The parent company of Florida’s largest utility was so intent on influencing the implementation of a constitutional amendment expanding solar installation in Florida, it drafted legislation designed to create new requirements for homeowners and businesses that install rooftop solar and sent it to the legislator who was authoring the language.
The proposal, HB 1351 by Rep. Ray Rodrigues, which was passed Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, contains sections that include verbatim language supplied by NextEra Energy, the parent company of Florida Power & Light.
The bill is intended to implement Amendment 4, the proposal approved by 73 percent of the voters on the August primary ballot, which prohibits tax assessors from increasing the taxable value of a home or business because of a solar installation. But, unlike a similar bill in the Senate, Rodrigues is using the bill to implement the amendment to also impose disclosure and paperwork requirements for companies that finance and install solar energy products on homes and businesses.
Florida’s utilities have largely remained silent on Amendment 4 but documents from the industry’s trade organization, the Edison Electric Institute, show it has conducted a nationwide campaign to raise concerns about the rooftop solar industry, including letters to Congress and state officials.
Florida’s utility industry worked unsuccessfully to pass Amendment 1 on the November ballot, which would have allowed regulators to impose fees and barriers to rooftop solar installation. Story here.
On Jan. 18, Rodrigues accepted a $15,000 contribution to his political committee from Florida Power & Light, and $2,000 from Tampa Electric. Five days later, on Jan. 23, he sent an email asking a lawyer in the House bill drafting office to analyze NextEra’s proposal and compare it to the Arizona bill he was considering using as a model for his “consumer protection language.”
“I received the following document as a suggestion on the consumer disclosure for the Solar Amendment. Can you compare this to the Arizona bill that we sent and let me know the differences?” he wrote to staff attorney Yvonne Gsteiger.
Gsteiger responded that the NextEra draft “establishes extensive requirements before a solar electric equipment [SEE] can be installed. This could be a huge barrier to selling SEEs.”
On Feb. 24, Rodrigues filed his original bill primarily modeled after an Arizona law that was pushed by the utility industry in that state. He said the consumer safeguards are needed to protect against “bad actors” in the solar industry.
On March 21, when his bill came up for its first hearing before the House Energy & Utilities Subcommittee, Rodrigues filed an amendment that included NextEra’s language verbatim in eight different sections. Download RE_ Feedback on Consumer Disclosure for Solar A... (1) Download Chapter 501 Electricity Consumers Solar Energ (1)
This wasn’t the first time FPL or its parent company provided documents to legislators advancing positions the company supported.
Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, acknowledged Tuesday that he received “talking points” he used when he presented his bill to senators. The bill, SB 1248, would overturn a Florida Supreme Court ruling last year that said that Florida regulators exceeded their authority when they allowed FPL to become the first utility in the nation to be allowed to charge its customers, not its shareholders, for speculative investment in fracking operations.
The Word document, titled “Gas Reserves Talking Points” and obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, was sent to Bean’s personal email address by FPL lobbyist John Holley on Feb. 28. The document was authored by FPL’s Vice President of State Legislative Affairs Daniel Martell. Download Gas Reserves Talking Points V5 saf Download FW FWD Gas Reserves Talking Points V5 saf docx
“Here you go. I would love to catch up if you have any questions, comments, concerns,” Holley wrote. “Thank you so much Aaron!!”
The two pages of talking points defend FPL’s “innovative approach” to natural gas exploration as a hedge against price spikes, how the practice of drilling for gas “removes the middle man,” and how “the proposed legislation will allow customers to reap the economic and price stability benefit of a robust gas production market.”
Bean said Tuesday he was asked to sponsor the bill by Senate “leadership” but declined to identify the senator, he said, at the senator’s request. He defended the practice of accepting talking points from lobbyists.
“It happens all the time. We get information from lobbyists every day,” he said. “It’s not unusual for a lobbyist to send talking points.” Read more here.
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