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Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Narrator] Coming up next, we are setting record temperatures in Florida.

Is this temporary, or a new trend?

The Governor removes most mentions of climate change from state law.

The big electric utility companies are asking for rate increases.

And a young man is brutally punched and tased by Lakeland police.

All this and more next, on "Florida This Week."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Welcome back.

This weekend, the hurricane season begins.

The start of summer is still weeks away, and already temperatures for all of May have been running above normal.

West coast of Florida has seen little rain for the last several weeks, and the National Weather Service warns that parts of Sarasota and Pinellas along the Gulf are at major risk for heat-related illnesses.

That, coupled with NOAA forecasters' predictions for more active hurricane season of 17 to 25 named storms, we could be in for a dangerous summer.

And here to tell us more of what we can expect, and why this is happening is WFLA TV's Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist, Jeff Berardelli.

Jeff, welcome to "Florida This Week."

- Glad to be here.

- All right, so tell me, the Florida Climate Center says the first five months of this year are the warmest on record.

Is this a temporary blip or is this a trend?

- This should be the new norm.

I mean, it is the new norm.

Part of this obviously is climate change.

Part is driven by natural variability like El Nino and La Nina.

But we should just get used to this.

About 50 years ago, we used to average around 60 days at 90 or above, in Tampa proper.

Now we average 120 days per year of 90 and above.

So we've doubled that.

Part of that is urban heat island, right?

Because the urban area is expanding, and we're building a lot and it traps more heat.

But part of that is human-caused climate change.

And the fact that the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay is warming.

- Why are you convinced that this is human-caused?

- All the evidence points in that direction.

I mean, and what we predicted to happen, let's say in the 1980s, 1970s, is exactly what's happening.

Even models from Exxon, the company, which basically predicted that we would see this rise in carbon dioxide and also this rise in temperatures.

It's almost exactly right.

And other climate scientists like James Hansen, the famous climate scientists, have shown that their predictions have worked out.

The predictions they made in the 80s and 90s have come true.

In fact, I learned that the poles, when I was in college, would warm much faster than the mid-latitudes.

And I looked at graphs and I said, and maps, and I said, "Wow, really warming much faster at the poles."

Fast forward 20, 30 years, that's exactly what has happened.

And I knew back then that I'd be able to witness it in my lifetime, and if in fact, I saw the poles warming faster, then I would know that the computers were right and that climate science is correct.

- I don't have to tell you that a lot of people think it's a hoax.

What do you say to those people?

- I mean, I don't think you can say much to the people who truly believe that it's a hoax.

I don't spend my time trying to convince them of that.

99.9% of climate scientists and virtually all of the peer-reviewed science shows that the climate is warming due to man-made reasons, and mostly due to the release of greenhouse gases, climate pollution from the burning of fossil fuels.

Almost all the literature supports it.

Almost all the climate scientists support it, over 99%.

So there is a legitimate belief in the climate sphere that that's what's happening.

So I don't ever try to convince people if they don't believe it.

I just give 'em the facts, that's it.

Otherwise, I spend my time talking to the people who understand what's going on to get them more concerned in a way, so that perhaps we'll take greater action.

- NOAA says there are going to be 17 to 25 named storms this year.

How does that compare to previous years?

And what does that say to you when you hear 17 to 25 named storms?

- Well, first of all, it's been clear to us for months that this was gonna be an extremely active season.

All of the factors are pointing in that direction.

Now, the average amount of tropical storms, named systems that we see in the Atlantic right now, the 30-year average, is 14.

But over the past five years, we've seen closer to 20.

Even last year, which was an El Nino year, we should have seen less storms, we still had 20.

The oceans are warming.

The oceans are at record temperatures right now in the Atlantic, not just the whole basin, but record warm in the main development region, record warm in the Caribbean, record warm in the Gulf of Mexico.

At the same time we've lost El Nino, which typically helps us in the Atlantic.

And we've gained La Nina or gaining La Nina in the Pacific Ocean, which means that the warmer basin is the Atlantic, by far.

And so that tends to spur activity in the Atlantic Ocean, plus we lose the wind shear also when we gain La Nina.

So all the factors lining up for what's to be probably one of the most active hurricane seasons we've seen.

- Is La Nina ever good news when you hear that?

- Not for hurricane season, it isn't.

And if you look at the numbers over the past 40 years, and I have.

We see about double the number of hurricanes during La Nina seasons than we see during El Nino.

And the important thing to remember about this season is because water temperatures are so much warmer than they've ever been, that adds more high octane fuel to allow these tropical systems to not only become tropical storms, but more so become strong hurricanes, major hurricanes.

So we're expecting a lot of the systems, unlike last year, to become major systems this year.

- The last few weeks has been so dry in the Tampa Bay area.

Why is that?

And is that a new normal for us?

- I don't think it is a new normal.

I think that it's a natural pattern.

Last year we had a strong westerly wind all summer.

We really had major deficits in rainfall.

And unfortunately, rainy season hasn't begun yet.

The reason why it hasn't begun yet, and the reason why it's been so dry over the past couple of months, El Nino ended.

It was a decently wet winter.

But when El Nino ended, everything just shut off.

And we have this huge heat dome across Mexico.

This is one of the worst heat waves they've ever had there.

They're running outta water in Mexico City.

We're on the northeast end of it.

And that essentially that sinking air, that compression of the atmosphere, is causing it to dry out and heat up.

And so it's stopping rainy season from forming.

And we really need rainy season because we're going on over a year of deficits in rainfall.

I don't see it starting at least for another week plus, unfortunately.

But I don't think this is necessarily a trend.

If you look at climate models in the future, Florida actually gets slightly wetter, at least Central Florida.

South Florida may get a little bit drier in the next 50 or 100 years.

But we don't see any major rainfall trends.

The one problem we have is, because it's heating up, it's drying out our soils.

So that is a concern.

- So what areas is gonna be most affected by climate change and sea level rise, here in the Tampa Bay area?

What neighborhoods are you most worried about?

- The places we already see it happening, right?

That's especially Shore Acres.

That's low-lying areas near Bayshore Boulevard.

That's Treasure Island and especially Sunset Beach, where we see a lot of flooding.

That's places like Belleair, where if you drive up the Intracoastal, you drive up the road there, Gulf Boulevard, you'll see that it's really narrow.

So it's a lot of parts of our area and we're gonna be essentially one of the ground zeros in Florida.

Of course, South Beach in Miami being the ground zero for sea level rise.

So we're gonna see about another foot or so.

Just if you do the math, if you just simply do the math, with nothing else, we're gonna see another foot by around 2050, 2060.

- Very scary.

- Yeah.

- Jeff, thank you so much for coming by.

It's great to meet you.

- You're welcome.

Glad to be here.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) We're joined now by our panelists for this week.

Craig Pittman is a columnist at the Florida Phoenix, and the author of several books about Florida.

Emily Mahoney is the Energy Reporter for the Tampa Bay Times.

Kimberly Moore is a reporter at lakelandnow.com.

Nice to have you all in the studio.

Great to see you.

- Thanks for having us.

- Thank you.

- Well, Craig, I wanna start with you.

We just heard from Jeff Berardelli about the rapidly changing climate.

This month Governor DeSantis signed into law a bill that strikes the mention of climate change from state statutes.

Tell us what the bill means.

What does this mean?

- Well, I think it's a brilliant move, because clearly this just means that any problems we have, if we just stop talking about 'em, they'll go away, right?

So we need to abolish any mention of property insurance increases and affordable housing.

Take those outta state law, those problems will be solved as well, right?

I mean, it's just such a goofy thing to do to say, we're going to, I think his quote was, "We're gonna restore sanity and get rid of the, no longer be obedient to these radical green zealots."

- Yeah, this was what the governor said.

The governor said, "We're restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots."

- Who put that language into the law?

Not radical green zealots.

His fellow Republicans 20 years ago, realized climate change is a serious problem for Florida and we need to do something about it.

So these were not people with long hair and tie-dyed shirts.

These were guys in blue blazers and tassel loafers like him, and - - This was 2008.

It was a unanimous vote by the state legislature.

Republicans were in control of the state legislature.

- Yeah, yeah, so... - And the governorship.

- Yes.

So not exactly radical green zealots.

I mean, these were hardheaded people who realized, we need to do something about this and we need to take action.

And now our governor and legislature are basically fossil fuel fools who say anything that hurts fossil fuels, we're against it.

- What happens to the climate change goals that were established by the legislature back in 2008?

- They've rolled those back, they've gotten rid of 'em.

And so now the Office of Energy, as Emily reported recently, has said, we need to repeal all those goals, 'cause they don't matter anymore, because it's no longer in state law.

- Okay, so this new law encourages the burning of more natural gas in the state, the new law eliminates the requirement that the state prioritize energy efficiency when purchasing new vehicles.

And it bans windmills from being built off Florida's coastline.

- Which is not a problem because we don't have any windmills off our coastline.

Not now, and not ever, because our wind are like our politicians, is too balmy to be reliable.

So we are big on solar, we should be big on solar.

Windmills, not a problem.

So they've solved a problem that doesn't exist, and meanwhile decided to ignore one that does.

- Craig, you've written recently that sea level rise is causing more and more beach erosion around the state.

We have 825 miles of beaches.

How expensive has it been to restore the beaches so far?

- Every one of these projects cost millions of dollars.

Tax dollars, federal tax dollars.

And the hurricanes and sea level rise are combining to basically wash away the sand almost as quickly as it's put out there.

The folks in Jacksonville are getting 10 miles of Beach Renourishment, for I think it's $32 million.

And they just started that project.

It's basically just pouring the dollars down the drain.

- Where are we getting the sand from?

- I was surprised by this.

They used to get it from offshore dredging.

Now most of it's coming from the Lake Wales Ridge area of Florida.

The ancient dunes from back when most of the state was covered by water.

- How's that affecting the Lake Wales Ridge?

- That's a real good question.

I mean, the Lake Wales Ridge area, they've already lost I think about 85% of the habitat for the endangered species that live there because of agriculture and development in that area.

And now that you've got mining on top of that.

- The state has rejected millions in federal funds that could help prepare for future climate change related disasters.

Why is the state rejecting the funds that might help us get through a climate-related disaster?

- Because this is a way to basically serve the people who want them to burn more fossil fuels.

Their major campaign donors are the fossil fuel folks.

And so they're willing to do anything they can for them.

I mean, it's sort of like Trump recently met with the heads of oil companies and said, "You give me a billion dollars each, and I'll roll back any law you want."

And that's sort of what's happening in Florida.

- This week, The New York Post reported that hundreds of nursing homes in Florida have been forced to shut down over the past five years because of soaring costs of commercial property insurance.

Is that related to climate change?

- Yeah, I mean, climate change doesn't just mean everything gets hotter, basically it means we're disrupting our weather patterns.

And so we're seeing more and more climate-related disasters in Florida, and that affects property insurance.

- Emily, at the same time we're seeing record high temperatures, several of the giant electric utility companies want rate increases.

Who wants rate increases in the Tampa Bay area?

- Both Duke Energy and Tampa Electric have filed rate hike requests to the state regulators known as the Public Service Commission.

- About how high are these?

Are these unusually high rate increases?

Or how would you characterize 'em?

- Yeah, so Duke has asked for $820 million over three years.

And TECO has asked for 468 million over the next three years.

Both are saying that it's a necessary increase to help them improve grid infrastructure, including increasing their solar capacity.

One thing that's interesting about these requests is they have to file thousands of pages of paperwork to these state regulators.

And one of the things in these filings is they have to disclose how much, essentially a percentage of profit for shareholders they're seeking as part of the increases.

And both Duke and Tampa Electric's rate of profit is higher than the national average for last year.

- So you report that Tampa Electric wants to shift the cost in a way that would benefit some large companies or benefit large companies?

- Yes.

So this actually goes back to 2021.

The last time Tampa Electric had a rate hike request.

And at the end of that case, there was a settlement agreement that where Tampa Electric basically signed an agreement with other parties that intervened in that case.

And it included some big businesses, including big industrial companies that use a lot of power, Walmart and hospitals.

And that agreement said Tampa Electric, next time it asks for a rate hike will change basically the way it does the math and the way it shifts costs around.

So Tampa Electric will be charging the same, or will be collecting the same total amount at the end of the day, but shifting who pays what percentage of that total amount basically under this agreement back from 2021.

So now here we are, they're requesting it again, and we're seeing the impact of that where residents will be paying potentially millions more while big businesses will be saving money, compared to what would've happened absent that agreement.

- So the costs are being shifted to the residents.

Okay.

- Correct.

- Okay.

The Public Service Commission is the group that decides on whether or not these rate increases go through, or how high the rate increases should be.

How do you get to be on the Public Service Commission here in the state of Florida?

- You're appointed by the governor.

- Do we know whether or not the utility companies are donating heavily to the governor, and whether they might have some influence over his appointments?

- So the Public Service Commission has come under a lot of criticism.

There was a report by a nonpartisan ethics watchdog a few years ago that found that it had essentially been captured by the utility industry.

And it has to do with the way that the legislature confirms these appointments and utility companies donate heavily to lawmakers running for the legislature.

- Okay.

Captured by the utility companies?

- Yes.

- All right.

Hearings are coming up in just a few days.

The Duke hearings are gonna take place in Largo and Inverness.

The Tampa Electric rate increase hearings will take place in Brandon in just a few days.

I want to ask you, is it unusual, in the last few years, has it been unusual for the Public Service Commission to go out and ask the public what they think?

- Yes.

Actually, it's been at least 10 years since Duke and Tampa Electric customers have had this kind of opportunity to go to an in-person service hearing about these rate hike requests.

And part of that is because of the timing of these, they're usually several years apart, but also the pandemic shut down in-person hearings.

They did them only virtually.

So it's been many years, like I said, at least a decade, since customers have had this kind of opportunity.

- And I wanna ask you about a report that you published on the Times website on Friday.

And that is that there's a new survey about what people in Florida think about the environment.

What were some of the highlights of this new survey?

- Yeah, it was a really fascinating survey.

It was commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund, but done by a Republican polling firm.

And they found that when they informed the participants of the survey that two thirds of Florida's electricity is generated from burning natural gas, which is one source of energy, and much of that is piped in from outta state.

67% of Republicans said that was concerning.

And so the Republican pollster, Ryan Burrell, who has worked for clients like Governor DeSantis, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna in the past, he said that these results were surprising and merited further investigation, basically.

- Does it show that Tallahassee's a bit out of step with what the public thinks in Florida?

- I think these poll numbers show that people generally are, they don't want their energy coming from one single source.

Energy diversification is popular among people of all parties.

And that's sort of the argument that the environmentalists are making on the heels of this.

- Craig and Emily, I want to ask you about the story.

And Craig, you mentioned earlier that the Washington Post reported just recently, Donald Trump invited oil industry executives to Mar-a-Lago last month and asked them to raise a billion dollars for his election campaign.

And then Trump then promised to roll back the environmental measures enacted by President Biden.

Trump called this a deal.

So Craig, you mentioned this earlier.

This is almost unprecedented that we would get a report like this that somebody would offer favors in exchange for a giant campaign contribution.

- It's very clearly a quid pro quo.

I mean, and even the stories that even the oil people were astonished by how naked the offer was.

But that's sort of where we're at, that the fossil fuel industry realizes they're in great jeopardy.

And so politicians who want their money are saying, "You gimme some and I'll do what you want."

And they feel like that's what they can do.

And it's interesting, there was another, I think it was another Post story that said, the oil industry has actually done really well under the Biden administration.

The United States actually is the leading oil producer in the world right now.

But in spite of that, they're saying, well, but we're gonna back Trump, 'cause he's gonna back off all the safety measures that the Biden administration has imposed.

- Emily, do you have any take on the story?

Or would you like to stay on the sidelines on this one?

- I just think that, it shows that the energy policy and the environment's just becoming increasingly politicized.

And I think polls like the one you and I just discussed are an effort to sort of push back on that, that energy and the environment doesn't have to be political.

Oftentimes I think voters don't want it to be as political as it is, but, sort of the environment that we're in.

- That's where we're at.

All right.

Well, our next story.

On Memorial Day in Lakeland, the police got a call about some people using a swimming pool at an apartment complex who were being loud and were cursing.

The apartment manager asked police to trespass the people because they did not live there.

A bystander took this video of what happened next, and we warn you, the video is disturbing.

- (beep) Get back!

- Oh, he just (beep) punched me!

- [Off-Screen Voice] Stop!

Stop it now!

(indistinct shouting) - [Off-Screen Voice] Stop!

(indistinct shouting) (indistinct shouting) - [Off-Screen Voice] You need to chill out.

- Well, that was 16-year-old Jahmal Hudson being tased there at the very end.

Kimberly, you're a reporter in Lakeland, longtime reporter.

There's several different versions of what happened before this.

Tell us what the two sides are saying about what happened prior to this.

- So the people who were with Jahmal say that they were invited by a friend who actually lived there.

And they had been in the pool for a while.

They do admit that they were swearing.

A woman showed up and asked them to keep it down, asked them to please stop cursing.

And I curse like a sailor, but I'm not gonna do it in front of somebody's kids.

They swore at her and multiple f-bombs were dropped and she called the police.

She lives there, she pays to use the pool.

And they didn't wanna be polite.

And so the police showed up.

Two officers showed up.

Asked them for about 15 minutes to please get outta the pool.

The manager wanted them trespassed, which involves giving someone a citation, not necessarily arresting them.

It took about 15 minutes for them to all comply and get outta the pool and gather up their belongings and leave.

I have heard that he went back out to the pool to get his things, and then as they were walking through the clubhouse, the officer had a reason to take him into custody beyond trespassing.

And that's when you see what happened on the video.

- What are the police saying about the incident?

- Well, they're not saying much.

There is bodycam video.

About a year and a half ago, Lakeland Police decided to implement body cameras, paid a good amount of money to do that.

They're not releasing the video.

And I just read the Police Bill of Rights, which they're citing as saying we can't release the video because these two officers are now under an internal affairs investigation.

But the Police Bill of Rights really doesn't say anything about not releasing any video.

- You said the police were trying to take Jahmal into custody.

Were they trying to arrest him?

- Yes.

- So is he being accused of, have charges been filed, and is he being accused of resisting arrest?

- Yes, he's being charged with two third-degree felonies.

One was resisting arrest with violence.

There was one misdemeanor charge and that was the trespassing charge.

He was in court, he had first appearance on Tuesday.

And we had a discussion about using his name.

He's 16 years old.

We don't want this to necessarily follow him around for the rest of his life.

But Channel 10 interviewed him and his mom and.. - The word is out.

- Yeah.

- We have a few seconds left.

I'm just wondering, what are civil rights groups saying about this?

- Well, there's one civil rights group that is organizing a protest for Saturday evening at 6:00 PM and I will be there covering that.

- [Rob] For Lakeland.com.

- For LakelandNow.com.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to?

And Kimberly, let's go back to you.

The other big story of the week.

- Well, it's the one we haven't discussed yet.

There was a verdict, 34 guilty verdicts for President Trump.

Former President Trump.

I understand he won't be sentenced for a while.

I think that will leave him out to campaign.

- It's interesting that it's boosted his finances, that $34.8 million was donated overnight immediately after the jury's decision.

- Mm hmm.

Who is the money coming from?

Is it coming from oil executives?

- It certainly fired up his base too.

- Yes.

- Craig, the other big story of the week, in your mind.

- Well, one that I've been following.

I wrote about it and I've been following it, is there are folks who want to drill for oil.

We're back to fossil fuels again, next to the Apalachicola River, up in north Florida, a very pristine area.

And the Florida DEP announced that they were going to give them the permit to drill this exploratory oil.

And there's a group, Apalachicola River Keeper, that has filed and said, "Please, DEP hold off.

We're gonna find a way to stop this if we can."

And so DEP has said, "Okay, we'll hold off to wait to hear from you."

But that's sort of hanging fire.

If we've repealed our clean energy goals, I don't see how they can not give 'em a permit to drill in a very bad place.

- Emily, we just have 25 seconds.

You're on a big story.

- Sure.

I'll plug the work of my colleagues.

The Tampa Bay Times published a big investigation this week called The Marked Man, about a man named Robert Duboise, who was in prison, including on death row for decades, for a murder that he did not commit.

- I've read that series.

It is powerful.

- It is.

- All right, thank you all for a great show.

Our guests, Craig Pittman, Emily Mahoney, and Kimberly Moore.

Thank you for joining us.

If you have comments about this program, please send them to ftwwedu.org.

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And from all of us here at WEDU, have a great weekend.

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