Melissa Ross
The founding member of the bipartisan Floridians for Solar Choice says he’s confident his coalition’s drive to allow Florida residents to independently purchase solar-generated electricity for their home or business will make it on the state’s 2016 ballot.
“We’re not that worried about it,” said Stephen Smith. Smith is also affiliated with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and made his comments during an appearance on WJCT’s First Coast Connect.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has joined with major utilities in opposing the ballot initiative. She filed a brief before the state Supreme Court last month arguing that the proposal wasn’t ready to go on the 2016 ballot because it lacked consumer protections and has misleading language.
“This is simply the utilities calling in favors to the AG’s office,” said Smith. “They contributed heavily to her campaign, but their arguments are non-issues that are just being put forth to scare consumers.”
“Florida is one of only four states in the U.S. that explicitly prohibits the sale of solar to a customer. Florida is the Sunshine State and there’s absolutely no reason why we should be prohibiting the freedom of choice for customers to have that option,” he said.
“Investor-owned utilities are simply trying to maximize profits for their shareholders. They see our ballot initiative as an intrinsic threat to their profits. When a customer is generating their own electricity they’re not buying power from a utility. So they’re trying to come up with overblown scare tactics to keep customers away from having solar choice.”
Oral arguments will be heard on the matter before the Florida Supreme Court on September 1st.
“Anytime you run a ballot initiative, it’s tricky to get through the Florida Supreme Court because there are such rigid requirements,” said Smith, “but we’re looking forward to oral arguments and are confident.”
So far, the group has gathered more than 94,000 of the 683,149 voter signatures needed to get on the ballot next year. 60 percent of Florida voters must approve the initiative for it to pass.
