Tampa Electric is seeking to develop a new solar farm on a 37-acre parcel northeast of Lake Mabel in the rapidly-developing former agricultural lands as Lake Wales and Dundee aggressively annex land in the Scenic Highway corridor.

If the project proceeds it would augment the 236 megawatts of solar TECO already is operating in Polk and to other projects that have been approved, but are not completed yet.

These projects provide enough green energy to supply tens of thousands of homes.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of homes and businesses have installed their own solar panels to reduce their carbon footprints and to take advantage of the potential return on investment that comes with the ability under current state law to sell excess power they generate to local electric utilities.

But there may be a catch.

That is because of proposed legislation being considered by the Florida Legislature this year at the behest of Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest electric utility.

The bill’s intent seems to be the same as a constitutional amendment the utilities tried to sneak past voters in 2016.

Under the proposed legislation, the Florida Public Service Commission, which is the panel that rules on rate increase requests, would be directed to consider changes in the rates utilities would be required to pay rooftop solar users

There is a concern that PSC could side with utilities, who make a disputed claim that the current rates subsidize customers with rooftop solar at the expense of other customers. That could result in lower rates for rooftop owners, which could increase the time it takes to get a return on their investment for solar panel insallations. That, opponents of the legislation argue, could discourage people from installing their own solar panels and cripple the growing solar industry in Florida.

The growing popularity of rootop solar for homes and businesses is reportedly drawing a backlash from investor-owned electric companies.

Two bills (SB 1024, HB 741) proposed in this year’s session of the Florida Legislation, which opens this week, may make rooftop solar less economically feasible by allowing utilities to seek to refigure how they handle net metering rates.

Net metering , which dates in 2008 in Florida in connection with green energy initiatives, involves the ability of those who own or lease solar facilities to sell any power they generate but do not use back to the utility.

The bills, which news reports document were written by Florida Power & Light lobbyists, would direct the Public Service Commission to draft new rules on net metering with an eye toward entertaining claims by FP&L and other investor-owned utilities that the current rates subsidize customers with solar panels at the expense of other customers. Solar industry officials dispute that claim.

How much or whether the rates would change is unknown. That would be determined by the PSC if the legislation passes and is signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The exposure of the involvement of FP&L, which is Florida’s largest electric utility, by the Miami Herald resulted in complaints from the utility about the story’s fairness, but the utility has not denied its involvement in pushing the legislation.

The first hearing in the Senate will occur Tuesday before the Regulated Industries Committee. Sen Ben Albritton of Wauchula is a member of the committee.

Its first stop in the House is the Tourism Energy and Infrastructure Subcommittee. No legislators from this region sit on that panel.

Last year Ancient Islands Sierra joined the fight to derail a proposal to wrest more development reviews from the Polk County Planning Commission and turn the process over to a hearing officer and to make it more onerous for the public to appeal hearing officer decisions.

The majority of the County Commission agreed with our criticisms and killed the idea.

That decision’s value certainly came into play Wednesday when the Planning Commission was reviewing a proposal to develop a city-sized subdivision proposed to contain more than 1,000 new in a rural area along the Peace Creek Canal east of Bartow under the procedure that planners and some development interests sought to take away from them.

County planners as they almost always do, recommended approval with conditions, but it was clear based on some of the conditions that this proposal was incompatible with surrounding rural homesteads.

The fact that the recommended buffering involved earthworks and a block wall that rose to probably half the height of the wall the islanders used to keep out King Kong was telling.

Then there are the provisions of something called the Gateway Selected Area Plan that dates to 2016.

The plan was supposedly a guide to future development along the State Road 60 corridor between U.S. 27 and the outskirts of Bartow about where this proposed development is located.

However, it was clear Wednesday that the stated policies in the original plan and actual implementation have diverged, seemingly to the detriment of rural residents and environmental features.

It initially did not propose to change land uses in the area, but testimony Wednesday showed that had occurred anyway.

It was also supposed to protect agricultural lands and environmental features such as the Peace Creek Drainage Canal. Although the plan didn’t say this, the protection of the Peace Creek was more important than many people realize. That’s because this section of the waterway was actually a natural stream in the middle of the 19^th century, according to historical maps. Other parts of the current system farther from the Peace River were a series of sloughs and other wetlands that were dredged to drain land for agriculture.

But reading the staff report and listening to the applicant’s consultant, you wouldn’t have gotten much of a sense of this.

The development around the creek was discussed in terms of preventing downstream flooding more than preserving natural habitat.

The planned houses were more of the same standard argument about housing shortages and growth pressures rather than whether this was a smart place to build in the first place.

There is a reason the pioneers established Bartow where it is rather than out there.

This brings us back to the value of the Planning Commission.

Sure, the staff report seemed to check all of the right boxes. which may have satisfied the legalistic requirements a hearing officer might be interested in examining.

But the big picture gets lost in that kind of evaluation and the collective thinking of a diverse group can cut through the claims and get to the heart of the matter.

That led the panel to vote unanimously to deny the application.

Sierra Club and other conservation groups have been in court since 2015 fighting the Florida Legislature’s efforts to ignore the will of the voters to levy state tax money to revive the Florida Forever program to buy more conservation land before it’s gobbled up by new development.

It looks as though environmentalists will be in court awhile longer.

A Leon County judge ruled Monday in favor of the state, concluding the whole issue is moot because legislators already appropriated the money and conservation groups didn’t act quickly enough to stop them.

This is bizarre because judges have already ruled there wasn’t anything that could be done to undo previous budgets approved by the Legislature and the Governor, even if they did misappropriate the money . The issue has always been whether this foolishness should be allowed to continue in future budgets.

In response to the ruling, Sierra Club Florida stated the ruling essentially decided the will of Florida voters is meaningless and if the ruling stands it will allow legislators to continue thumbs their noses at voters and use money supposedly mandated for conservation as a slush fund for whatever they choose.

At stake in this litigation is the spending of an estimated $1 billion a year in land that should go to state and local land conservation programs instead of for pork barrel projects to subsidize the sugar and development industries, Sierra maintains.

“Sierra Club Florida calls on the Legislature to immediately drop their opposition to the lawsuit and get on with the job of protecting the environment and heritage upon which Floridians and the state’s economy depends,” the statement concluded.

County soil and water conservation districts are on the chopping block in the upcoming session of the Florida Legislature.

Senate Bill 1078 and House Bill 783 filed by Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Keith Truenow respectively propose to abolish the districts. The districts were established in the late 1940s and early 1950s to provide technical assistance to farmers. Some districts also actively advocate for water conservation and better land management. They also sponsor educational programs such as the annual soil judging contests and envirothons.

Affected locally would be the Hardee, Highlands, Peace River Polk and Sumter districts.

Under the proposed legislation, which has been referred to a number of committees in both chambers, any assets of the districts would be transferred to the water management districts if the Legislature approves the measures.

No staff report has been prepared yet to lay out the rationale for the proposed change, though in the past some have contended that the agencies’ original duties have largely been taken over by the water management districts and they may have outlived their original purpose.

Nevertheless, the districts, which are overseen by elected boards, have offered an opportunity for an entry for people interested in running for local elected offices.

When we think of water flowing out of Polk County, we usually think of the seven rivers whose headwaters or upper reaches lie here or the aquifer beneath.

There’s the Alafia, Hillsborough, Kissimmee, Little Manatee, Ocklawaha, Peace and Withlacoochee.

The Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern contains the high point of the Floridan Aquifer, which supplies water for Polk and surrounding counties.

If you’ve following the debate over phosphate mining in DeSoto County, people in Polk County way wonder what that has to do with them.

As it turns out, the water to run that mine—an average of 10.7 million gallons a day—will be coming from the well Mosaic’s Fort Green mine in southwestern Polk County.

To put that figure in perspective, Polk County Utilities produces and distributes 15.7 mgd to serve customers in unincorporated areas of the county.

Much of the discussion around the future of Marshall Hampton Reserve has been the effect on the current trail system and entrance area when a new toll road plows through the northeastern corner beginning sometime next year.

The Central Polk Parkway’s first phase between U.S. 17 and Winter Lake Road and ultimately the Polk Parkway will cost an estimated $219.4 million to build. It will be followed a couple of years later by the $149.7 segment between U.S. 17and State Road 60.

So far no further extensions are in the Florida Turnpike Enterprise’s work plan. These projects were once considered part of a much larger project to slice through rural lands in the Heartland to open more land to more intense development under the guise of dealing with a long-term plan to deal with traffic congestion.

The roads that have been approved are being promoted as a way to reduce the amount of truck traffic in Bartow as the freight terminal and other industrial development in south Winter Haven builds out.

For those of you who tuned in late, the Winter Haven city limits extends to south of State Road 60, just a few miles north of Alturas.

Meanwhile, while the scenic oak hammock at the beginning of the trail system at Marshall Hampton is being leveled to make way for the new toll road, Florida Department of Transportation officials have taken the lead on a new trail project long considered by Polk County park planners.

That involves a way to connect the trail systems at Marshall Hampton and Circle B.

That would involve constructing a boardwalk through the swampland between Lake Hancock and Winter Lake Road to connect Marshall Hampton’s Acorn Trail to Circle B’s Lost Bridge Trail.

An $870,000 study to examine the feasibility of this project is tentatively scheduled to begin sometime in 2024 or 2025.

One of the biggest issues for a project like this, based on the history of a similar boardwalk at Mosaic Peace River Park. Is how to deal with the inevitable damage caused by the occasional falling of large trees as a result of hurricanes or other natural forces.

Nevertheless, if this project turns out to be feasible, it would create a new link in a trail system that circumnavigates one of the largest lakes in Polk County, connects thousands acres of undeveloped habitat and the urban trail systems beyond.

Watch for developments as the time for the discussion nears.