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The future of 32 million federal dollars given to Florida to refund people who made their homes more energy efficient is hanging in the balance. The governor wants to pass the money on to the more than 17-thousand people awaiting rebates, but as Whitney Ray tells us, the state legislature is in no hurry.

Brian Lockwood installed solar panels on his roof in June, just in time to qualify for a state rebate program. But the check still hasn’t arrived, even though Florida was given 32 million federal dollars in August for its energy rebate programs.

“If Best Buy or Sears or someone like that said we are going to give you 200 dollars on this refrigerator as a rebate and then didn’t come through on it there would be the Attorney General investigating, there would be hearings on Capitol Hill and the FTC and everyone else,” said Lockwood.

Governor Charlie Crist is asking the Republican-led legislature to pass the money through. Legislative leaders, at war with the governor after he split from the party, are holding out.

Al Simpler, owner of a solar panel company, says the feud is slowing down the creation of green jobs.

“We need to get involved with the jobs that come with clean energy and with the fact that we can start to be in charge of our own expenses,” said Simpler.

An estimated 17-thousand Floridians are waiting on solar rebates. Thousands more are holding onto the state’s promise to pay them back for buying energy efficient appliances. The state legislature could fix the problem when they come back for an organizational session in November.

But a similar situation unfolded in July when lawmakers convened for a special session on oil drilling. At the time millions of federal dollars were approved for Florida’s unemployed, but the legislature chose to ignore the issue, leaving Tallahassee is less than two hours.