House Speaker Paul Renner said Tuesday that lawmakers during the 2024 legislative session will take steps to support energy companies and place limits on children’s access to social-media sites.
The Palm Coast Republican said social media is having a “devastating effect on kids,” and lawmakers should be able to impose online regulations “in a meaningful way.” He did not provide a detailed proposal.
“I want to hear from everybody on what that looks like,” Renner said during an appearance before the Capital Tiger Bay Club at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center. “You know, the idea that we can be libertarians where our kids are concerned? We’re not libertarians with our kids on anything. Adults are a different story. They wanted to do all that stuff. That’s their business. And it’s a free country. But for our kids, we’ve got to protect them.”
One possibility could be to require age verification in areas such as pornography, Renner indicated.
With the 2024 session set to start Jan. 9, Renner said he also wants to ensure Florida utilities have enough power to keep the state from “brownouts and blackouts that places like California have suffered.”
“Unfortunately, that works at cross purposes with an uber-aggressive timeline that climate activists have put us on where they want us to go tomorrow,” Renner told reporters. “If I had a magic wand, and I could say, ‘All energy is clean energy and we will never use fossil fuels again,’ and we could do that tomorrow at no cost, I would do it. Everybody should want a clean future. But that’s not realistic.”
In April, President Joe Biden highlighted steps aimed at reducing emissions by 2030, including driving down emissions from power plants and in transportation.
Last month, Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue turned down $320 million in federal money aimed at reducing tailpipe emissions, arguing federal transportation officials overstepped their authority in setting up the federal Carbon Reduction Program, a five-year, $6.4 billion effort focused on emissions that contribute to global warming.
Renner, who called himself “agnostic” when it comes to climate change, said Florida needs to get out from “politically driven timelines.”
Speaking of utilities, Renner said, “I don’t want to dictate anything to these people other than engage in fuel flexibility, what you think is best to deliver a low cost for our workers, our middle class.”
Renner described his proposal as offering energy that is “truly safe,” “inexpensive,” and “delivers a reliable grid.”
“I want clean energy. But is there an alternative?” Renner said. “Is it hydrogen? Natural gas? You know, is it nuclear? Do we need to revisit nuclear, which is being done in France, with no downside, no problems?”
Renner also said he’s worked with Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, on her “Live Healthy Initiative,” which is designed to increase access to health care, including by attracting more doctors to Florida.
Passidomo is expected to roll out details of her proposal on Thursday.
“There’s things I’m really, really excited about,” Renner said. “There’s things that we would like to include. And we have included, in fact, in some of our initiatives already. So, some of that stuff is already in our input. And we’re continuing to give input, but there’s a lot of areas of agreement there.”
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
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Pogo says
@Amazing
The whites of Renner’s eyes haven’t turned brown. The ring around his nose is a different story…
As stated
https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/biography/149478/paul-renner
Consistently bad
https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/149478/paul-renner
One of you?
YankeeExPat says
Make yourself useful speaker Renner, you and meatball Mussolini need to stop chasing drag queens and attend to the Insurance crisis your constituents are facing.
Bill C says
Renner needs to have his head examined, his eyes and hearing checked. Florida needs to be saved from the GOP.
Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler faces sexual battery and rape allegations. The ongoing criminal investigation also resulted in surprising details about the private lives of Bridget and Christian Ziegler. A search warrant for contents of Christian Ziegler’s phone shows the couple separately admitted to a past three-way sexual encounter with a woman now accusing Christian Ziegler of raping her in a Sarasota apartment. Bridget Ziegler is a co-founder of anti-gay, book burning Moms For Liberty, and has said her aim is to bring “religious values” into schools.
Meanwhile, “After months of expectation, it’s official — 2023 will be the hottest year in recorded history. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service announced the milestone after analyzing data that showed the world saw its warmest-ever November.”
Laurel says
So now Renner wants to regulate what kids do outside of school, as well as inside of schools. Apparently, he, and others of his political party, feel parents are not responsible enoughbto regulate their own children, so government needs to do it. How convenient for the R’s, more of their own indoctrination and government mandates.
Of course, Renner had to compare Florida and California. A Republican pastime. Since California tends to vote more democratic (not always), they need to make California a bad state every, single chance they get, whether it’s relevant or not. For instance, they love to bring up the homeless people, not mentioning that California is, like Florida, an end of the world state. “I’m going where the sun keeps shining, through the rain. Where the weather suits my clothes” – Everybody’s talking”- Fred Neil, from the movie “Midnight Cowboy” played while two indigent people are on a bus to Florida. Come on, Renner, tedious.
Then, he questions views on climate change, as a supposed “agnostic.” Oil is their other pastime. Figure it out.
Michael Cocchiola says
Heyyy… whatever happened to the Free State of Florida? Why are Republicans exerting more and more state control of personal freedoms?
Are they getting scared?
Laurel says
“…through the pouring rain…”
peg Donovan says
Republican politicians were more concerned about our children future due to climate changes. They want to dictate children’s lives as what they are taught about slavery, scared drag queens will turn children gay, dictate what they read and see online and soon I’m sure what you parenting they approve or disapprove of. When are we going to tell government ( GOP Dictator DeSantis and Moody) to stay the He!! out of our living room and bedrooms and worry about the politicians who speak about morality when they are under investigation for Rape or Molesting of children. They always say ‘ What about Democratic Party ‘They never take action against their own greed for power to become richer before they leav and if they kiss DeSantis a$$ enough they will be named to a$500,000. salary for college president job as former state lawmakers have. Tallahassee is ruining our towns for greedy developers for their gains not our lives.
Endless dark money says
How much has repulicon renner recieved from big oil for his stance? Guess we will never know since republicons voted down campaign finance that made them disclose donors. Kids have no future already unfortunately and electing morons like this will only exacerbate the predicament.