just passed in Key West to ban coral toxic sunscreen ingredients.

What it actually does is ban the ban on plastic straws until 2024 while they “study” the impact. If this law follows the example set by the legislature in 2008, when it required the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to look at the impact of single-use plastic bags, they may as well allow them forever. DEP submitted a report as required on Feb. 1, 2010 – nothing has changed since then.

Delay and defer is a common tactic today by legislators and lobbyists to prevent positive change…

The regulation written by Senator Travis Hutson (R-Palm Coast) on the 2019 bill “studying” plastic straws
is even more clear on sunscreen ingredients:

“Notwithstanding any other law or local ordinance to the contrary, the regulation of over-the-counter proprietary drugs and cosmetics is preempted to the state to be uniformly administered.”

“Uniformly administered” by the legislators in Tallahassee who are easier to influence than the city council members in Key West who see what oxybenzone and octinoxate are doing to their coral reefs – and where their local economy depends upon a healthy ecosystem.

Even if you consistently vote as a Republican, you have to question why the Florida Legislature is undermining one of its party’s most consistent platforms – leaving local government to local government – except for the fact that big business is playing its easiest hand.

The bill is still in committee, so now is the time to contact the people who will vote on whether it actually makes it to the full legislature. So far, it doesn’t have a matching House bill but you can follow its progress at https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/00588.

In the meantime, please call the following senators to voice your opinion:
Senator Travis Hutson, (850) 487-5007
Senate Commerce & Tourism Committee Chair Senator Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota), (850) 487-5023
Senate Commerce & Tourism Committee Vice Chair Victor Torres (D-Kissimmee), (850) 487-5015

I’ve already called – their staff is waiting to hear what you think! (Please be polite, though, these people don’t make the rules, they just answer the phone and report to their bosses.)

Autumn Blum is a Florida native, avid diver and formulator of Stream2Sea, the only mineral-based
sunscreen tested to ensure its safety in marine ecosystems.

Vicki Parsons
Stream2Sea
+1 813-689-2616
email us here

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