This piece is part of a series of articles examining where 2026 Southeastern candidates for state and federal offices stand on key energy and climate issues, like data centers and energy costs.
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 article, we examine the policies and positions of Kathy Castor, the Democratic candidate running to represent Florida’s Congressional District 14. Also in this series, we profile Republican candidate Mike Beltran. Election Day is November 3.
Kathy Castor currently serves as the representative for Congressional District 14 in the United States House of Representatives, a position she was originally elected to in 2007. She is the top ranking Democrat on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which is the group of House members primarily responsible for setting federal energy policies. Prior to serving in Congress, Castor served on the Hillsborough County Commission; was chair of the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission, and served as an attorney with the Florida Department of Community Affairs and in private practice. Castor is a graduate of Tampa’s Chamberlain High School, Emory University, and Florida State University College of Law.
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Kathy Castor has a long history of supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Castor served as the chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis from 2019 to 2022. In that role she was in charge of setting the policy agenda on climate action for the House of Representatives. The committee issued reports in 2020 that focused on policies to encourage rapid and widespread deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Kathy Castor has introduced and sponsored numerous pieces of legislation that support renewable energy and energy efficiency, including the Community Solar Consumer Choice Act, the American Energy Efficiency Act, the Efficient Grid Interconnection Act, and the CLEANER Buildings Act.
She has also fought attempts by other members of Congress and the executive branch to weaken or eliminate energy efficiency and renewable energy policies, such as voting to oppose rollbacks to appliance energy efficiency standards and repeal of the High Efficiency Electric Appliance Rebate Program earlier this year.
Climate Change
Kathy Castor has had a prominent role in national policy setting over climate change, particularly in her aforementioned role as chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Through her work as committee chair, she advanced policies with the following twelve principles toward the goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions nationally by 2050: 1) Invest in infrastructure to build a just, equitable, and resilient clean energy economy; 2) Drive innovation and deployment of clean energy and deep decarbonization technologies; 3) Transform U.S. industry and expand domestic manufacturing of clean energy and zero-emission technologies; 4) Break down barriers for clean energy technologies; 5) Invest in America’s workers and build a fairer economy; 6) Invest in disproportionately exposed communities to cut pollution and advance environmental justice; 7) Improve public health and manage climate risks to health infrastructure; 8) Invest in American agriculture for climate solutions; 9) Make U.S. communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change; 10) Protect and restore America’s lands, waters, ocean, and wildlife; 11) Confront climate risks to America’s national security and restore America’s leadership on the international stage; and 12) strengthen America’s core institutions to facilitate climate action.
Given her district’s vulnerability to hurricanes, Kathy Castor has been a prominent voice in Congress drawing connections between climate change and growing risks from hurricanes and extreme weather. For example, last year, she wrote to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, “In 2024, hardworking Floridians were affected by eleven extreme weather events that resulted in more than $135 billion in damages and at least 286 deaths. Hurricanes Helene and Milton headlined one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricane seasons in modern U.S. history, and both storms were rapidly intensified and made worse by climate change.”
Electric Transportation
Kathy Castor is supportive of electric transportation. In comments at a committee hearing in 2021, she stated: “Ironically, our transportation infrastructure is both vulnerable to the impacts of climate change while contributing to its causes. We face another historic moment in our history: will we continue the failing status quo or, once again, transform and improve the way we live our lives? I think the answer is clear: We must respond with generational investments to help communities adapt and become more resilient to the challenges of the climate crisis at the same time that we modernize our transportation systems to cut carbon pollution and create new family sustaining jobs. That means expanding manufacturing of American-made low-and zero-emission vehicles. It means investing in a national network of chargers to make electric vehicles a reality for millions of Americans. It means investing in public transit and redesigning roads that are safe for walking and biking.”
As chair of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, Kathy Castor oversaw the creation of the national climate action plan which called for: “Expedit[ing] deployment of zero-emission vehicles in the sectors where they are already available while making new gasoline-powered vehicles as clean as possible,” “Grow[ing] the U.S. domestic supply chain and manufacturing base for zero-emission vehicles as a key strategy to retain and create good-paying jobs,” and “Provid[ing] all Americans with additional lower-carbon, convenient, and affordable transportation options, including a massive expansion of public transit.”
Castor has used her constituent newsletter as an opportunity to share information about the benefits of electric vehicles. She secured a $1 million grant for the Tampa Police Department to obtain 13 new electric vehicles; and she has urged the Postmaster General to transition the U.S. Postal Service vehicle fleet to electric trucks.
Energy Justice
Kathy Castor introduced the Environmental Justice Air Quality Monitoring Act of 2022, and made the following statement upon introduction: “Environmental justice is at the center of our plan to solve the climate crisis, and that begins with ensuring clean air for vulnerable Americans. Communities of color and low-income Americans have long been disproportionately harmed by legacy pollution, and we must prioritize these communities as we transition to cleaner energy sources and electric vehicles. By improving access to air quality data, we can address widespread disparities and ensure our clean energy future improves the lives of all Americans, especially those whose communities are burdened by the air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels.”
In a statement during a hearing in 2021, Castor said: “Communities of color and low-income communities suffer the consequences of climate disruptions disproportionately. When extreme weather hits, the harshest impacts are felt by Americans who have limited access to transportation and other essential community services, or who are already facing economic hardship. What’s worse, these same Americans already face harsher climate risks, including the negative health outcomes associated with poor air quality. And in many cases, they’re the same Americans whose communities were divided as highways were paved right through their neighborhoods. That’s why, as we invest in 21st century infrastructure, we must center environmental justice. We must heal past harms, using this opportunity to elevate historically-excluded communities.”
Energy justice was a key component of the aforementioned House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis action plan, including “invest[ing] in infrastructure to build a just, equitable, and resilient clean energy economy,” and “invest[ing] in disproportionately exposed communities to cut pollution and advance environmental justice.”
Energy Affordability
Kathy Castor states on her campaign webpage that she “will continue to fight for a diverse and strong Tampa Bay economy that keeps costs for families in check, keeps health care and energy affordable, and protects our way of life.”
Kathy Castor introduced the LOWER Energy Bills Act of 2022 and is a co-sponsor of the Energy Bills Relief Act of 2026. She was one of five people beside President Joe Biden when he signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 into law.
Castor has been very vocal about trying to get Floridian residents access to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) home energy rebate programs to lower their energy costs, including by sponsoring legislation and sparring with Governor Ron DeSantis in a sharply-worded letter.
High-Risk Energy: Nuclear, Coal, Methane Gas
Kathy Castor has a long record of opposing drilling for oil and gas off the Florida coast, and she has cosponsored legislation to increase environmental accountability for gas fracking.
Her work to promote climate and clean energy policy has generally had the aim of transitioning our energy fuels from fossil fuels to renewable energy, as evidenced in her chairing the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Castor has been supportive of setting national limits on pollution from coal and gas-burning power plants, and has filed legislation to prevent the Trump administration’s use of executive authority to prevent uneconomic coal and nuclear plants from retiring.
Data Centers
Kathy Castor has expressed strong opposition to data centers in Hillsborough County, stating in a letter to the County Commission, “Data centers cannot come at a cost to neighbors who are already facing high grocery, gas, utility, health care and housing costs. We need to make sure these projects actually bring good-paying jobs to our community and that workers, families, and neighborhoods aren’t forced to pay the burden of rapid technology growth, while out-of-state tech billionaires get richer.”
Kathy Castor co-introduced the SHIELD Act in January 2026, which was described as “updat[ing] federal utility policy to ensure that massive electricity users, rather than everyday ratepayers, bear the costs of the grid infrastructure they require, while incentivizing large energy consumption facilities to power their operations with zero-emission electricity. She subsequently co-introduced the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act in June 2026, which is described as “requir[ing] state utility regulators to establish rules to ensure that community members do not pay for the costs of building new power generation, transmission lines, and other upgrades to serve large-load customers, such as data centers.” The Ratepayer Protection Act passed the House of Representatives in September 2026.
Voting Information
Election Day is November 3. Here are important dates and deadlines to consider:
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 5, 2026
- Absentee ballot request deadline: Oct. 22, 2026
- Statewide in-person early voting period: Oct. 24 – 31.
- Some counties will have additional in-person early voting dates available between Oct. 19 and Nov. 1. Check your county’s Supervisor of Elections website for the exact dates in your county.
- Nov. 3, 2026: General Election DayÂ
- Nov. 3, 2026: Absentee ballot return deadline. A returned voted ballot must be received, regardless of postmark, by the Supervisor of Elections’ office no later than 7:00 pm (local time) on Election Day.
- For overseas voters only, there is a 10-day extension, provided the ballot is postmarked or dated by Election Day.
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