Florida committing slow suicide
Florida abandons clean energy: State votes to gut efficiency goals and end rooftop solar rebates
Regulators gave traditional utilities "virtually everything they wanted"
LINDSAY ABRAMS
While the world moves forward in negotiations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Florida just made an outrageous leap backwards. Regulators voted last week to nearly entirely gut the state’s energy efficiency goals — by over 90 percent — and to allow its solar rebate program to expire.
The proposals to roll back these rules were backed by three of the state’s four major utilities – Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric and Florida Power & Light — which, according to the Tampa Tribune, argued that programs offering rebates for things like rooftop solar panels or energy efficient water heaters were costing them millions, forcing them to increase energy rates for everyone while only a few benefitted.
But the 3-2 decision by the state Public Service Commission to approve those proposals, notes the Tampa Bay Times, gave the investor-owned companies, which are increasingly threatened by renewables, “virtually everything they wanted.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/12/01/florida_abandons_clean_energy_state_votes_to_gut_efficiency_goals_and_end_rooftop_solar_rebates/
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would punish those who wish to harness solar energy.
Why do I live here?
