Florida coalition defeat controversial utility-backed solar amendment
Florida voters rejected a utility-backed ballot measure Tuesday aimed at blocking third-party competition in the state’s rooftop solar market.
The measure, Amendment 1, would have embedded new language into the Florida Constitution that would have affirmed the right of customers to own and lease solar panels, a right consumers already have. In actuality, the measure would have protected the monopoly held by utilities to provide solar energy for customers. It also would have created constitutional protection for state and local laws “ensuring that residents who do not produce solar energy can abstain from subsidizing its production.” This provision was interpreted as a means to end net-metering, which allows solar customers to sell back excess electricity to the grid.
In addition, the Amendment would have set the unusual precedent of taking solar issues like net metering and distributed energy compensation outside the traditional regulatory process, where it would be subject to expert scrutiny, and put directly in the hands of utilities.
A bipartisan coalition of solar manufacturers, consumer advocates, and environmental groups formed in opposition to the amendment, calling its language wildly misleading. The measure, which was backed the state’s largest investor-owned utilities, failed to muster the required 60 percent needed for a constitutional amendment to become law.
“We defeated one of the most egregious and underhanded attempts at voter manipulation in this state’s history,” said Tory Perfetti, chairman of Floridians for Solar Choice, which had championed an alternative ballot measure to allow third-party competition.
Advocates for the amendment deny trying to mislead voters. Consumers for Smart Solar, a political action group supported by the state’s utilities, said that the amendment was formulated as a sensible alternative to promoting solar use than through third-party agreements.
“This campaign’s purpose was to offer a sensible and fair way to grow the use of solar in Florida as an alternative to our opponent’s amendment, which failed to make the ballot,” said Consumers for Smart Solar spokesperson Sarah Bascom. “While we are disappointed with tonight’s outcome, we are pleased that a majority of Floridians (50.77 percent) recognize the importance of getting solar right.”
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