Jeffrey Schweers

Tallahassee Democrat

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.

“It is going to be a clearer task, explaining why Amendment 1 is a problem and people should vote against it,” said Susan Glickman, Florida director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

And, she said, it is going to be easier.

With less than $200,000, the grassroots coalition got 73 percent of the nearly 3 million voters in the Tuesday primary to pass Amendment 4.

All the coalition has to do now is get 40 percent to vote against Amendment 1.

“They have the heavier to lift — they have to get 60 percent plus one,” Glickman said of the Amendment 1 “Smart Solar” group. “People will be working the polls inspired by knowledgeable voters coming out and talking about solar.”

They’re up against utility-backed Consumers for Smart Solar, a consortium of conservative groups backed by the four main utilities in Florida. The “Smart Solar” group has spent nearly $16 million of the $19 million raised through Aug. 26.

More than half of that — $8.2 million — was paid in recent months to National Media Research, Planning and Placement of Alexandria, Virginia, for advertising. The remainder went to a variety of expenses including polling, web hosting, public opinion research,communication consulting, legal fees, payroll and office bills.

“Our amendment places the right of Floridians to generate their own solar electricity, and authority for government to protect consumers, into Florida's Constitution where special interests cannot tamper with it,” said Jim Kallinger, the campaign co-chair and a former Republican state representative. “Basically, it allows government to enforce existing consumer protection rules now, and act as necessary in the future to ensure that consumers are protected.”

Critics say Smart Solar was launched to cause confusion over the Floridians for Solar Choice initiative, which would have deregulated the solar market and allowed third-party power purchase agreements to produce up to 2 megawatts of power on rooftops to sell to neighbors. Current law in Florida doesn’t allow such agreements.

By contrast, the Consumers for Smart Solar initiative would codify the status quo by enshrining state administrative law into the Constitution, making it nearly impossible to ever change it. It would guarantee the right of people to install rooftop solar equipment and ensure that regulation remains under state and local control, and ensure that consumers who don’t want solar energy don’t wind up subsidizing those that do want it.

That language paves the way for more restrictions and fees, Glickman said.

Make no mistake, opponents said. Amendment 1 is not about the right to have solar energy. It’s about who gets to control energy production, Glickman said.

Why would the state’s largest electric utilities spend almost $20 million on something that already exists in state law? Glickman asked. “This is not an effort for consumers.”

Hopefully, she said, a social media education campaign will help convince people to vote no on 1.

“By the time people go to polls in November they will understand that this amendment is bankrolled by big utilities, that it paves the way for restrictions and fees, and is an effort to further the monopoly utilities’ anti-solar agenda,” Glickman said.

The amendment doesn’t address third party agreements at all, Kallinger said. Furthermore, he said, Smart Solar opponents are promoting a business model for third-party solar providers immune from consumer protection. That business model is ripe for consumers getting ripped off it doesn’t include government regulation, he added.

The Smart Solar amendment would protect consumers if third-party agreements were to be allowed in Florida some day by keeping state and local regulations in place, supporters said.

Why would anyone be against that? Kallinger asked.

“It merely protects the right of Floridians to generate their own solar electricity by placing that right into the constitution, and simply ensures that government will continue to have the same role it has today to protect the public from unfair subsidies,” Kallinger said.

Contact Jeffrey Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com.