Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy Applauds Veto of Florida House Bill 741

Nashville - Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy’s Executive Director, Ryan Evans, issued the following statement regarding the veto of Florida House Bill 741

Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) applauds the veto of Florida House Bill 741, an anti-business, anti-free market bill targeting the solar industry, by Governor DeSantis. Not only, as the governor stated, would this bill lead to higher utility bills for all electric customers and contribute to the financial crunch Floridians are feeling, but it was also an example of bad public policy, as CICE had expressed to Florida chambers of commerce and economic development associations.

HB 741 was written by a monopoly utility to benefit the utility. A monopoly, by definition, operates within a system where it has no true competition. This anti-free market legislation would have further insulated the monopoly status of Florida’s largest utility and significantly hindered competition from small business solar companies providing energy choice to Florida ratepayers.

Further, this legislation was a solution to an unidentified, unproven problem that would have not only negatively impacted those Florida small businesses but also jeopardized thousands of jobs in the industry and its supply chain. If changes to an existing policy are needed, those changes should be based on proven data and in collaboration with all stakeholders, something that did not happen with HB 741.

This veto allows Florida to continue encouraging private investment in solar energy to enhance resilience efforts, decrease costly utility upgrades, and promote energy independence, not hinder such investment.