Solar user: JEA energy plan a slow approach to rapidly worsening problem

I am responding to the June 3 letter to the editor written by Kevin Doyle of the Consumer Energy Alliance regarding the JEA panel discussion held at the WJCT studios late last month. Cleverly branded, “Your YOUtility, your future,” the event was more a carefully scripted announcement than a discussion. The “stakeholders” on the panel included one person each from the city, a manufacturing association, an environmental organization, a nonprofit and the CEO of the utility, Jay Stowe.

In a departure from previous panel discussions, attendees were asked to fill out their questions to the panelists before the program began. While there were a few more questions submitted after the program, it did not go as well as it did in past discussion events, in which microphones were made available for questions or comments after the discussion ended.

I was disappointed. I wanted to talk about what my wife and I had done on our property to conserve water by creating a native plant landscape and generate power using solar panels. So far, we have reduced our irrigation usage from 9,000 to 2,000 gallons a month and our electric bill by more than 40%. We were a stop on the RAP garden tour last month as the “Conservation House.”

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I thought maybe Mr. Stowe would be interested due to the fact our city is growing quickly and though power generation was the main topic that evening, water conservation is in his wheelhouse as well. However, this was not something I could fit on a 3x5 index card.

Equally disappointing was (for lack of a better description) the hissy fit thrown by the manufacturing representative. He definitively stated that it would be impossible for solar energy to provide the necessary power to our city. He would be correct if the only alternative power source available was solar.

He would also be correct if technological advances and evolution in the field of alternative power production came to a sudden halt today. The fact is there are many alternative power sources that could be utilized locally, all of which are rapidly evolving and advancing.

My first exposure to Mr. Doyle was his February editorial in the Times-Union supporting passage of SB 1024, a bill that sought to end net metering in Florida. Quoting the Wall Street Journal, he called it “welfare for the wealthy.”

A quick online search of both banks of the St. Johns River (areas where the wealthy are known to hang out) showed scant evidence of the wealthy cashing in on the “solar windfall.” In fact, there are only around 100,000 rooftop solar installations in the Sunshine State. In what can only be described as a miracle, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the bill.

In his most recent screed, Mr. Doyle does mention alternative power sources, albeit fourth down the list after natural gas, oil and nuclear — all questionable fuels for many reasons. This is not surprising, as I noted before, Mr. Doyle works for the Consumer Energy Alliance, a nonprofit based in Houston that is funded by a gaggle of petroleum, gas and nuclear corporations, with membership made up of related trade and industrial associations.

That he wholeheartedly supports the JEA plan indicates to me that the plan is suspect and just serves to reaffirm my feeling that it falls woefully short. Sadly, most of the country and the world are slow-boating their collective response in much the same way as our utility company. I don’t believe it will end well.

Only time will tell what the outcome will be. But based on the opinion of 97% of the scientists studying climate change, many in the mortgage industry, the insurance industry, the Department of Defense and even some donors to the Consumer Energy Alliance — time is running out.

Chris Hildreth, Jacksonville

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JEA energy plan fails to impress local homeowner and solar advocate