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Florida utilities boast of being solar friendly, but Florida lags behind most states, including New Jersey, when it comes to the number of solar facilities. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the major electric utilities are saying one thing and doing another.

Florida Power and Light boasts of the states largest solar array.

“Using free fuel from the sun, it can provide power for up to eleven thousand homes” says the announcer.

Tampa Electric has partnered with Tampa International on a smaller scale.

”Tampa Electric believes in the promise of renewable energy, like solar” said the company’s President at a news conference annoucning the venture with TIA>

But when a constitutional amendment allowing more people to sell solar went before the Florida Supreme Court,

Tallahassee lawyer Barry richard, who represented George Bush in the disputed 2000 election, appeared at the argument and told the justices “And I am representing Flordia Power and Light, Duke Energy, Gulf Power, and Tampa Electric.”

The power companies hired one of the states best known lawyers to try and kill it.

“This does not tell voters that it is stripping the entire state government of a power it has always had” says Richard.

That power has been used to keep anyone but utilities from selling electricity. The amendment would let businesses install solar and then sell what they don’t use to their neighbors. Debbie Dooley, representing Conservatives for Energy Freedom calls it the conservative approach.

“True conservatives champion free market choice. They don’t champion government crated monopolies” said Dooley after the arguments.

What the court must decides is if the amendment contains just one single subject, or if it misleads voters.

And before the court has even ruled, a new web ad released Thursday seeks to cause doubts about the amendment.

“It would let these people, build those things, without this stuff” chimes the announcer while showing some definitions from the actual amendment form.

The early attacks are unusual, but so the size of the profits the utilities stand to lose.

The group that sponsored that last web ad in Mike’s story has also launched their own constitutional amendment, which would “guarantee” electric users certain rights.