Clean, affordable energy provides economic and environmental benefits

By Chelsea Rivera, Central Florida Jobs with Justice; and Brooke Ward, Food & Water Watch

Floridians are facing an affordability crisis. The price of everything — from groceries to insurance — continues to rise. After three months of extreme heat days, the price to keep life-saving A/C running rests at the top of the list.

As any Floridian can tell you, affordable energy encompasses so much more than our energy bills. It affects our quality of life — the autonomy we have over how we spend our time, our money and our mental energy. It also impacts our health, whether protecting us from heat illness or keeping our medications refrigerated. In some instances, being able to afford electricity is the difference between having a roof over our heads or being out on the street. 

More affordable energy requires a move to clean energy. Unfortunately, Florida utilities are addicted to dirty energy. Natural (or fracked or methane) gas, which supplies more than 70% of Florida’s energy production, emits harmful toxins like nitrous oxides, sulfur, mercury and particulates into our atmosphere.

Not only is natural gas harmful to our health and environment, but it’s also harmful to our financial wellbeing. Volatile, expensive fossil fuels spike our bills today and pave the wave for a future of climate chaos.

As it stands, Florida’s investor-owned utilities continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels, because it allows them to make more money. Companies like Duke and TECO stand to profit heavily from infrastructure projects like building new plants. All they need to do is ask the state — a historic rubber stamp for these requests — to approve the cost increase for their consumers.

Solar, on the other hand, is much more cost efficient and requires less infrastructure than a natural gas plant, which is beneficial to the consumer but eats into the profit margins of the for-profit utilities. Floridians aren’t holding out hope that these corporations will act beyond their self interest — instead, we are taking matters into our own hands and demanding our local governments lead the way in moving to clean, affordable energy.

Clean, affordable energy provides not just financial incentives for our community but also economic benefits. Florida employs the second-largest solar workforce in the country, second only to California. The solar workforce in Florida has grown 43% percent since 2017.

Clean energy jobs such as wind turbine technicians and solar energy installers are ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, for projected job growth across the nation for the next 10 years, which is incredibly promising. It’s time for our investor-owned utilities and our elected officials to recognize the potential of this industry for our families, our finances and our future.

In addition to reducing the cost of energy, ensuring affordable energy requires that we also reduce the amount of energy we consume. The quickest, easiest and cheapest way to do this is through residential energy efficiency upgrades, or weatherization.

Insulation, windows and new appliances can cut bills drastically. However, not everyone has the ability to make these upgrades to where they live. Nearly one third of Floridians rent their homes, and it’s likely that this number will stay the same or grow given the cost of housing and rising interest rates. Landlords, too, must be incentivized to weatherize units and furnish them with energy-efficient appliances.

Again, local government policies can help encourage everyone, from homeowners to landlords, to provide energy-efficient homes that reduce electricity bills and decrease fossil fuel emissions. 

The Hillsborough Affordable Energy Coalition has been leading the charge in pushing for local government action to reduce energy bills in Florida. The group is calling for a county-wide Affordable Energy & Climate Plan in Hillsborough County that would phase out gas in buildings, invest in energy efficiency and provide incentives to help all residents make the transition to a cleaner, more affordable energy future. We are working with partners to replicate these efforts throughout the state. 

On Tuesday, Sept. 10, Hillsborough County residents will come together for an Affordable Energy Community Discussion, including an expert panel on affordable energy solutions and a discussion of widely and deeply felt skyrocketing electricity costs and the climate crisis.

Working families are up against so much right now — rising costs of housing, skyrocketing interest rates, food prices that continue to go up, the increased impact of heat, the high prices of medical bills and energy bills that continue to get pricier each month. The price of living is going up and we can’t keep up.

We need Ken Hagan’s Hillsborough County Commission to fight for affordable energy now, and we need governments across the state to pass affordable energy and climate plans to make sure that working families can survive in Florida. Join us on Sept. 10 to show your support for Hillsborough’s Affordable Energy & Climate Plan. 

Dr. Chelsea Rivera is a policy organizer at Central Florida Jobs with Justice and a member of the Florida Climate Equity Cohort. Brooke Ward is senior Florida organizer with Food & Water Watch. 

If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here.