The Miami Herald reports that Florida's utilities are spending more than $40 million on a single ballot referendum called Amendment 1: to trick voters -- if 60 % of Floridians are gullible enough to vote for it -- into putting solar panel installations under the lock and key of big utilities.
This demonstration of rigging a system has gotten widespread attention in Florida, but not in terms of what matters to voters: under a Trump presidency, the riggers come out way, way on top. Here is an example.
The nation’s utilities are among top campaign contributors to candidates, PACs controlled by candidates and dark money pools where tens of millions of dollars are shunted.
Put another way, the grid that supplies your electricity is rigged by definition: in Florida it is organized to push electric current and profits into monopolies like Florida Power and Light.
GOP candidates and elected officials are the main beneficiaries of the utilities' rigged system in Tallahassee; they control the state legislature and, through FL Gov. Rick Scott's agencies and appointees; the utilities control the Public Service Commission, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the state water management districts. (FPL’s Turkey Point nuclear facility is the largest private water user in Miami-Dade County and rivals Miami-Dade County, itself, for primary allocation of water resources.)
When Donald Trump talks about a "rigged" system favoring Hillary Clinton, bear in mind that the rigging begins with the massive dis-information of voters by special interests and money spent to protect their subsidies and monopolies.
In Florida Amendment 1 (the right vote, is NO: "Amendment One Blocks The Sun") is a prime example of a "rigged" system.
If passed, it would shift the Sunshine State’s solar future straight into the bank accounts of top executives and energy shareholders. There will be no "clawing back” by citizens of our shared energy future.
I have been fighting for Florida's Everglades, clean water and good government for a quarter century. There has been tremendous back-sliding during this time, as insiders and lobbyists and government hacked away at broad bipartisan consensus that formed the nation and the state's main public interest laws in the 1970's and 1980's.
Based on my experience the last twenty five years -- and the "riggers" who made durable deals in county government, in Congress and in the state legislature -- a Trump presidency would lock down the privileges that protect a "rigged" system for the foreseeable future.
With Hillary and a Democratic Senate, we have a fighting chance. That should matter. That's what I will be fighting for, the day after Tuesday’s election.
This demonstration of rigging a system has gotten widespread attention in Florida, but not in terms of what matters to voters: under a Trump presidency, the riggers come out way, way on top. Here is an example.
The nation’s utilities are among top campaign contributors to candidates, PACs controlled by candidates and dark money pools where tens of millions of dollars are shunted.
Put another way, the grid that supplies your electricity is rigged by definition: in Florida it is organized to push electric current and profits into monopolies like Florida Power and Light.
GOP candidates and elected officials are the main beneficiaries of the utilities' rigged system in Tallahassee; they control the state legislature and, through FL Gov. Rick Scott's agencies and appointees; the utilities control the Public Service Commission, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the state water management districts. (FPL’s Turkey Point nuclear facility is the largest private water user in Miami-Dade County and rivals Miami-Dade County, itself, for primary allocation of water resources.)
When Donald Trump talks about a "rigged" system favoring Hillary Clinton, bear in mind that the rigging begins with the massive dis-information of voters by special interests and money spent to protect their subsidies and monopolies.
In Florida Amendment 1 (the right vote, is NO: "Amendment One Blocks The Sun") is a prime example of a "rigged" system.
If passed, it would shift the Sunshine State’s solar future straight into the bank accounts of top executives and energy shareholders. There will be no "clawing back” by citizens of our shared energy future.
I have been fighting for Florida's Everglades, clean water and good government for a quarter century. There has been tremendous back-sliding during this time, as insiders and lobbyists and government hacked away at broad bipartisan consensus that formed the nation and the state's main public interest laws in the 1970's and 1980's.
Based on my experience the last twenty five years -- and the "riggers" who made durable deals in county government, in Congress and in the state legislature -- a Trump presidency would lock down the privileges that protect a "rigged" system for the foreseeable future.
With Hillary and a Democratic Senate, we have a fighting chance. That should matter. That's what I will be fighting for, the day after Tuesday’s election.
1 comment:
Securing the Black vote requires a very organized, structured, and detailed field operation. If Hillary has not made these financial investments, it will be very difficult for her to capture these voters who support her. Many people lack transportation, so renting buses and vans, hiring drivers, scheduling pick-ups etc. is critical. Black media buys are also critical, many people don't have cable TV, and in some parts of the country, there isn't a lot on about the election on regular TV. And this is by design. The Get-Out-the-Vote people are quite different from the "talking head" type Blacks you see on TV. These are people who actually go in the neighborhoods, churches, organizations, and the like, and make it happen. Black elected officials know who they are because they are the ones who get them elected. She is going to have to spend some money, but it is well worth it. In a close race like this, how could they have not figured this out?
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