Florida utilities boast of being solar friendly, but state lags behind others

Amendment would let businesses install solar, sell what isn't used to neighbors

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida utilities boast of being solar friendly, but Florida lags behind most states, including New Jersey, when it comes to the number of solar facilities. The major electric utilities are saying one thing and doing another.

Florida Power and Light boasts of the state's largest solar array.

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"Using free fuel from the sun, it can provide power for up to 11,000 homes," a video says.

Tampa Electric has partnered with Tampa International on a smaller scale.

"Tampa Electric believes in the promise of renewable energy, like solar," a video says.

But when a constitutional amendment allowing more people to sell solar went before the Florida Supreme Court, the power companies hired one of the state's best known lawyers to try and kill it.

"This does not tell voters that it is stripping the entire state government of a power it has always had," attorney Barry Richard said.

That power has been used to keep anyone but utilities from selling electricity. The amendment would let businesses install solar and then sell what they don't use to their neighbors.

Backers call it the conservative approach.

"True conservatives champion free market choice. They don't champion government-created monopolies," said Debbie Dooley, of Conservatives for Energy Freedom.

What the court must decide is if the amendment contains just one single subject or if it misleads voters. Before the court has even ruled, a new web ad released Thursday seeks to cause doubts about the amendment.

"It would let these people build those things without this stuff," the web ad says.

The early attacks are unusual but so the size of the profits the utilities stand to lose.

The group that sponsored the web ad above has also launched its own constitutional amendment, which would "guarantee" electric users to have certain rights.