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Dr. James Fenton |
It’s time to start leveraging the federal tax credits
with Florida incentives!
In January, I gave a presentation in Tallahassee to the Florida
Senate Committee on Communications and Public Utilities – the
state’s “energy committee” -- in which
I suggested ways that Florida could leverage the new federal
tax credits for renewable energy and energy efficiency to dramatically
change our electric energy use.
At the Florida Solar Energy Center, we have been thinking
about energy independence for Florida for the past 30 years. We
must stop the loss of our money we now spend on fuels imported
from outside the state and bring about significant economic
development in Florida. At a time when we have new federal
tax credits, our state must take action now if we are going
to be able to keep the citizens of Florida’s dollars
at home.
Today, more than 98 percent of the fuel used in the state
for transportation and electricity generation comes from outside
our borders, resulting in exports of an estimated $20 billion
to support our fuel needs. If we could produce more fuel
in the state or generate electricity with free Florida sunshine,
much of that money could stay right here in Florida, where
economists tell us that every dollar we keep will actually
be worth two to three dollars in economic activity.
There’s really only one way to accomplish this, and
that’s for the state to set strong policies to reduce
our energy use and to promote renewable energy generation. An
FSEC study earlier this year using typical homes in various
parts of the state and then projecting the results to statewide
savings showed that state rebates, combined with the existing
federal tax credits, could give consumers electrical energy
savings exceeding 40 percent of total home energy use in all
three of our climate zones. Over a ten-year period, we’re
talking about consumer cost savings of nearly $2.5 billion,
126,000 new jobs in Florida, more than $1.2 billion in fuel
not purchased from outside of the state, and a savings of more
than 26 million tons of CO2.
The time to start leveraging the federal tax credits with
Florida incentives is now, because the longer we wait, the
more money we ship out of the state markets. Right now,
32 other states have financial incentives in place that make
renewable energy systems lower in cost than they are in our
state. In many of these states, the cost to the consumer
for a more efficient home, solar water heating and some photovoltaic
electricity generation is less than what they’d pay for
electricity out of the wall. There’s no doubt that
the markets and the jobs for renewable energy and energy efficiency
will end up in those states if we don’t do something
here and do it now.
I urge Florida’s Legislature to enact financial incentives – incentives
that will be performance-based to ensure that we get the most
cost-effective systems – to work in conjunction with
federal incentives to keep our money and our jobs in Florida. We
suggest rebates of $0.60 per kWh for new homes for building
energy efficiency and appliance energy use as compared to current
federal minimum standards, and the same size rebates for annual
savings from solar hot water systems as compared with electric
water heating. We also recommend a rebate of $3.50 per
peak watt for electricity produced from photovoltaic systems.
Visit our website at http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/news/press/enews/2006/2006-02_Energy-use-2014.htm for more information on my presentation and a copy of the slides
used, as well as the report “Potential of Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy Savings To Impact Florida’s Projected
Energy Use in 2014” prepared by Philip Fairey earlier
this year.
We can keep talking about this problem and watch our money,
the markets and jobs go elsewhere, or our state can enact consumer
incentives to keep our money in Florida. This “no-brainer” is
a win-win for Florida.
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