As reported on Wednesday by the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald, Representative Ritch Workman (R-Melbourne) does not favor incentivizing renewable energy. That's a problem considering that he's the chairman of the House Committee on Community Affairs, which means he has the power to kill a an amendment being floated to the state Constitution that would exempt the value of renewable energy source devices from consideration in ad valorem property taxes for businesses.
In response, St.Petersburg House Democrat Dwight Dudley fired off an angry response late yesterday afternoon.
“Representative Workman claims that he is tired of ‘propping up’ the renewable energy industry," Dudley said. "Unfortunately, that premise is completely bogus. In fact, the State of Florida has done exactly the opposite. By allowing private, monopolized utility companies to tax our citizenry so that they can build costly nuclear power plants, the Legislature has created a false marketplace. If any industry has been propped up, it is the nuclear industry. Solar and other forms of renewable energy have not been allowed to compete."
Dudley went on to say that while Governor Scott and his GOP friends are making much out of the $400 million cut to motor vehicle registration fees that he signed into law yesterday, that will only provide enough money "to buy lunch" for the average Floridian, while eliminating property taxes for solar power business people could create 30,000 jobs and save Floridians millions on their utility bills.
Dudley's missive came hours after over 100 people marched in front of Duke Energy's St. Pete headquarters in downtown St. Pete yesterday, demanding that the company begin offering more solar and less coal and nuclear power in its energy portfolios. Speakers denounced the fact that while Duke is doing nothing on alternative energy in Florida, it actually does offer more sources of power in places like Ohio and North Carolina.
Of course, the reason for that is that they have to — those states' equivalents to our Florida Public Service Commission mandate that the power utilities offer renewable power options. Until there's a change of culture within the PSC, the future won't change when it comes to energy in Florida.
Meanwhile in Tampa, Charlie Crist was asked about the trash-talking that Rick Scott employed when signing that $400 million tax cut on vehicle registrations yesterday. Crist dubbed it pure politics and said he stood by the decision to raise that tax when he was governor, saying it wasn't easy but was needed while Florida was undergoing turbulent economic times.
And in other news, CL's Tiffany Razzano has more information on an event that PFLAG Tampa held last night.
