Bruce Ritchie: Solar amendment likely to face tougher fight than conservation Amendment 1

A proposed solar energy amendment probably won’t be a walk in the park as Amendment 1 was last year.

On Jan. 14, a coalition of energy and conservative groups announced an effort to put an amendment to the Florida Constitution on the ballot in 2016 to remove regulatory barriers to solar energy production.

Supporters said that Amendment 1, the water and land conservation funding initiative approved by 75 percent of voters in November, shows that an environmental ballot initiative can pass in Florida if doesn’t hurt business.

“Florida does vote both conservative free market and environmentally protected,” said Tory Perfetti, chairman of the Floridians for Solar Choice Inc. and Florida director of Conservatives for Energy Freedom.

But other supporters predicted opposition from utilities and possibly their allies.

The proposal would remove barriers to encourage stores like Wal-Mart and Publix to buy energy from companies that would install and maintain solar panels on store rooftops.

Utilities nationwide are raising concerns that increased sales of energy from third-party providers leaves utilities and other customers to pay a larger share for maintaining the regional power system and energy grid.

Representatives of Florida Power & Light Co. and Duke Energy Florida declined to comment on the amendment.

“We are committed to energy policies where solar options are fair and beneficial to all of our customers,” Duke Energy spokesman Sterling Ivey said.

But a spokesman for municipal utilities said the proposal raises concerns that utilities will have to maintain power generation at times when solar isn’t available, such as nighttime and cloudy days.

The Florida Retail Federation is backing the amendment because it offers retail companies a choice in choosing lower-cost electricity, said Randy Miller, the federation’s executive vice president for government affairs.

The question is whether industry groups will side with utilities in opposing the measure. They’ll probably wait until the measure clears review by the Florida Supreme Court and supporters collect the nearly 700,000 signatures needed to put it on the ballot.

Amendment 1, the water and land conservation funding initiative, didn’t face organized opposition leading up to the November election.

Florida Chamber of Commerce representatives spoke against putting funding measures in the Constitution and some property rights groups raised concerns but there were no TV commercials against Amendment 1.

The solar energy initiative likely would be different. And that’s why Stephen A. Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, says supporters will need to raise $8 million to $10 million to fight utilities to win in 2016.

By comparison, supporters of Amendment 1 spent $6.1 million, with about half of that spent just to collect signatures and get the measure on the ballot. By comparison, supporters of the medical marijuana amendment that lost in November spent nearly $8 million.

Smith compares the expected fight with utilities over the solar amendment to the biblical David vs. Goliath.

“It will to be a challenge,” Smith said. “And anyone who says that it is not going to be a challenge is naive.”

Bruce Ritchie (@bruceritchie) is an independent journalist covering environment and growth management issues in Tallahassee. He also is editor of Floridaenvironments.com.