Published January 29, 2020 Tampa Bay Times
TALLAHASSEE — Standing beside two light bulbs, one aglow and labeled “Nikki Fried on Energy” and the other unlit and labeled “Ron DeSantis on Energy,” Agriculture Commissioner Nicole “Nikki” Fried slammed the governor Tuesday for making what she called a partisan power grab at her office.
She was reacting to an effort to move the state’s Office of Energy from under her purview to the Department of Environmental Protection. The effort, in the form of a proposed committee bill, passed out of the Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday morning by a 10-1 vote.
Three of the four Democrats on the committee voted yes on the bill but despite their votes, Fried maintained that the bill is “partisan punishment.”
“This bill puts party before state, and puts the governor before Floridians,” she said, noting that the Office of Energy went untouched while Republican Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam was in office. “Now that a Democrat sits in this office, it suddenly needs to be moved.”
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Published January 29, 2020 Tampa Bay Times
