Legal Challenge against Amendment One

With less than a week to go before the election, opponents of Amendment One have filed a legal challenge at the Florida Supreme Court. Stephen Smith with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy says a secret audio recording shows the backers of the Smart Solar amendment lied to the Court about the true reason for their proposal.

Smith and his allies are asking the court to hold an emergency hearing on the fundamental legality of Prop One and they want the court to issue an embargo so the votes on that amendment can’t be counted until the issue is settled.

Former Governor and US Senator Bob Graham says if you want solar power, you should vote against the solar amendment on the Florida ballot. Amendment One… known as “smart solar”… was written by the power companies and Graham says the real purpose is to protect their bottom line

Graham says utilities have used their clout in the Legislature and the Public Service Commission to avoid competition and pad their profits… and now they’re trying to use the state constitution

Here is more info from the Miami Herald

“The lawsuits, filed by the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association and Floridians for Solar Choice, the pro-solar political committee opposing the amendment, ask the court to reopen the case involving the the ballot language used in the proposed Amendment 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot and declare it unconstitutionally misleading.

Proponents of the amendment, the utility-backed Consumers for Smart Solar, intentionally “withheld relevant and material information as to the objective and intended purpose of the amendment, and thereby misled this Court (and is now misleading the public) as to the adequacy of the ballot title and summary presented to the voters,” the groups allege in their emergency lawsuit.”

Here is an article by the Tampa Bay Times.
Nuzzo detailed the strategy used by the state’s largest utilities to create and finance Amendment 1 at the State Energy/Environment Leadership Summit in Nashville on Oct. 2 and said the amendment was an act of “political jiu-jitsu” that “would completely negate anything they (pro-solar interests) would try to do either legislatively or constitutionally down the road.”
TreasureCoast

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