As part of our effort to free
Florida’s energy grid from dirty fossil fuels, Sierra Club Florida has joined a wide-ranging coalition of conservatives and environmentalists in a campaign to
put a solar energy constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot.
The “Floridians for Solar
Choice” amendment will let homeowners and businesses get the benefits of solar
power - no emissions, no water use, and lower power bills - without the upfront
expense of buying and installing a solar system which is a significant obstacle
to distributed generation in Florida.
The amendment will open the most popular method of accessing solar
energy in the country to Floridians.
The amendment provides that a
company that installs a solar system on a homeowner’s roof and sells the
homeowner the electricity it generates is not a “utility” and is not subject to
regulation by the Public Service Commission (PSC). Currently, it’s illegal for anyone except a “utility”
to sell electricity by the kWh. These
contracts between homeowners or businesses and solar system providers are
called Power Purchase Agreements or PPAs.
Floridians for Solar Choice has
already gathered over 100,000 petitions and enough have been turned in to
Supervisors of Elections around the state for the amendment language to be
reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court. Sierra
Club Florida encourages its members to go to the coalition website http://www.flsolarchoice.org/ to download
and sign the petition and mail it to:
Floridians
for Solar Choice
120 E. Oakland Park Blvd. Suite 105
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334
120 E. Oakland Park Blvd. Suite 105
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334
“Like”
the coalition on FB and encourage your friends and families to sign the
petition too.
It’s time to leave dirty fuels
in the ground. It’s dirty to extract
them and their emissions dirty the air we breathe. Reducing carbon pollution is
essential to mitigating the long-term effects of climate change, including sea
level rise – an issue of major importance to a state with as much coastline as
Florida. This is an existential threat
to communities of our state. It’s a bonus that transitioning to solar will
lower monthly energy bills and create good paying jobs!
By
Florida law it takes 8% of the total votes in the last presidential election to
place an amendment on the ballot so the number for 2016 is 683,149 petitions. And we’re already 1/7th of the way
there! The deadline for getting all the signatures in is December of this year
(2015) so all the petitions can be checked and verified by the February 2016
deadline for placing the amendment on the 2016 ballot.
The coalition includes the Tea Party Network, Libertarians,
Republicans, and Democrats; environmental groups including (in addition to Sierra Club Florida) Greenpeace, Clean Water Action, Environment Florida, Ideas for Us, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and ReThink Energy; and business groups including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), the Florida Retail Federation, and the Florid Solar Energy Industries Assoc. This is a
common sense issue. No one should be
locked into getting their power from a monopoly. Visit the coalition website http://www.flsolarchoice.org/ and send
in those petitions!
David Cullen
Sierra Club Florida lobbyist
