Upon his election in 2010, Gov. Rick Scott's transition team included a Florida Power & Light executive who pitched his company's plan to build a major natural gas pipeline in North Florida to fuel a new generation of gas-fired power plants in places like Port Everglades. [...] In May and June 2013, he signed into law two bills designed to speed up permitting for what came to be known as the Sabal Trail Transmission -- a controversial, 474-mile natural gas pipeline that's to run from Alabama and Georgia to a hub in Central Florida, south of Orlando. Five months later, the Florida Public Service Commission, whose five members were appointed by Scott, unanimously approved construction of Sabal Trail as the state's third major natural gas pipeline.
All Aboard Florida is the ostensibly private rail project running from Orlando to Miami that is supported by Governor Rick Scott. But initially it won't be going that far. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the passenger rail service will initially run only between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in late 2016. Back in February it was reported that Scott's decision to spend more than $200 million in state money on a train depot at Orlando International Airport to connect with All Aboard Florida would benefit the company that once employed his current chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth. A new story in the Naples News by reporter Matt Dixon over the weekend pushed that story further, saying Hollingsworth was able to influence Scott into rejecting the $2.4 billion in federal stimulus funds for that high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando, in order to support the project that would benefit Hollingsworth's former company, Parallel Infrastructure.