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Gulf Power, Other Utilities Pour Money Into Solar Initiative
December 11, 2015
Four major electric utilities continued pouring money last month into a proposed solar-energy ballot initiative, as backers race to try to qualify for the November 2016 ballot.
The group known as “Consumers for Smart Solar” raised $2,135,010 during the month, bringing its total to more than $5.9 million since July, according to a new finance report. It also spent about $2.23 million in November and had slightly less than $35,000 in cash on hand as of Nov. 30. The initiative has drawn heavy support from the utility industry.
In November, Duke Energy contributed $650,000 to the group; Florida Power & Light contributed $450,000; Tampa Electric Co. contributed $285,000; and Gulf Power contributed $260,000, the report shows.
Backers of the initiative need to submit 683,149 valid petition signatures to the state by Feb. 1 and had submitted 359,594 as of Thursday afternoon. They also need the Florida Supreme Court to sign off on the proposed ballot wording.
Consumers for Smart Solar is competing with a rival solar-energy initiative backed by a group known as “Floridians for Solar Choice.” That group’s updated finance numbers had not been posted to the state Division of Elections website late Thursday afternoon.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
5 Responses to “Gulf Power, Other Utilities Pour Money Into Solar Initiative”
you know people, the best way to combat anything the power companies try to implement is to install solar power on your own home and stop relying on them to do it for you. make you and your family self reliant.
Why not allow lots of small companies to produce solar devices and solar power? We need competition in the power industry. Oil companies compete…why shouldn’t power companies? The cable companies and phone companies have a monopoly so people went to cell phones and anteneas due to the high cost these monopolies charged. Our country has done well with competition in the industry….it led to new and better ideas and items/devices/products.
Basically the Ballot initiative backed by the power companies will preserve the monopoly and protected territory of the power companies.
The other ballot initiative would allow small, privately owned solar power plants to sell power.
i.e. the power companies want the one that will protect their state guaranteed profits.
REGARDING:
“There has to be lots of profit in it for them, which means higher costs for customers or they wouldn’t be spend money on it.”
Higher profits don’t automatically mean higher costs.
It is possible to improve profits by reducing cost so people buy more of what you’re offering.
Although he was despised by millions for his high profits, John David Rockefeller continued to reduce the cost of petroleum products throughout his life.
The computing power of a #200 laptop computer is much more than that of it was for an IBM 360 business computer.
In fact, they didn’t even sell them; they rented them out.
You make more profit selling ten million $200 devices than you do by selling a thousand one million dollar devices.
Just a thought.
David for solar energy paint
“Four major electric utilities continued pouring money last month into a proposed solar-energy ballot initiative, as backers race to try to qualify for the November 2016 ballot.”
Ok, where’s the rest of the story on the ballot initiative? Just what is the initiative? Why are these big power company monopolies trying “buy” the vote? There has to be lots of profit in it for them, which means higher costs for customers or they wouldn’t be spend money on it.
The bottom line is that solar is not efficient for the cost. Otherwise these power companies would have converted and started using it years ago and for no other reason but to make even more money.