Tracking from the nonprofit group The CLEO Institute found that Donalds has received $1.79 million in campaign contributions from Florida’s major power utilities while in office. He is the state’s second-highest recipient.
Florida is one of only four states where the law expressly prohibits you from buying energy from anyone other than your government-assigned monopoly utility.
"Solar is cheaper, and you're taking out the fuel cost,” Glickman said. “We could be doing so much better if there was a push to take advantage of the sunshine."
“Duke Energy gets 90% of its electricity from burning gas or coal,” Maguire said. “They are an extremely dirty and polluting utility, and they essentially get to do that polluting for free because it’s the young people today that are going to deal with a warmer environment and stronger storms and more flooding in the decades to come.”
By rapidly doubling or tripling its solar capacity, OUC could make burning coal unnecessary. Unlike fossil fuels, solar power has no fuel cost, helping protect OUC customers from the price swings that come with natural gas and coal.
“We keep mopping the floor of this overflowing bathtub,” Yoca Arditi-Rocha, CEO of The CLEO Institute, said, “and we're cleaning it with taxpayers' dollars.” She’d like to see state legislators turn off the tap.
“In 2023, JEA claimed a new methane gas plant was the most affordable option for Jacksonville’s energy needs. Just two years later, projected costs have increased 139%, and an independent analysis found the project could cost customers an additional $2.5 billion over its lifetime, plus roughly $1 billion in health impacts from pollution,” said Susan Glickman, Vice President of Policy and Partnerships at The CLEO Institute.
“Coal is the most expensive form of electricity”
The use of clean energy is expanding and continuing to get cheaper. This fact flies in the face of the arguments bill proponents made that transitioning to clean energy costs taxpayers more, when the reality is the opposite.
“And it doesn't make sense when you look at Florida's energy policy of having affordable, reliable, clean energy from diverse sources.“
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