Guest Author
Everyone wants to increase the supply of renewable energy. The question is, how to do it in a way that benefits and protects consumers, regardless of their energy choices. When the so-called “solar choice” amendment was introduced, I was among those who called on its sponsors to modify their proposed amendment in a way that eliminated unfair subsidies. They did not. Instead, they began telling the public and members of the media that their amendment required no subsidy.
But facts are stubborn things, and the fact of the matter came out on September 1, when their amendment went before the Florida Supreme Court. The attorney for their shady solar amendment told the court that the way to have the amendment not force a subsidy on non-solar consumers was to simply begin to assess a “standby charge” that is “uniformly applied.” Let me translate what that means. A “standby charge” is a new monthly fee on your electric bill, and “uniformly applied” means that everyone – whether you use solar or not – will pay it.
That’s not just a subsidy. It’s a tax – a Shady Solar Tax.
One major public policy problem with this uniformly applied standby charge is that it would be horrifically regressive. It would punish those who use the least electricity, most of whom are seniors and low-income citizens. It also fails to fully reward those who take steps to consume less electricity through conservation.
You see, everyone uses the electric grid that connects our homes and businesses to each other and to power generation facilities, and we all help pay for it as a part of our monthly electric bills. Under the Shady Solar Amendment, everyone would still use the electric grid. In fact, solar customers and big, out-of-state solar utilities will use it not only to buy electricity when the sun isn’t shining, but they will also use it to sell excess electricity during the day when they have too much. But their amendment makes it impossible to charge solar companies or their customers for their connection to or use of the grid. What’s their idea? Simple – make everyone pay a new monthly fee on our electric bills so that they can pay nothing. These solar companies are so greedy that they don’t just want to make money off of their own customers, but on everybody else too!
That’s one of the reasons we’re opposed to their shady solar amendment. Another reason is that their amendment prohibits the type of consumer protection rules that energy customers in Florida currently enjoy. But solar is too important to our state’s future to only be represented on our ballot by a bad proposal that deserves to fail. That’s why we launched our Smart Solar Amendment, which encourages solar while protecting consumers from unfair subsidies and fly-by-night business practices.
Make the smart solar choice. Don’t make everyone pay their Shady Solar Tax.
Former state Rep. Jim Kallinger is president of the Faith & Freedom Coalition of Florida and co-chair of Consumers for Smart Solar.
