By Craig Pittman
The 12-step people always say that the first step is admitting you have a problem, so here goes: Hi, I’m Craig, and I’m a civics nerd.
As a kid, I fell under the magical spell of the Watergate hearings. Ever since, I’ve been fascinated by government stuff.
The “I’m Just A Bill” song is my jam. I read sample ballots, research constitutional amendments before voting on them, and check my TRIM notice. I watch “1776” every Fourth of July (my kids prefer “Hamilton,” which I must admit has some catchy tunes). Once I even vacationed in exotic Washington, D.C., or as I call it, “the Paris of the Potomac.”
I follow this stuff not just because our Florida politicians’ dopey comments and poorly thought out antics are hilarious. I do it because I like knowing how things work.
So when I saw a headline in the Orlando Sentinel over the weekend about the incoming speaker of the Florida House and president of the Florida Senate talking about their priorities for the next legislative session, it was like dangling a ribeye in front of a bulldog. I bit.
The House speaker and Senate president are the second-most powerful people in state government, ranking just below our drag-queen-hating governor. They control which laws the Legislature will pass and how it will spend the taxpayers’ money.
What they had to say was both fascinating and alarming.
“’Attainable’ housing for workers and steps to prevent a push by ‘woke’ billionaires on issues such as energy and fossil fuels will be priorities during the next couple of legislative sessions, incoming House and Senate leaders said Saturday,” the story began.
I must admit that that opening made my eyebrows shoot upward like a bullet fired from a gun in Miami to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Unlike the bullet, my eyebrows did not descend for quite some time as I read on.
Florida’s got a lot of problems: water pollution fueling toxic algae blooms, dying manatees, vanishing seagrass, the rapid spread of monkeypox and meningitis, and a property insurance industry that seems less stable than the San Andreas Fault, to name a few. I was expecting some mention of those.
But “woke billionaires”? On the list of Florida’s 500 most urgent problems, that ranks around 497th, just behind “blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top.”
Incoming Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, was the one who brought up the very real issue of housing, although she referred to “attainable” instead of “affordable” housing. The difference is the price, which governs whether we’re talking about inconvenienced middle class people or desperate poor folks.
It was House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Left Field, who brought up those darn billionaires.
Renner, the story reported, “said more attention is needed to address corporate pushes toward what are known as environmental, social, and governance principles, which often include favoring investment in green energy over fossil fuels.”
After all the recent headlines about heat waves, wildfires, and flooding, you may be thinking: “Wait, investing in green energy like solar in order to battle climate change — that’s a bad thing?”
According to Renner, the answer is a resounding, if oily, yes:
“It’s the biggest threat that I think we don’t really know much about,” Renner said. “And that is really an effort by billionaires, woke billionaires, to leverage American capitalism against us and turn our American companies into advocates for the woke agenda. This includes cutting off our energy sector and inducing what I believe is going to be a politically induced energy crisis in America, going against our agriculture sector, going against a lot of things that make America work.”
My reaction to reading that convoluted Renner quote can be summed up in three words: “Say what now?”
“Federally mandated snobbery”
As I have pointed out before, Florida is the state most vulnerable to climate change.
Our topography is as flat as Kansas, so the seas rising fast on three sides keep inundating low-lying neighborhoods. Our already hot temperatures are getting hotter. We’re seeing stronger hurricanes with bigger storm surges, causing far greater destruction. Meanwhile, warmer waters are stimulating the growth of more toxic algae blooms.
This is a situation that should hit home for our new House speaker. He lives in the Flagler County town of Palm Coast. According to FlaglerLive.com, in the 2013 National Climate Assessment, “Palm Coast is one of four Florida cities singled out as being most ‘vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge.’”
Sea level rise is just the most obvious manifestation of our climate change peril. Yet Speaker-designate Renner has barely even mentioned that when talking about Florida’s future. Not all Republican politicians are quite so deluded.
Gov. Ron “I Love Developers More Than J-Lo Loves Ben Affleck” DeSantis likes to pretend he’s a tough guy, but he seems scared to even s-s-speak the words “climate change.” Nevertheless, DeSantis at least acknowledges that Florida’s waterfront property developers need a lot of taxpayer-funded protection from becoming flooded.by the rising tide.
The main fuel for climate change spews from the smokestacks of America’s coal- and oil-burning power plants. That means the best way to combat this plague is by supporting renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
Yet Renner will have none of that radical talk. According to him, what we’ve got to watch out for are those billionaires who are “woke,” which, according to Merriam-Webster, means “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues.” He apparently prefers everyone to hit the snooze button.
My first thought was that Renner must be parroting something he heard from that bow-tied bloviator Tucker “Insurrection? What Insurrection?” Carlson. After all, the Frat Boy of Fox once claimed environmentalism is merely “federally mandated snobbery.”
Yeah, Tuck, those folks in Perry who’ve spent years trying to stop a paper mill from dumping stinky substances into the Fenholloway River are snobs. Riiiight.
But then I thought, “No, Renner’s a man, not a squawking parrot. You can tell because of his lack of colorful plumage. Perhaps he has some reason for saying such ridiculous stuff. I should ask him.”
Well, I tried. I left messages at his legislative office and his Jacksonville law firm, which I believe you can find in the Florida Bar directory under the name “Nutburger, Kook & Bizarro.”
He failed to respond to my inquiries. I am sure it wasn’t because he knew he’d be unable to explain himself. I bet he was busy building a wall at the Florida-Georgia border to keep all he woke billionaires out. Eternal vigilance is the price of anti-woke-ism, people!
I searched for an explanation in his background. Perhaps a windmill blade had killed his dog Smokey, or a solar panel fell on his pinky toe. That would explain why he turns an angry red at the thought of green energy.
But there was nothing. Renner’s the son of a pastor and a teacher. He retired from the U.S. Navy as a commander. His financial disclosure forms show he owns a house worth more than $1 million and earns more than $200,000 a year. He and his wife have two kids. He’s apparently cool with leaving them a hotter, broken world.
When I dug into his campaign contributions, though, I at last found a few clues.
“Honest” Leadership
Renner, like all successful Florida lawmakers, has two big wheelbarrows for collecting corporate cash — er, excuse me, a pair of political action committees. PACs can glom onto much larger contributions than what he, as a candidate, can legally accept.
The PAC I found particularly interesting is called Conservatives for Principled Leadership. It’s headquartered at 1103 Hays Street in Tallahassee. Remember that address.
In the 2020 election, Renner “received $109,930 in utility donations via his PAC, Conservatives For Principled Leadership, as well as $1,000 from TECO and $2,000 from Duke (Energy) directly,” noted the Energy and Policy Institute, a California-based watchdog on utilities.
His PAC’s other big donors included a couple of other PACs, one named “Living Life with a Purpose” and the other named “Honest Leadership.” (Yeah, I laughed too.)
Big donors to “Living Life with a Purpose” include Tampa Electric Co., aka TECO. Meanwhile, the big donors to “Honest Leadership” include NextEra Energy, owner of Florida Power and Light, the state’s biggest utility (and the secret proprietor of a right-wing website called The Capitolist).
Here’s a detail that only a civics nerd would notice: The address for both of those PACs is 1103 Hays Street in Tallahassee. That means two PACs in that building donated money to a third PAC in the same building.
How does that happen? Did someone walk the money from one room to another, or was it merely transferred from the left hand to the right? I’m hoping the process involved a tube system, like you used to see at drive-in banks.
As it turns out, the building at that address belongs to Noreen Fenner LLC. Who is Noreen Fenner? She’s the president of “Bundletrack US,” which offers “the simplest fundraising software for recording and tracking contributions.” I guess she also rents out space for utility-backed PACs to find shelter from the storm of public disapproval.
Feel free to make your own fun alterations to the PAC names. Mine are “Living a Lie On Purpose,” “Dishonest Leadership” and “Conservatives Whose Principles Are For Sale.”
I noticed that the Solar Power Political Action Committee gave Renner’s secondary PAC $20,000, but they were heavily outspent by the fossil fuel-powered power companies. You can guess the outcome.
Renner, staunch defender of pollution-spewing power plants, has been taking fistfuls of money from pollution-spewing power companies.
You can’t see it but I am now doing my imitation of Captain Renault from “Casablanca” “discovering” that gambling is going on.
Fools for fossil fuels
As I looked at Renner campaign backers, another familiar name caught my eye.
In May, Renner’s “Conservatives Whose Only Principle is Gimme” PAC was the recipient of $25,000 from a conglomerate called Koch Industries. Among Koch’s main interests: oil, oil and gas pipelines, and coal.
Here’s a fun fact: Koch owns Georgia-Pacific, the current owner of that polluting Perry paper mill. (Try saying that three times fast.)
The Koch conglomerate was led for years by Charles and David Koch, who have been tagged by the New Yorker as “the primary sponsors of climate-change doubt in the United States.”
In other words, they’re probably the most woke billionaires ever, because they’re aware of the facts — yet put their own profits ahead of what’s good for the planet.
Now it all makes sense. Instead of tackling head-on an important Florida issue that affects his own district, Renner claims the real danger is anyone who would dare to upset the polluters financing his campaign.
He wants us to take care of those beleaguered coal barons, oil industry execs, and power company CEOs. They give so much to us — just think of all the new beachfront property they’re creating inland! All they ask in return is every dollar in your pocket as they continue wrecking our lovely state.
If it were just Renner kowtowing to Koch et. al, I wouldn’t be so bothered. But he’s not Florida’s only fool for fossil fuels, as we saw during the recent legislative session.
When powerful Florida Power & Light wanted to hobble the state’s rooftop solar industry, the company drafted its own anti-solar bill. Its lobbyist handed it to a subservient lawmaker to sponsor, along with a $10,000 contribution to her PAC. The bill passed both houses by wide margins as if the two chambers were filled with a flock of Renner parrots.
The bill would’ve strangled the state’s nascent solar industry in its cradle had DeSantis not surprised everyone by vetoing it. But DeSantis, running for reelection, left the door open for the bill to come back next year, when there’s no election.
An even clearer message came from the lawmakers who passed a DeSantis-backed bill for throwing millions of tax dollars at those “resilience” projects to protect waterfront property from the invading sea.
They repeatedly rejected efforts by a few legislators to require some action on what’s causing the sea level to rise. Rep. Ben Diamond, D-Paying Attention, told them they were, in effect, “putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone.”
I wish I could give you an easy solution for this — something snappy that would make all the Renners change their pro-pollution tune. All I can do is encourage you to become a civics nerd like me:
Look up who your legislator is and contact him or her. Tell ‘em you’re worried climate change is making life a lot worse for us all, even if the power companies collect more money from our increased air conditioner use. Tell ’em that armoring the coastline and jacking up highways is a short-term patch on a long-term problem.
And if you live in Palm Coast, track down Speaker Renner at the Publix or the Metro Diner and ask him to show you his “Honest Leadership.” You may have to wave a dollar bill in front of him to get his attention. If nothing else, you may get to hear him squawk like a parrot.
Craig Pittman is a native Floridian. In 30 years at the Tampa Bay Times, he won numerous state and national awards for his environmental reporting. He is the author of six books, including the New York Times bestseller Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, which won a gold medal from the Florida Book Awards. His latest, published in 2021, is The State You’re In: Florida Men, Florida Women, and Other Wildlife. In 2020 the Florida Heritage Book Festival named him a Florida Literary Legend. Craig is co-host of the “Welcome to Florida” podcast. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and children.
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LAW ABIDING CITIZEN says
Mullins endorses Renner they are the worst of the worst!
Steve Robinson says
We need lots more “civics nerds” like Pittman, and more local outlets–like FlaglerLive–to showcase his brand of reporting. Yes, most of the noise comes from Washington DC, but that noxious stench emanates from the state and local feed troughs that fatten up politicians like Renner.
R. S. says
If people invest in solar energy, one would think they’d deserve recognition for attempting to help keep our environment clean; but, no, the Public Service Commission permits FPL to charge $25.00 a month for the privilige of feeding extra energy into the grid. In a flood-prone area, FPL maintains about five nuclear reactors and not very responsibly: When one of the reactors showed cracks and the safety engineer tried to shut it down, FPL tried to fire the safety engineer. Yes, people like Renner work against the future.
David Schaefer says
Another Trumper who is clueless..
Ed Danko says
How’s that Biden-inflation working for you? Still smiling when you put gas in your car? Are you enjoying the rise in food prices and the endless shortages? How about all those illegals pouring over the border and the drugs that come with them? Let’s not forget that cowardly exit from Afghanistan? So much more, but help is on the way ….Trump 2024! Let’s make America Great Again…Again!
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN says
Let’s make Palm Coast great again by also getting rid of you Danko, people are fed up with your wise ass mouth and your nasy behavior especially towards women, that’s all you and you’re crew can do is fear monger because you are all too stupid to face issues intelligently , all your crew including yourself, are upset that your boss Mullins is going to loss his seat here then you’re next.
David Schaefer says
Thank you sir Danko has got to go.
James says
You’re right Ed, inflation hurts… especially when one can’t give oneself a raise.
Foresee says
Speaking of cowardly exits, Danko is so dumb he got himself recorded lying to a voter by a Ring doorbell.
ULTRA MAGA says
You about the Coal-Fired Power Plants in India and Communist China are the Major Cause of Climate Change! Time to STOP the CCP from purchasing America’s Farms! Tell us why Climate Change groups NEVER point out that the Jet Stream blows from West to East( from India and Communist China to America and Canada)! If you are writing a Climate Change article; tell to TRUTH! India just purchased Coal from Russia at a Discounted Price! America can NOT be the ONLY country fighting Climate Change!
R. S. says
Climate change is simply NOT a regional phenomenon. Climate change requires the entire world to act in concert. Pointing the finger at others simply will not advance the cause. The only area we CAN do something about is ours. We must hope that others get it also eventually. So, regardless of where the jetstream blows, we are all in this together.
The TRUTH is out there says
Speaking the TRUTH about the issue of Climate Change only confuses the progressives on this website. You might as well just talk to your pet dog. It has more ability to comprehend .
Wow says
Try watching something other than Fox news.
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN says
Too many Sean Hannity moron fans in the room, it’s starting to stink!
Jimmyb says
Smarten up people. These people have to go. Go far away. About a week ago I received a PAC post card endorsing Rener. The large post card tried to list Renner’s accomplishments. One was he did so much to tackle house insurance issues. I emailed his office and asked exactly what he and his boys did for us about it. NO reply. Of course not. All that BS and special session to do so little about the issue. Where is Paul when Flagler is paying 0.60 to 0.80 more per gallon for gas? Why isn’t he looking at these station owners fixing the prices in this county. Why isn’t he taking some of the billions in surplus and helping relieving homeowners with tax reduction help. Why isn’t he out there saying how crazy it is that DeSantis is allowing anyone who was in the military, or military family members teach our children with no professional training. Oh but you regular teachers, beware because you can be arrested for saying the wrong thing in class.
The most amazing thing is that these people can look you in the eye, with a straight face and outright lie to you.
These do nothing and late to the game politicians have to go and I mean far far away.
A.j says
People keep voting Repubs. The little man will have no rights. Look at r.v.w. Repub. senators voted against the vets yesterday. Continue to vote Repub. and vote your voice and rights away. Remember mist of them don’t believe climate change is happening. Why should they work against it. The world we live in. Keep voting for Repubs and soon we will not have a right to do anything like breathing and reading what we want to read. There is a lot more I can add.
Michael Cocchiola says
I’m done with Renner. He just sleepwalks through elections relying on the zombie MegaMAGA vote. You talk to him and he seems reasonable, but it’s a devious facade. There’s no such thing as a reasonable MAGA Republican.
We have a choice in November. A fine young man, Adam Morley, is running against him. Adam is a small business owner, a family man, and most important for District 24, he’s a strong environmentalist. He knows the problems we face and he’ll stand up for solutions before we all have beachfront property right up to our rooflines.
Please go to https://www.facebook.com/Morley4Florida for more information.
Save our homes and our livelihoods. Vote for Adam Morley in November.
Dennis C Rathsam says
I have 40 solar pannels on my home. Ive had them for 6 or 7 years now. My electric bill ran in the low $200.oo,s now my average bill in the summer is about $65 or $70 bucks. In the winter my bill is around $35, 40 dollars a month. Great right???? Now I m having a hard time getting insurance, because of the solar pannels, they wont insure me now. This is the only state that screws you while your helping the planet servive.
Deborah Coffey says
I can see why you won all those awards. Great writing! Informative. And, best…a laugh a minute…which we don’t often get these days. Thanks for writing.
Mythoughts says
Can’t blame me I didn’t vote for him. He is no different then the rest of the Cult GOP’s, they are against helping our country or its people all they care about his power and money.
Mark says
Renner is a total waste of a Representative. I’ve e-mailed numerous times to him and don’t even get an acknowledgement of receipt let alone a response. Same with Waltz, both just there to line their pockets and damn the constituents.
local says
We do more for climate “climate change” than any other country in the world…maybe all combined… try bashing other countries. Also …for the record…climate change has been an up and down process since the earth was formed. Yellow stone will erupt one day and put us into an ice age again. A meteor could hit and do the same…we can’t control anything. We may slow the process of warming by 1% but in all we are insignificant
Tired says
Sorry, but I can’t get past the first few paragraphs. I this news or a stand up comedian writing out their skit? Who, what, when, where & how. I’ve never been a fan of South Park or The Office. When I read articles to be informed I don’t want to read jokes, fluff and opinions. I am not a fan of Renner’s but I am an Environmentalist – NOT a preservationist. So please don’t start slamming me with politics. If we could simply get the news reported from everyone without the slants we’d be able to make better decisions and be a more educated public. However, when we publish the attempt of an article like above we leave the public wondering. Guess I’ll go read the Orlando news and do additional research on my own. BIG disappointment.
FlaglerLive says
It’s an opinion column.
The Geode says
India and China make up 36% of the entire world’s population and they couldn’t care less about pollution or the environment while America is stressing out while making up only 4% of the population. There’s absolutely NOTHING we can do except use it as a useless “talking point” and allow the politicians to use it as an excuse to bilk the public out of more money…
FlaglerLive says
The Geode misses the point. The animation may help.
JMK says
Here is something to think about.. Go outside barefooted and feel the grass under your feet and then step out on the asphalt road and feel the difference. Bet you will happily step back on the grass. Warming is greatly increased byjJMK covering the earth with buildings and asphalt and concrete. in short we have caused our own greenhouse by covering up the earth with sun absorbing materials. Bad news it is not from too many cows passing gas in the middle of ranchland.
Bill C says
Invest in rowboats.
Ed Danko says
Who cares what some self-proclaimed civic clueless liberal left wing nerd like Pittman thinks? I fully support and endorse Rep. Paul Renner.
David Schaefer says
Another stupid comment from a MAGA . Stay off Flagler Live your making a fool out of yourself.
Laurel says
Thank you Mr. Pittman for defining the word “woke” for those who think it is a new word just created to cover anything the Republicans want it to. They are not above stupefying their constituents.
Far right Republicans are always bringing up how they are the people here to protect our constitution, yet Renner and Hutson have been very active in trying to change our Florida Constitution so that big business can be in charge of our neighborhoods, and take our power away from local decision making. They will not stop, either.
Keep voting them in and see where you’ll end up. They’ll just keep feeding you up is down and down is up. You know, wind mills are killing all the birds, and causes cancer according to Trump. Let’s just keep digging up the Earth and polluting it instead of using the biggest, most obvious power: the sun. So, are they soaking up all the big business money so that they can ruin beautiful Earth and maybe move their children and grandchildren to the dirt planet Mars? I think that maybe money has stupefied them.
jeffery c. seib says
It’s really a shame when our so-called leaders here in Florida resort to using far-right political slogans to advance their agendas. This Renner fellow is parroting what his bible, Fox news, tells him. many have tried to wake Palm Coast up to the fact that climate change is real and just stomping your feet and threatening to hold your breath in not going to make it go away. I hope people will remember his actions here and now as when things begin to get really bad for us, I guarantee you he and the rest of his crew of ‘the earth is flat’ believers will be the first to step up and say they were trying to make the changes all along.
Willy James says
Paul
As a former United States Navy officer I am disappointed that you lost your integrity and sold out to the politicians with promises of BS. How can you look at yourself in the morning when you shave? Sad!
ULTRA MAGA says
Agree, not all Navy Officers are Honorable; Remember ‘The Fat Albert Scandal’, the John Walker Spy Ring, the CO of the USS Iowa trying to blame an enlisted man for the 16” gun explosion, etc,etc!
YOUR BEST INTEREST says
Florida has a very handy site that demonstrates who contributes to Renner’s campaigns. Predominantly right wing SuperPacs-a lot of energy groups- are the main contributors with very little local support. His vote and voice is BOUGHT in my opinion. Please get educated and vote for a candidate who has YOUR BEST INTERESTS in mind. https://dos.myflorida.com/elections/candidates-committees/campaign-finance/campaign-finance-database/