Florida Springs News Archive

Dec 17, 2018 - With Election Day passed, it's a good time for state policymakers to evaluate the impact high energy prices and poor policies have had on voters and look for ways Floridians can benefit from better ideas that promote clean, reliable energy.

Oct 6, 2018 - That's far more than the subsidies provided for renewable energy like solar and wind; in terms of tax breaks, fossil fuel subsidies outpace renewable subsidies by 7 to 1. It all comes down to politics.

May 4, 2017 - Wednesday, the Florida House of Representatives joined the Florida Senate in passing implementing legislation for the pro-solar Amendment 4.

Nov 15, 2016 - TALLAHASSEE ' Florida's utility industry steered more than $20 million of their profits into a failed constitutional amendment to impose new barriers to the expansion of rooftop solar energy generation.

Oct 27, 2016 - TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida's investor-owned utilities have pumped more than $15 million into Amendment One on November's ballot. They say the amendment protects consumers who have solar and those who don't, even though many believe it will only promote solar developed by those companies.

Oct 13, 2016 - If you're like a lot of people I talk with, you're probably trying to make heads or tails of Amendment 1, a question about solar energy on the Nov. 8 ballot. At first blush, the summary of the amendment sounds pretty good.

Oct 13, 2016 - The present of solar power in Florida isn't a cheap or attainable one and that's where the confusion around Amendment #1 is leaking in like sunlight before your alarm clock goes off in the morning.

Oct 6, 2016 - Nov. 8th, utility companies will try to pull the wool over voter's eyes. In what has proven to be possibly the craziest election season ever, Florida voters will see a proposed amendment to their state constitution near the bottom of an already confusing ballot.

Sep 23, 2016 - Workers at Florida Power and Light's Manatee Solar Energy Center celebrated the installation of 75 percent of its 338,000 solar panels Thursday. Workers were honored for hitting the milestone without safety issues, and celebrated with free pizza and ice cream for lunch.

Sep 19, 2016 - With the successful passage of Amendment 4 to reduce taxes on property and renewable energy equipment, supporters are setting their sights on killing a very different type of solar initiative on the November ballot.

Aug 31, 2016 - Following a long local and national ' campaign, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a pro-solar ballot measure during the state's primary election on Tuesday.

Aug 30, 2016 - GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Voters in sun-soaked Florida will have a chance Tuesday to decide whether to approve an amendment to the state constitution that supporters say is aimed at encouraging the use of solar energy.

Jun 30, 2016 - The trust is asking businesses and philanthropists for help raising the estimated $215 million required. But environmentalists said that's because lawmakers are underfunding the state's conservation program.

Jun 29, 2016 - Tuesday marked a quiet, official groundbreaking at the new solar city of Babcock as construction of its first downtown building ' a farm-to-table restaurant – got underway Tuesday.

Jun 23, 2016 - A plane powered entirely by the sun made history in the wee hours of Thursday morning after landing in Spain following a 70-hour flight across the Atlantic. Solar Impulse 2 flew non-stop from New York to Seville, a key and risky leg in the mission to circumnavigate the globe.

Jun 3, 2016 - If you are pro-solar power, as are more than 90 percent of Floridians, then vote 'no' on solar amendment No. 1 in November. It is a devious move by Florida's regulated power monopolies to forever pocket future profits from solar power.

May 13, 2016 - This amendment establishes a right under Florida's constitution for consumers to own or lease solar equipment installed on their property to generate electricity for their own use.

May 12, 2016 - That $8.5 million came from just 14 different contributors, fueling the fact that the measure is being pushed by utility companies.

May 11, 2016 - Investment in renewables is going up. Government support, with some notable exceptions, is too. Prices are coming down. Though these trends are relatively new, it's a story we're getting used to.

Mar 15, 2016 - The Florida Supreme Court heard a compelling argument this week that a thinly veiled attempt to use the Florida Constitution to protect the electric monopolies misleads voters into thinking it is something entirely different.

Mar 5, 2016 - This week, Gulf Power received unanimous approval from the Florida Public Service Commission to launch a community solar program for Northwest Florida communities.

Jan 18, 2016 - In his 2016 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama made the case that job growth is once more on the rise. Nowhere is that more true than in the domestic solar energy industry, which grew nearly 12 times faster than the overall economy in 2015.

Oct 30, 2015 - The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has been the main financial backer of the proposed Floridians for Solar Choice amendment that would prohibit barriers to the sale of solar energy. Last week, the proposal cleared a hurdle when the Florida Supreme Court ruled it met state constitutional requirements.

Oct 20, 2015 - There might be two solar power amendments on next November's ballot in Florida; but instead of complementing each other, they appear to have opposite goals. Many other states produce much more solar energy than the Sunshine State.

Oct 9, 2015 - The political committee proposing a solar energy constitutional amendment in September received its biggest contributions to date - nearly all of it from a North Carolina-based environmental group.

Sep 15, 2015 - Here is a glimpse at just how badly the utilities want to kill a constitutional amendment that would expand access to solar power in a state that desperately needs a shift in energy policy. They are not just voicing their opposition in court; they are putting big money behind the opponents.

Sep 14, 2015 - Rooftop solar power is booming. And as more and more consumers discover that prices for solar power are falling, they're slapping panels on their roofs and buying less energy from the power companies.

Sep 14, 2015 - The solar rush in America is on. With every company moving as quickly as possible to finish projects before federal tax credits get slashed at the end of 2016, U.S. installation figures aren't going anywhere but up -- at least for the next year and a half.

Sep 9, 2015 - A group called Floridians for Solar Choice, an initiative of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, has been gathering signatures to get a measure to expand solar energy in the state on the ballot as a constitutional amendment.

Sep 2, 2015 - TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Lawyers representing power companies and the attorney general want the Florida Supreme Court to keep a proposed constitutional amendment on solar energy off next yea's ballot.

Sep 1, 2015 - Advocates of a Florida constitutional amendment to promote solar-generated electricity on Monday said they are confident the proposed language will pass Supreme Court review. Members of Floridians for Solar Choice talked to reporters at Tallahassee's Florida Press Center.

Aug 20, 2015 - What's holding back the expansion of solar power in the Sunshine State? It isn't lack of interest or demand. It's no longer cost prohibitive - the cost of installing solar panels on the average home has plummeted 70 percent since 1998.

Jul 17, 2015 - Let's deal first with an obvious irony. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has filed a brief with the state Supreme Court asking the justices to remove a solar energy amendment from the 2016 ballot.

Jul 15, 2015 - Let's deal first with an obvious irony. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has filed a brief with the state Supreme Court asking the justices to remove a solar energy amendment from the 2016 ballot. The brief alleges the ballot language "does not provide the clear summary that the Florida Constitution demands."

Jul 10, 2015 - There's an increasingly energetic fight brewing in Florida - one that has odd battle lines, bringing Tea Party activists and environmentalists together against monopoly utilities and big-money right-wing groups like Americans for Prosperity.

Jul 8, 2015 - If Floridians are able to vote next year on a constitutional amendment regarding solar power, it will come only after much of the state's establishment fought against them having that opportunity.

Jul 7, 2015 - BRADENTON - A grassroots group working to help more homes and businesses generate electricity through solar power hopes to put the issue to voters via a proposed ballot referendum to amend the state constitution. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and the state's largest utilities wants the Florida Supreme Court to block it.

Jul 7, 2015 - TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Floridians for Solar Choice constitutional amendment effort is moving quickly to get on the 2016 ballot. Backers say they've gathered more than 100,000 signatures, exceeding the 10 percent necessary to submit the language to the state Supreme Court.

Jun 22, 2015 - The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a steering committee to address climate change. The commission maintains computer modeling programs that show how climate change will affect water and land crucial to wildlife.

Jun 22, 2015 - TALLAHASSEE - A proposed amendment that would break Florida utility companies' exclusive rights to sell solar power will first go before the state Supreme Court, who will decide whether it will be voted on in 2016.

Jun 2, 2015 - Just two years ago, the president of Duke Energy Florida said the Sunshine State had too many clouds for solar power to be effective.

May 20, 2015 - The industry views Florida as a sleeping giant that could rival California in solar potential, but renewable energy experts say the state lags behind because old laws favor utilities over private enterprise.

May 15, 2015 - Solar Cup is a seven-month program that begins in the fall, in which high school teams totaling about 800 students build and race solar-powered boats at Lake Skinner, in Temecula Valley, learning about conservation of natural resources, electrical and mechanical engineering, problem solving and much more.

May 12, 2015 - Orlando's electric utility is launching efforts to build major solar plants east of the city on sites that are practical and symbolic: the burial grounds of coal-burning generators.

Apr 14, 2015 - A citizen-led effort seeks to put a solar power-expanding initiative on Florida's 2016 ballot. It would allow entities other than utility companies to sell the solar power they generate. At the same time, legislation proposed in Tallahassee would keep Florida as one of only five states that prevent anyone other than utilities from selling solar power.

Apr 10, 2015 - With a solar energy constitutional amendment proposed for the 2016 ballot, a pair of bills designed to provide tax savings for residents who install solar on their homes appears dead in the 2015 Legislative Session.

Apr 4, 2015 - Other state lawmakers and lobbyists said that anyone who has attempted to expand the rooftop solar industry has been ostracized and seen their proposals go nowhere.