HB 741 threatens rooftop solar growth in Florida and is headed to the desk of Governor DeSantis. We need your voice to tell the Governor to veto this bill.
Climate change poses an existential threat to two-thirds of North American bird species—but there's still time to protect them. Building momentum in our transition to renewable energy can reduce the impacts of climate change while creating a more resilient future for both birds and people.
Florida’s net metering standards were established in 2008, allowing residential and commercial customers with rooftop panels to sell their excess energy generation back to the utility at the full retail electrical rate on their monthly bill. HB 741 would drastically reduce the reimbursement from a retail to wholesale rate and allow existing customers to keep the retail rate for only 20 years. Installing rooftop solar is a substantial expense, and for those who take it on, a favorable rate for the energy they sell back to the grid is part of the calculation of whether they can afford to make the switch to solar. By lowering this rate to wholesale, it will take individuals longer to recover their costs – making it more expensive for homeowners to go solar, if they do at all.
Florida’s Public Service Commission (PSC) is the forum where this issue should be considered—and the PSC has been discussing this, asking utilities for more information which has not yet been provided. Instead of letting the transparent and accountable PSC process run its course, this bill would mandate how the PSC should proceed.
Rooftop energy generation is such a small part of Florida's current energy mix that the concerns about cost to the utilities are at best overstated. It is not in the public interest to slow Florida’s transition to renewable energy, an industry that is still in its infancy and with so much room to grow.
Governor DeSantis must veto this bill, and the Legislature should let the PSC, a body with the expertise and mandate to navigate this topic, work on this issue through the transparent and inclusive process already in place. |
