Election Day is still a year away; however several Amendment Ballot Initiatives are already making their way through the cycle that would put them on next year’s ballot. Two similar sounding but very different initiatives, both dealing with the handling of solar power, are competing for attention on the 2016 Florida Ballot.
The players? First up is an initiative sponsored by Floridians for Solar choice, a group that advocates citizens being allowed to lease equipment from solar energy companies, offering a market-based solution and eliminating many barriers to household solar systems. The other is Consumers for Smart Solar, with backing mostly from the larger utilities, would maintain regulatory protections while keeping solar under the control of the power companies.Money and control are part of what’s at stake here. Tory Perfetti, a self-described conservative activist, who runs a marketing consulting firm, has picked up the torch for Floridians for Solar Choice, stating, “being a conservative individual, I thought it was highly anti free market and anti choice. For other people, it is also about competition and for others, about having safer and cleaner energy.” On the other side, Sylvia Vega, spokeswoman for Tampa Electric, states, “The other option would permit unregulated solar energy sales by third party sellers and we really want to avoid our consumers being exposed to something like that. It doesn’t level the playing field”.
Ballot initiatives take a lot of money to get the required number of signatures to place an initiative on a ballot. For instance, Floridians for Solar choice raised over $1.7 million dollars most of that coming from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, an Atlanta-based advocate group, whose ballot language has been approved by the State Supreme Court; the big utilities have channeled over $3.8 million into their efforts. It takes 683,149 signatures on a petition from 14 of the State’s 27 congressional districts to get on a ballot; petition gatherers fanning out across the state cost money.
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Florida, along with North Carolina, Kentucky and Oklahoma are the only 4 states that prohibit residents from buying electricity from anyone other than a regulated utility. Many, including Floridians for Solar Choice, argue this policy severely limits consumer choice and blocks growth in solar. There is also concern that the language on these ballot initiatives is confusing, with similar titles and language. Whether either or both initiatives make it onto the 2016 Florida Ballot remains to be seen.