Coming up Monday, May 17th, 2010
The City of Sarasota will be voting on the new franchise agreement offered by FPL. It will be discussed during the 6pm time slot of the City Commission meeting held at City Hall, downtown Sarasota. What makes this a significant vote is that the franchise agreement only comes up once every 30 years~
A few years back, Sarasota County debated their contract with FPL. Not many residents knew about this until the contract was already signed and too late to make any changes. Typically, FPL places a call to the city and county a few months before their agreement is up and quietly negotiates a new one. Some say the county franchise agreement could have been made better and shown more of a commitment to the county’s efforts with renewable energy. The opportunity to support this seemed to be passed over without a whimper.
FPL has for a long time shouted out it’s message of how they are one of the leaders in renewable energy. But so far, their work to make that happen has really underlined the message that they want to be the only leaders in renewable energy. This year their efforts centered around getting Senator Bennett’s (R- Sarasota) bill SB 1186 passed. In it’s final form – the bill ( and it’s companion bill HB 1471) would have gotten rid of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) goals set by Governor Crist, removed the Public Service Commission (PSC) from regulating the cost, and allowed for early cost recovery for renewable energy production controlled by the utilities. The one significant thing was it was the first time FPL was talking about distributed energy – other wise commonly known as roof-top solar. Both bills died in committee.
Now FPL wants to negotiate a deal with the City of Sarasota and nothing about roof-top solar was introduced in this new franchise agreement. When the city asked about it, the only response was their reference to the net-metering program that is already in place. This is where the city is allowed by state law (net-metering) to build on their own plant up to 2 MegaWatt on their facilities. But as nice as that sounds, you can ask Mary Clark over at the Triple J Ranch how net metering has worked out for her.
What the city does want to focus on with this new franchise agreement is a pro-renewable initiative, allowing the City of Sarasota to contract with 3rd parties to provide the service and allowing FPL as a bidder but not with a Right of First Refusal (ROFR.) In other words, if the City bids the job, FPL can bid to provide the requested services, and if FPL wins, it wins at its bid price.
Very much like the PSC hearings of last summer when FPL came to town asking for a rate increase, the public has this one chance to vocalize their opinion/support of this franchise agreement. Please do not pass up on this opportunity. The next one will not occur for the next thirty years!
City Hall Information:
1565 1st Street, Room 101
Sarasota, FL 34236
Phone: (941) 954-4115
Unfortunate Mischaracterization of Senator Bennett's Renewable Energy BillThis post has nothing to do with the Franchise Agreement. Its purpose is to correct serious mistakes in Ms. Nilon's analysis of Senate Bill 1186.1. The bill did not remove PSC overshight of the Cost of Renewable Energy- PSC oversight was completely retained what the bill did do was give clear guidance to the PSC that Renewable Energy was in the state's interest and that no determination of need was necessary. 2. The Bill did not remove the Governor's RPS goals- The Governor's RPS goals are not in Statute they are in an Excutive Order. What the bill did do was remove from statute language directiing the PSC to craft a RPS rule- this was clean up- as the PSC already went thru the RPS rulemaking process.3. The Bill did not allow for early cost recovery- it retained normal cost recovery processes. in other words costs would not have been recovered until the project was built. It is seriously concerning that a blog that purports to provide expert information on renewable energy could be this wrong. These are not minor mistakes. Please do better research in the future so that folks who read this are not grossly mis-informed.
If that link does not work, go back to my home page and read the most recent article. It is posted at the top.
John – here is the link to the proposed agreement.http://sarasota.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=7&event_id=4&meta_id=237712
Q. What option does Sarasota have in negotiations w/ FPL? It seems as though the big dog comes a knocking and we just have to roll over.I really would like to know more about the proposals. I am very much in favor of encouraging roof top PV and net-metering.
I don't mind at all, as long as you correct the spelling of "facilities", and change the word "it's" to "its" 2 times in the 5th paragraph. I wrote and submitted that without checking it over.
Do you mind if I post your comment on the main page?
Read this carefully: FPL Franchise Agreements are very bad for municipalities. In the simplest terms, FPL pays money to municipalities in exchange for the total rights to build 'faclities' in the municipality's right-of-ways. This means dangerous and property value reducing Transmission Lines, Sub-Stations, transforms, etc.Once signed, FPL has all the rights, and the municipality has zero rights. The municipality will NEVER be able to sue FPL to stop these things, because they signed the Agreement. No judge will let FPL lose, and rightfully so – it's what the Agreement says. See "FPL v Brevard County", and read how the court ruled in favor of FPL, based on the Agreement.Is that clear enough? Then add this to the mix – the municipality will never be able to produce it's own power for the benefit of its residents, and in most cases, for the benefit of it's own power needs. The municipality may be able to ask another power company to provide power at a lower cost that FPL, but FPL has right of first refusal, and they are so big that they will always lose some money to keep their monopoly.Clear enough yet?And finally. The worst of it all – the money that FPL pays the municipality? It comes straight out of the resident's pocket. Read that again. Resident gets an electric bill, resident pays an extra 6%, FPL passes through that money to the municipality, and FPL gets all the benefits of the Agreement. It's an invisible tax, and the municipality gets to claim their millage rate is low, and FPL gets all the rights.Any elected official who signs this agreement ought to be run out of town on a rail, plain and simple. They are not voting for their constituent's benefit, but for FPL's profit.Don't sign that Agreement, and FPL still will provide power and service and upgrades – it's the law.And yet, I bet that Sarasota will pass it. It's a disgrace.