Tea Party pushing solar in Florida

[OnlinePoker]

Can anyone there confirm?
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A tea party leader and a conservative state lawmaker are behind a petition to make solar panels more profitable in Florida, reports Ivan Penn of the Tampa Bay Times. The group is collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would allow residents to sell electricity generated from the sun directly to their neighbors, tenants and friends, instead of giving the utilities a cut.

For conservatives, solar power is a chance to put an end to state-regulated monopolies in electricity and create an opportunity for investment for every homeowner.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/08/wonkbook-the-tea-party-is-pushing-for-solar-power-in-florida/

[NYC_SKP]

1. Makes sense to me, the libertarian wing of the party would support a free market approach...

...sort of. In any event, I can see how they would want the "freedom" to sell excess power to others.

It just happens to also be a generally progressive value that anything that promotes green energy production should be investigated and supported if done fairly.

The unfair part about solar, some would argue, is that those with capital to spend on solar will be able to benefit from this legislation AND not have to cover the inevitable rise in rates.

The rise in rates will end up being paid by poorer citizens, renters, etc.

And utilities are justified in raising rates because they have to maintain the infrastructure that everyone depends upon.

The balanced solution is for solar producers to pay a monthly fee so that poor people don't have to bear the burden of the rate increases.

[cprise]

6. Can't see how solar would raise rates for a place like Florida

...which has become very dependant on air conditioning. If anything, its a relief to the grid and there is at least one study showing that distributed generation saves the utilites money.

As for raising rates for the poor, that is just a wild conjecture and there is nothing which shows that poor people living under a landlord's solar-decked roof are any worse off if solar were absent from the grid. The same is true for poor people with a mortgage who rent their roof to supplier like Solar City to get a discount on their electric bill.

This solar vs. the poor line of reasoning doesn't make any sense when you think it through. Solar power is a better commodity than traditional sources because there are more and smaller suppliers creating a more competitive environment in the long run... the panels themselves are also commodities with tight profit margins and great competition. The poor tend to get shafted when de/un-regulated monopolies form and the left has identified distributed solar generation as resistant to the development of that situation.

[randys1]

2. No source of energy should be done in a for profit basis...period

[Thinkingabout]

3. Since the power companies have supplied opportunities for brown and black outs

Using their reasoning it would be good for there to be more solar power and perhaps there would not be a strain on their plants to supply the full needs.

[hatrack]

4. Yes, been going on for some time - lots of people pissed off at Southern Company, Georgia Power

Above, Chris Hayes interviews a pro-solar Tea Party activist. The solar energy initiative they are talking about (this was broadcast last month) was successful.

“We believe this giant utility monopoly deserves some competition, and consumers deserve a choice. It’s just that simple.”
Holy crap. A conservative that really believes in conservatism. That could blow the whole scam…

Truthout:

“The Tea Party has formed an unholy alliance with the left,” Debbie Dooley recalls a panicked member of Georgia’s big energy lobby lamenting.

Dooley, a co-founder of the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots, doesn’t deny the charges. In fact, she is set this Tuesday to celebrate the official launch of the Green Tea Coalition – the same “unholy alliance” of right and left grassroots that has big oil interests reeling.

“It’s an unholy alliance because they see it as a threat to them,” Dooley said, speaking ahead of the launch. “In the past, the elites on both the right and the left got away with it. On the right, they’d say, ‘This person’s on the left. Stay away from them,’ On the left, they’d say, ‘They’re radical, they’re the Tea Party. Stay away from them.’

“But we got through all that bull, got to know each other, and started working together,” she said.

EDIT

http://climatecrocks.com/2013/08/12/the-koch-brothers-worst-nightmare-a-green-tea-coalition/

[Nihil]

5. Neat - "Green Tea Coalition"!

It makes a lot of sense but will be vilified by the usual suspects as it is a threat to the status quo.

Thanks for that - there is yet hope (albeit outside the single party system!).

[cprise]

7. It will always be strained, however

The racism that's prevalent among teabaggers mirrors some of the worst environmental injustices emanating from the establishment. Pollution is becoming a big issue with ethnic minorities in a country that has been unofficially re-segregating for decades.