Popular proposed tax break for solar power blocked in Florida House

[jpak]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/popular-proposed-tax-break-for-solar-power-blocked-in-florida-house/2173065

TALLAHASSEE — A Florida Senate committee on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment for the November ballot that would give tax breaks to businesses that install solar panels, but it is unlikely to come before voters: The chairman of a powerful House committee believes the solar industry isn't ready for it.

"I just don't see the need to continue to expand the incentives and underwriting of solar," said Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, chairman of the House Finance and Tax Committee. "Solar is coming a long way and eventually it's going to be able to stand on its own two feet. But right now it doesn't."

Proponents of the bill, however, say that Workman's attitude is more proof of the clout of Florida's electric utilities, which view rooftop solar as the beginning of the end of their monopoly control over Florida's energy market.

John Porter, the former mayor of Cape Canaveral and the managing partner of the solar energy company CleanFootprint, said Workman and others in the Legislature oppose the amendment because voters would likely approve it.

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Dumbfuckery

Epic

[djean111]

1. Yeah, Dumbfuckery - but here in Florida, it is just the usual pandering to utility companies,

and it works. We won't ever get affordable electricity, IMO, until communities build their own local grids, and I am sure the utility companies are working on a way to block that, too.