Net metering bill becomes wedge issue between moderate and far-right Republican
Solar energy policy is joining two perennial far-right planks — absolutism on abortion and guns — in Republican Drake Wuertz’s Republican Primary campaign against House District 38 incumbent Rep. David Smith.
Wuertz is plugging into a relatively new-rising conservative view on Florida solar energy: that it’s a free enterprise being thwarted by big business utilities that muscle the government to help protect their market interests from disruptive technologies.
At issue in the HD 38 Republican Primary — and potentially others around Florida in August — is the “yes” vote cast by Smith and many other Republican lawmakers on HB 741. That “net metering” bill would have eliminated consumer energy...
