Tim Dickinson: Sunshine State In The Dark

Think about the sunniest states in the U.S.  Florida, the place that calls itself “the sunshine state” is sure to come to mind. Indeed, the solar industry considers Florida to be the state with the third greatest rooftop solar potential in the country. So the place must be almost totally off the grid at this point, right? Well, no.

Florida boasts only 9,000 homes with solar rooftops, while New York, a state with a similar sized population, and a much less hospitable weather profile, has 25,000. What is going on with Florida? Do people there just really like to pay more for their electricity, or, is it something else? Our guest this week on Sea Change Radio is Rolling Stone reporter Tim Dickinson, who has just completed an excellent piece of investigative journalism on Florida and the role the Koch brothers play in thwarting the use of the world’s most renewable and abundant power source.