Solar amendment proposal continues to roil Florida conservatives

One of the most interesting citizen generated political development in Florida this year is the coalition attempting to get a ballot measure on the 2016 ballot that would give businesses and property owners the ability to sell a limited amount of solar energy. Florida is one of only four states in the union that prohibit citizens from buying electricity from anyone other than a utility.

The Floridians for Solar Choice coalition consists of free-market conservatives, retailers and alternative-energy supporters. Member groups include the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Florida Retail Federation, the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association, the Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy, the Christian Coalition of America, the Libertarian Party of Florida, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Tampa Bay and the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida. It’s being coordinated by the Florida Green Tea Coalition, led by Atlanta Tea Party head Debbie Dooley and  Oldsmar Republican Tony Perfetti.

But there are a faction of Tea Party Republicans who wince at the idea that they support the measure. In fact, they say it’s quite the opposite, and have signaled their opposition to the proposal during debates that have been held in Tampa and most recently, the Villages between advocates and opponents of the proposal.

A blog post written by H. Sterling Burnett, a research fellow with the Heartland Institute appeared on that organization’s website on Tuesday. Burnett writes about last week’s debate between Heartland’s James M. Taylor and Alexander Snitker, vice president of the Libertarian Party of Florida at the Villages.  Dooley was scheduled to debate, but tells Florida Politics that a blood clot that began forming in her legs after a cross-country flight prevented her from traveling down from Atlanta last week.

“When I was originally scheduled to speak at The Villages Tea Party, it was just me speaking because Mr. Taylor had spoken a few months prior,” Dooley explains. “I was called a month prior and told Mr. Taylor had called wanting to speak the same night as I was. I agreed and looked forward to the debate even though I knew members of The Villages Tea Party were strongly anti- solar and close to Mr. Taylor.”

In the Heartland post, Taylor accuses Dooley of chickening out of debating him.

“When Debbie Dooley learned I was educating my fellow Floridians about the pitfalls of granting the solar power industry a new and special monopoly, she sent me unsolicited emails from Atlanta threatening to publicly ‘expose’ me and saying she would debate me anytime, anywhere on the topic,” Taylor says in Burnett’s story. “When I suggested debating her in front of her small group of supporters in Atlanta, she refused to do so. When I followed up by accepting an invitation from The Villages Tea Party to debate her in Florida, she failed to show up. Will Dooley will ever back up her gratuitous bluster?”

Dooley fired back today.

The Heartland Institute is a Chicago-based free market think tank and 501 (c)(3) charity that has been at the forefront of denying the scientific evidence for man-made climate change. On their website they prominently feature a quote from the Economist that calls them “the world’s most prominent think tank promoting skepticism about man-made climate change.”