Since the beginning of scientific awareness of global warming, initiatives to reverse the climate crisis have carried with them a political charge, sometimes partisan but always controversial. However, numerous factors have aligned to chip away at the status quo and October has proved to be a watershed month in the move to bring the Sunshine State not only on par with such places as California and New York in investing public monies in green energy projects but trying to leapfrog ahead of them.
During a Columbus Day meeting of the Gainesville City Council, in the heart of the town which hosts the University of Florida, an unprecedented proposal for a feed-in tariff was announced. Designed to allow customers of Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) to install photovoltaic systems for a guaranteed return per kilowatt hour, if enacted, the proposal would be the first of its kind in the United States and exceedingly rare around the world.
This stunning development, while encouraging, was only one of two gigantic announcements from government bodies during the same week. Two days after the GRU announcement, the Governor’s Action Team on Energy & Climate Change published its phase 2 report on how the climate crisis affects Florida as well as an appropriate action plan. It contains 50 separate policy recommendations and a separate suite of other recommendations as guidance to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in its development of a regulatory, market-based cap-and-trade emissions limiting program. Amazing!
You can read the entire document at
FlClimateChange.us
In light of the political climate in Florida, the recommendations of the
Governor’s Action Team deserve an extra layer of accolades. I congratulate
everyone involved for a job well done and look forward to assisting in the
implementation of the policy recommendations. Likewise, the GRU board of
directors deserves a round of applause from each of us for its bold proposal to
advance solar energy in the United States!
Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line
Corbett Kroehler
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