It might be the oddest couple since Kim Jung-Un and Dennis Rodman.
We’re talking about the Christian Coalition and Tea Partiers joining hands with liberals and environmentalists. And, by the way, Libertarians and the Florida Retail Federation also want in. And what motivates this disparate lot to opt for kumbaya over the mosh pit of partisan politics?
Solar energy. You betcha. Even in a “Sunshine State” that is a solar-power oxymoron without any policy to support renewable energy.
Specifically, it’s the bottom-line potential to combine pure marketplace dynamics and enlightened energy conservation. Adam Smith meets Al Gore. Something for everyone not named Duke Energy, Tampa Electric or Florida Power & Light.
This otherwise unlikely coalition, known as Floridians for Solar Choice, is out to maximize energy efficiency and free-market independence–not to venerate the business model of the state’s investor-owned, Tallahassee-connected, monopoly utilities. They want non-utilities that generate electricity from the sun to be able to sell that power directly to other consumers. More than 30 other states–none nicknamed Sunshine–allow it.
But first things first. The coalition has drafted a citizen petition that was approved in December. It would allow private companies to sell up to two megawatts of solar energy to customers. The actual solar facilities would have to be on the same or adjacent property as the customer’s.
It will need close to 700,000 signatures in a year (Feb.1, 2016) to get the issue on the ballot for the 2016 election. Then meet a 60 percent threshold to pass.
What’s ultimately at stake with the common cause of these strangest of bedfellows? Nothing less than competition in the energy market and a boost in renewable energy usage.
What are the chances of success?
Put it this way: Grass roots, conviction-driven, take-no-ideological-prisoners Republicans and Democrats actually agree on something. Everybody sees green. You have to like the odds.