The Florida Supreme Court is set to weigh in on a controversial ballot this morning that has been fraudulently introduced to Florida citizens and will gravely impact Florida’s ability to utilize solar energy if the voting information doesn’t surface.
Amendment I, a proposed ballot that “claims” to support the rights of people who choose to use rooftop solar panels for power, begins its trek through the court system starting today with opening statements for the ballot.
With all the legal jargon associated with these types of initiatives, it is often difficult to find the truth among the dialect. Let’s break it down.
- Amendment I was started by an organization called Consumers For Smart Solar.
- Consumers For Smart Solar is secretly funded by a major energy corporation as well as the Koch Brothers.
- The measure was signed by 700,000 Floridians given false information.
- The competing measure by Floridians For Solar Choice, an actual organization supporting solar energy, failed to get the amount of signatures required for the ballot.
- The ballot will ensure higher energy bills for solar users as compared to traditional utilities.
- The vote will make sure that third party companies like SolarCity never becomes legal in Florida, significantly decreasing the availability for citizens to choose alternative energy at a cost that makes solar financially acceptable for almost anyone.
- The ballot will do away with net metering, the policy in which electric companies must pay solar users for the excess energy they produce.
This makes it sound very simple. However, CFSS made sure the measure was so in depth that the average everyday person would never know it was a con. Earthjustice, the legal firm standing against the ballot filed a legal brief that read:
“If passed by the voters, the utility-sponsored amendment would be a constitutional endorsement of the idea that rooftop solar users should pay higher utility bills than other customers. Solar users could end up paying twice as much as other customers pay to buy power from the utilities. This utility-sponsored amendment pretends to be pro-solar but is actually a disguised attempt to derail rooftop solar in Florida.”
Tim Dickinson with Rolling Stone Magazine recently wrote an op-ed discussing the disgusting Koch brother and Floridians rights to alternative energy. Dickinson stated:
“Key policies that have spurred a rooftop solar revolution elsewhere in America are absent or actually illegal in Florida. Unlike the majority of states, even Texas, Florida has no mandate to generate any portion of its electricity from renewable power. Worse, the state’s restrictive monopoly utility law forbids anyone but the power companies from buying and selling electricity. Landlords cannot sell power from solar panels to tenants. Popular solar leasing programs like those offered by SolarCity and Sunrun are outlawed. Rooftop solar is limited to those who can afford the upfront expense; as a result, fewer than 9,000 Florida homes have panels installed.”
The Progressive Nomad recently spoke with Gary Minnick, owner of Go Solar, the first solar company ever created on Long Island, about the effects this bill will have on Floridians and possibly moving on throughout the country. Minnick stated:
“The problem with the bill is this:
1. This bill is being financed by the electric utility industry in Florida which has only expressed disinterest in solar in the past. They are in direct competition with the solar industry and want the industry suppressed in their own financial interests.
They want to control the solar industry because of their own corporate interests.
2. All Floridians already have the rights to own and lease and produce solar energy and to do so without the utility industries consent.
This bill is bad for any Florida resident, but great if you are an electrical utility!
VOTE NO”
Let’s make sure all Floridians are informed of the deception they were just handed by their own utility industry and the infamous Koch Brothers so that we can protect alternative energy in Florida and set a precedent for the rest of the country.
Featured Image Via Salon
