Natalia Brown

As in many communities across the country, energy bills in Florida are dramatically increasing due to rate hikes and over-reliance on fossil fuels imposed by the state’s investor-owned utility, Florida Power & Light (FP&L). While utility executives and shareholders grow their profits, working-class people are left behind in the transition to local clean energy resources.

In 2021, when a proposed bill that would have kneecapped Florida’s growth of affordable rooftop solar came to the floor of the state legislature, organizers at Catalyst Miami sprung into action. We sounded the alarm on the unjust and undemocratic nature of the bill and caught the attention of investigative journalists. They uncovered that FP&L lobbyists wrote the bill, personally delivered it to members of the Florida Legislature, and had given significant campaign contributions to bill champions in the senate.

This bill, written by and for the state’s largest monopoly utility company, was designed to block communities from owning and controlling local clean energy resources, and would erect an unfair cost-barrier for low-wealth Black and brown Floridians. It threatened the more than 40,000 jobs statewide and was poised to set the growing industry back as a whole.

But Floridians’ collective voice accomplished the impossible: pushed the governor to veto this bill even after it flew through committees and passed the Florida house and senate. Together, our coalition partners reached nearly 42,000 people who took action via letters, calls, targeted tweets, and more. The public pressure from everyday people can and does overpower corporate greed—when our human right to energy is under attack, communities fight back!