This post is part of a series examining where 2024 candidates running for public offices in the Southeast stand on key energy and climate issues. Note: The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy does not support or oppose candidates or political parties. Links to reports, candidate websites, and outside sources are provided as citizen education tools.
In this blog post, we examine the policies and positions of Whitney Fox, Democratic Party candidate running for election to the United States House of Representatives from Florida’s 13th congressional district. Also in this series, we profile Republican candidate Anna Paulina Luna. Election Day is November 5, 2024.
Whitney Fox is a first-time candidate running to represent Florida’s 13th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party. Previously, she served as the Communications Director for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority. Fox was raised in the Tampa Bay area, and earned a degree from the University of Central Florida.
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Whitney Fox has stated her support for clean energy and energy independence on her campaign website: “Florida’s natural beauty is our greatest asset. I’ll fight for clean energy, environmental protection, and hurricane-resilient infrastructure. This approach will preserve our state for future generations while creating jobs and lowering costs. By embracing sustainable technologies, we can lead in clean energy, achieve energy independence, and secure our economic future. From our beaches to the Everglades, we’ll safeguard Florida’s ecosystems while driving innovation and growth.”
Climate Change
In her campaign material, Fox addresses the issue of climate change: “Florida is on the front lines of climate change. The increasing frequency and severity of storms are no longer just headlines; they are our reality. Our homes are more vulnerable than ever, driving insurance costs to unaffordable levels. In addition, the financial strain from repeated catastrophic losses has led to a wave of insurer bankruptcies.” Fox has proposed the Homeowners’ Expenses and Providing Equitable Rates Act (CHEAPER) Act, as a way to address rising insurance costs by creating a federal homeowners insurance program for natural disaster damage.
Electric Transportation
We were not able to find information on the candidate’s position on this issue.
Energy Equity and Energy Burden
Whitney Fox, has connected her support for renewable energy with the need to lower electricity costs in Florida, including these statements from her Twitter/X feed: “I know we’re all struggling with higher electric bills. Over the last 5 years, the average Tampa Electric bill went up 51%, and the average Duke Energy bill rose 28%. Florida relies on natural gas for 74% of its electricity needs – more than any other state. Consumers would not be so vulnerable to global fuel price swings if more of the state’s energy came from renewable sources. It’s better for our wallets, future, and environment.”
High-Risk Energy: Coal, Nuclear, Oil, Gas
Fox has expressed the need for Floridians to invest in clean energy rather than the continued reliance on gas. “The average electric bill in Pinellas is 5th highest in the nation – due in part to overreliance on natural gas. We need to invest in clean energy and grid updates to reduce costs for all Floridians, become energy independent, and fight climate change.”
Voter Information
Election Day is November 5. Here are important dates and deadlines to consider, from the Florida Division of Elections:
- Deadline for county election offices to send vote-by-mail ballots to UOCAVA voters: September 21, 2024
- Deadline for county election offices to send vote-by-mail ballots to domestic voters: September 26, 2024 – October 3, 2024
- Deadline to register to vote: October 7, 2024 (no deadline to change party affiliation)
- Deadline to request that ballot be mailed: October 24, 2024
- Early voting period (mandatory period): October 26 – November 2, 2024. [In addition, county supervisors of elections have the option to offer more early voting on the 5 days before the mandatory start, and/or 1 day after the mandatory end (i.e. potentially opening Oct. 21-Nov. 3 for early voting)]
- Election Day: November 5, 2024
*Visit Vote-by-Mail and Military and Overseas Citizens Voting for information about deadlines to send a vote-by-mail ballot, to request a vote-by-mail ballot and to return vote by a mail ballot.
Find additional important election information here.
#CandidatesOnEnergy2024
Featured Image Courtesy of Anita Denunzio on Unsplash.
The post Candidate Whitney Fox On Climate & Energy appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
There’s a theory that most people underestimate the positive effects they’ve had on other people.
Yes, that’s the theme of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but it’s also the core of the 1995 film “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” in which a music teacher who deemed that his life had been a failure because he never completed writing a great symphony, is gently and beautifully corrected. Please see below.
The Positive Effects We’ve Had on Others Are Profound, Whether We Know It or Not
In the early days of 2GreenEnergy, my people and I were vigorously engaged in finding solid ideas in cleantech that needed funding in order to move forward.
I vividly remember a conversation with a guy in Maryland who was trying to explain the (ostensible) breakthrough that he and his team had made in hydrokinetics. When I was having trouble visualizing what we was talking about, he asked me to “think of it as a river in a box.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed. “You mean you take a box full of standing water, add energy to it get it moving, then extract that energy, leaving you with more energy that you added to it.”
“Exactly.”
I politely explained that the laws of physics, specifically the first and second laws of thermodynamics, make this impossible.
He wasn’t through, however, and insisted that, in his office, his people had constructed a “working model.”
Here’s where my tone descended into something less than 100% polite. I told him that he may think he has a working model, but he’s wrong; if he believes this, he’s ignorant; if he doesn’t, but is conducting this conversation anyway, he’s a fraud.
“But don’t you want to come see it?” he implored.
“No. Not only would not fly across the country to see whatever it is you claim to have built, I wouldn’t walk across the street to a “working model” of something that is theoretically impossible.”
—
I tell this story because the claim made at the upper left is essentially identical. You’re pumping water up out of a stream, and then claiming to extract more energy when the water flows back into the stream.
Of course, social media today is rife with complete crap like this. We’ve devolved to a point where defrauding money out of idiots is rapidly replacing baseball as our national pastime.
Until recently, I would have moose, maple syrup, and frozen tundra.
Now I would say: decency, honesty, and class.
The Positive Effects We’ve Had on Others Are Profound, Whether We Know It or Not
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