August 1, 2008

Florida Green Energy Program Ends Over Spending Controversy

Florida’s Public Service Commission recently voted to end an $11.4 million green energy promotion program which overwhelmingly funded marketing and administrative costs, BusinessWeek reports.

Florida Power & Light and Green Mountain Energy Co., operators of the program, charged willing FPL customers an additional $9.75 to their regular power bills, with the promise of developing an extra 150 kilowatts of solar energy for every 10,000 residential customers who signed on.

But the commission found that only 24 percent of the money collected from more than 38,000 participants paid for actual energy. The rest funded administration costs and marketing to promote the program.

An audit of how Green Mountain managed the funds is planned.

“Green Mountain Energy Company helped FPL grow Sunshine Energy to one of the Top Ten utility green power programs in the U.S., out of more than 800 such programs,” said Paul Markovich, senior vice president, Green Mountain Energy Company. “Sunshine Energy provided tens of thousands of FPL customers an affordable, easy way to voluntarily reduce their carbon footprint. The Sunshine Energy program has helped avoid more than 1 billion pounds of CO2 emissions since 2004.”

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