Utilities Continue Pouring Money Into Support Of Solar Amendment

November 7, 2016

Four major electric utilities have surpassed the $20 million mark in combined contributions to support a proposed constitutional amendment on solar energy.

Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy last week dropped nearly $3 million into the “Consumers for Smart Solar” initiative — Amendment 1 on the ballot — that has been opposed by most major environmental groups in the state.

The latest money came as ads from Consumers for Smart Solar proclaim that Amendment 1 is “solar done right.” But backers of the initiative also have been grappling with a controversy stemming from the release of a tape in which a policy director for a Tallahassee-based think tank claimed to outline the utility industry’s efforts to deceive voters.

The latest contributions, $2 million on Oct. 24 from FPL and $999,998 last Tuesday from Duke, brought to nearly $20.2 million the amount the state’s four largest private utilities have spent on the amendment.

FPL has directed $8.055 million to the amendment. Duke Energy is at $6.7 million. Tampa Electric Co. has provided $3.2 million, and Pensacola-based Gulf Power is at $2.2 million.

Overall the Tallahassee-based Consumers for Smart Solar has received $25.78 million, of which $21.1 million has been spent. The group also has received $341,100 in-kind contributions.

By comparison, the state’s most expensive constitutional amendment campaign, the 2004 trial lawyer-backed Floridians for Patient Protection effort that pushed ballot initiatives opposed by the Florida Medical Association, spent $28.65 million.

Sarah Bascom, a spokeswoman for Consumers for Smart Solar, pointed to high advertising costs during this year’s elections.

“Due to the presidential election, Florida has remained a battleground state throughout the 2016 election cycle, making media costs more than we originally anticipated,” Bascom said in a statement on Monday.

FPL President Eric Silagy has said the Juno Beach-based company is backing the solar-energy amendment to guarantee consumer protections that now could be usurped by local and state government rule changes.

“I know it’s a popular story line to say this is just the utilities that are trying to protect a monopoly, but we don’t have a monopoly on rooftop solar, ground-mounted solar or anything else,” Silagy said when asked about the amendment earlier this month during a Florida Chamber of Commerce event in Orlando.

A company spokesman on Monday referred to prior comments in an editorial by Silagy.

The Consumers for Smart Solar amendment would enshrine in the Florida Constitution existing rules regarding the use of solar energy by private property owners. The proposal also includes a more-contentious provision, which states that people who haven’t installed solar on their property “are not required to subsidize the costs of backup power and electric grid access to those who do.”

Proponents say the second provision provides consumer protections for people who don’t install solar panels. Opponents, such as the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, say it could result in “discriminatory charges” against rooftop solar users and limit the desire of people to go solar.

Critics of the amendment upped their efforts this month after the Miami Herald reported on an audio tape in which James Madison Institute Vice President of Policy Sal Nuzzo described how to use a “little bit of political jiu-jitsu” by promoting solar to win support for desired changes in policy.

Nuzzo’s comments came while speaking Oct. 2 at the “Energy/Environment Leadership Summit” in Nashville, Tenn.

“It should now be clear to all that Amendment 1 is a manipulatively designed tool for the utility industry to continue to dominate the energy market in Florida,” Tory Perfetti, chairman of Floridians for Solar Choice, an opposition group, said in a release Monday. “There is no other reason to dedicate roughly $25 million in an attempt to pass this anti-consumer, anti-solar, anti-free market amendment.”

The James Madison Institute asserted that Nuzzo misspoke. Consumers for Smart Solar said the James Madison Institute wasn’t involved in planning or drafting the proposal.

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

Comments

7 Responses to “Utilities Continue Pouring Money Into Support Of Solar Amendment”

  1. Terry on November 7th, 2016 12:57 pm

    C.W. you are correct. No big company is going to put millions into supporting anything unless they are going to gain something from the investment to help their bottom line. In my view today, most companies of this size are just legal crooks. I know people will disagree with me and that is fine but from what I seen in my whole career as a professional is the total greed of company leaders at whatever cost it takes. I can give examples but I really should not have to if you just look closely.

  2. EPenn on November 7th, 2016 12:56 pm

    I wonder which rate increase which the power companies desperately needed to keep power going to their customers paid for all those millions into lobbyist pockets?

  3. Grandma on November 7th, 2016 9:06 am

    VOTE NO on Amendment 1. The utility companies want to keep the MONOPOLY on energy. Solar is freely available to all and it scares them that the investment costs of solar is now becoming affordable for the common user. The power companies will lose a vast number of customers who will no longer be dependent on them.

    Kind of like the corner dealer doesn’t want their addicts to get free methadone. VOTE NO!

  4. Bill M. on November 7th, 2016 8:47 am

    D.W. – couldn’t agree with you more. I also wish Jake was here but someone blew him up on his way to Atlanta, because he was going to testify about the political kickback schemes of the Southern Mafia.

  5. lzhome on November 7th, 2016 7:46 am

    c.w. is absolutely correct! Florida is lagging way behind in solar capability because of the energy lobby supported by Gulf Power and FL Power & Light. Florida sunshine is going to waste.

  6. Bob C. on November 7th, 2016 7:35 am

    @ c.w.

    You are Right On with your comment.
    Wouldn’t it be GREAT if these A-1 supporters used all those millions for something good for the people like helping to rebuild Century’s tornado damage?

    Voted NO on Amendment-1….

  7. c.w. on November 7th, 2016 4:57 am

    You can bet the farm on the fact that if utility companies like gulf power are supporting amendment 1, it’s not to help the consumer. It’s pure greed by the power co. same as always! Wish Jake was here!

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News