“Many of the FPL customers who are living through dangerous heat without power now have solar panels on their roofs that could keep them going…Except doing so is illegal, thanks to FPL’s lobbyists”
Like many things in life, obscure things only seem to rise to the surface for all to see when absolute tragedy strikes, resulting in severe impacts followed by rude-awakenings. Some politicians and some entire governments have roles and decision-making authority in providing utilities to citizens. And when necessities (electricity) are threatened by natural, unstoppable elements, elected officials and otherwise obscure legislation and/or questionable ownership come to the fore…and it is not pretty for homesteads and hard-working citizens ultimately paying the piper.
Tales of Two Hurricanes
Take Hurricane Irma in Florida, where the power to millions went down. For residents in the Sunshine State, it would seem a no-brainer to have solar panel technology installed in a home or business, right? If conserving energy while reducing electric power cost to one’s premises is the objective, why not solar?
It all makes perfect sense…until a hurricane hits and you are prohibited by law from activating your solar power mechanisms. That is what one electric power company’s lobbyists achieved, championing victory with the Florida Legislature passing an anti-solar use law denying the very benefits of solar energy. Yes, it sounds backwards and totally asinine, but it is on the books in Florida thanks to lawmakers, lobbyists and money.
Hurricane Irma’s recent carve through Florida knocked out plenty of the power grid, causing electric companies to rely on utility companies sent from other states to restore service. It seemed homes with solar panel systems would be ideally fine and dandy in such dire circumstances. But, no, they were prohibited from using their own energy-producing devices purchased with their own money…because a major power company’s lobbyists were successful in compelling a law against solar use during power outages. Isn’t that absurd?
Politics and merchants should never be one and the same…and monopoly should be nothing more than a board game where everyone has a fair shake
As property owners with solar systems waited on Florida Power & Light (FPL) and out-of-state resources to get around to restoring electrical lines, solar users merely watched the awesome power generated by the sun while begrudgingly attentive to being legally barred from activating their solar power switch. FPL monopolizing resource allocations? It’s not new, and other electric companies do it too…with the help of state “representatives.” Who they are elected to represent seems a bit murky on the Capitol.
The Energy and Policy Institute (EPI) reported its findings after actually being in the right place at the right time, effectively catching a FPL lobbyist ghost-writing the language for Florida Rep. Ray Rodrigues (D – Fort Myers) who sponsored the bill to charge solar power customers enormous fees while legalizing power company rights to lock-out solar users during power outages. How’s that for downright backwards legislation? Double-dipping?
According to Boingboing.com, “Many of the FPL customers who are living through dangerous heat without power now have solar panels on their roofs that could keep them going while FPL repairs its infrastructure. Except doing so is illegal, thanks to FPL’s lobbyists, who literally ghost-wrote much of Florida’s dreadful solar rules.”
Explained further, “Under these rules, Floridians with solar panels [are] required to shut them down when the power goes out ‘in order to prevent dangerous back feed on FPL’s grid. This is required to protect FPL employees who may be working on the grid.’ But the same rules mandate that these homes ‘include a switch that cleanly disconnects their panels from FPL’s system while keeping the rest of a home’s power lines connected,’ but Floridians are prohibited from flipping this switch and turning their power on (FPL is allowed to disconnect and padlock the switch at its discretion).”
Florida Power & Light has close to 5 million customers in Florida and banked almost $10 billion in revenue in 2012. Its business provisions and revenues threatened by solar technology discourage conservation (solar use) by encouraging legislators to outlaw encroachments to company livelihood.
Although I am not a fan of her work, on this note Rachel Maddow illuminated a definite problem in Nov. 2014, saying, “Florida has declared war on the sun, even as it still wants to be known as the Sunshine State. This past week, very quietly just before Thanksgiving, Florida incredibly decided to try to kill solar power in the state of Florida. They voted to kill entirely the rebate program in the state for installing solar panels.”
In its 2014 report, Integrity Florida, a watchdog group researching and reporting public corruption and ethical erosion, determined “conflict of interest” exists. With millions of dollars from power company lobbyists smoothing the palms of politicians on an ostensibly routine basis, Integrity Public found:
- Four of Florida’s mega electric companies assigned a lobbyist for every two state legislators during each legislative session from 2007-2013.
- Electric companies go out of their way to hire former state regulators and put sitting legislators’ firms on retainer.
- Utility companies invested over $18 million on state-representative and political party organizations from 2004-2012.
- The Florida Legislature and the Florida Public Service Commission embrace wants/desires of electric companies over paying consumers.
- Expenditures for lobbying amounted to more than $12 million from 2007-2013.
- In recent years, Florida consumers have increasingly higher electric bills.
That last factor directly relates to the dubious solar panel issue which surfaced during Hurricane Irma a few weeks ago, for which state Representative Rodrigues reportedly took $15 million in campaign contributions from a FPL lobbyist, drowning integrity while fattening wallets. This, while solar energy enthusiasts are dimmed by laws co-created by power company employees which were successfully passed by state lawmakers.
That is “good government” in a twisted way, enriching representatives who misrepresent constituents and high-five rich corporations with glaring interests. It is not so good for Floridians, many of whom were sitting in the dark and could have illuminated their lives with their solar panels…if it were not outlawed by cronyism and nepotism disguised by suits.
Let’s go over to our neighbors in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where their state government actually owns/operates the only electric company on the island —Puerto Rico Electric and Power Authority (PREPA), the only entity authorized to generate and market power in Puerto Rico. Some would call that monopolizing. Let’s take a peek.
Puerto Rico and Hurricane Maria
Puerto Rico is a US territory which has been ailing fiscally for years. So much so that PREPA filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2017.
The fiscal constraints disabled many governmental provisions, ways and means for Puerto Rico’s inhabitants. Their health care system took a major hit in terms of the number of physicians, many of whom departed for the mainland. The numbers of doctors in Puerto Rico fell from 14,000 to 9,000 in recent years. That’s a tremendous exodus. The reported reason is due to lack of pay and necessary resources to efficiently practice medicine in outmoded, crumbling hospitals. That is just one dilemma the Commonwealth has been enduring.
As it relates to our discussion, although government-owned PREPA has been trying to re-energize itself with capital, it failed in that goal. With its Caribbean location often in the clenches of hurricanes, no contingency plans were implemented for its outmoded infrastructure, especially its mechanized dams which are built to control water-level flows. Like Hurricane Irma did with Florida’s solar panel prohibitions, Hurricane Maria pulled back the sheets on this tricky issue in Puerto Rico.
With Hurricane Maria’s unspeakable volume of floodwaters saturating Puerto Rico and defeating the island’s entire power, no back-up generator (or solar power system) is in place to open/close dam gates to adjust water levels which, when regularly powered, direct flood waters into the ocean. With power out, all that water accumulation had nowhere to go, thus breaching Guajataca Lake Dam in the island’s northwest corner.
In the dam’s floodwater pathway are approximately 70,000 residents already striving to survive from the initial hurricane hit, and now this is in their laps. The footage of the dam breach is unsettling, beyond the fiscal shipwreck for which PREPA is responsible.
Outside energy authorities took a close look at PREPA and, after assessing its strengths and weaknesses, deferred its expert opinion of having an “independent inspector general” investigate the entity and its operational efficacy (read lack thereof). The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) issued its report on September 21, 2017, announcing the atrophy of PREPA and much-needed capital to sustain island electrical integrity.
In fact, the power authority has been giving free power to all 78 of Puerto Rico’s municipalities, to many of its government-owned enterprises, even to some for-profit businesses – although not to its citizens
In a follow-up press release on September 23, 2017 IEEFA criticized PREPA, saying “Hurricane Maria has dealt a new blow to Puerto Rico’s bankrupt electric company – knocking out power for the entire island and imposing costly repair burdens on a utility that was already struggling with more than $9 billion in debt, poor service and sky-high rates.
“And that means more hardship for local residents and businesses, whose electric rates are already more than twice the national average.” Imagine that on top of your only source of electric failing, letting down approximately 3,662,150 citizens and scores of vacationers.
Underscoring mismanagement (misgoverning) leading to increasing fiscal abuses, in February 2016 the NY Times wrote a blistering article about PREPA providing free electricity while it was financially in-the-red. The following glaring factors were excerpted from the NY Times piece:
“In fact, the power authority has been giving free power to all 78 of Puerto Rico’s municipalities, to many of its government-owned enterprises, even to some for-profit businesses – although not to its citizens. It has done so for decades, even as it has sunk deeper and deeper in debt, borrowing billions just to stay afloat.”
One of the most significant aspects of all this misery is that the government knew of the possibility. Now, the people of Puerto Rico are in the crosshairs of more aftermath deposited by Hurricane Maria while waiting for external sources to bring salvation.
How any government does what PREPA has reportedly been doing reaches proportions far beyond self-serving, as the NY Times report points out. Again, good government starts with constituents’ interests, not government’s. Using a moral and ethical compass to assure safety, security, prosperity, harmony and diligent stewardship over resources is paramount. Like Florida, Puerto Rico is a tropical sunny paradise, so why not solar technology? Could a perceived threat to government revenue and further fiscal impacts have something to do with it?
I dare not thank brutal forces of nature for unearthing such inadequacies, but I do recognize improprieties when they surface organically. I shudder from the thought of forsaking humans for profits. Conversely, to do nothing in a string of calamities is unconscionable. Politics and merchants should never be one and the same…and monopoly should be nothing more than a board game where everyone has a fair shake.
