January will mark the fourth legislative session in a row that a new energy chairman has been named. State policy makers attending an energy summit in Orlando say lawmakers are better at killing energy bills than passing them, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the lack of an energy policy is costing Floridians money and jobs.<\/p>\n

The majority of Florida?s power comes from natural gas or coal…Just two percent from truly renewable sources. That lack of diversity is upsetting to many of the more than 500 people attending this three day energy summit in Orlando.<\/p>\n

The big power companies are here, pushing for more nuclear. The Public Service Commission this week authorized them to collect almost 300 million dollars next year in pre-construction fees. But when it comes to an energy policy and the state legislature, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has a salient observation:<\/p>\n

?The last several? legislative sessions have proven that we can kill an energy bill,? says Putnam, the new head of the State Energy Office.<\/p>\n

Putnam is hosting the summit. He told the audience if something is working, Florida should be doing more of it. ?If these incentives were a good idea five years ago, and stimulated growth in renewables, and now they are finally ready to go buy the equipment, to get the credit or get the exemption, lets extend it.?<\/p>\n

Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah says the lack of a policy and incentives? is holding Florida back. <\/span>?The state can no longer back peddle, we have got to be able to move forward, recognizing we can provide up to forty or fifty percent renewable energy if we get serious about doing so,? says Judah<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But because there is no policy, Florida is moving in the opposite direction. Power generation from Natural gas is expected to climb from 50 percent to 70 percent in the coming decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 88 hundred people received solar rebates this past month. The rebates date back to 2009. Most recipients got just over half of what they were originally promised when they submitted applications. The state currently has no renewable rebates or goals for future renewable production.<\/p>\n

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January will mark the fourth legislative session in a row that a new energy chairman has been named. State policy makers attending an energy summit in Orlando say lawmakers are better at killing energy bills than passing them, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the lack of an energy policy is costing Floridians money and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13495,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13493\/revisions\/13495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}