This Politico Florida piece highlights AEE’s release of a Florida Policy Platform Roadmap and Jobs Fact Sheet, and linking them to opportunities for the next Governor to implement them. AEE’s Ray Fakhoury, Associate of State Policy, connects the dots between market-based policy and economic growth. Link to full article here, download the policy platform here, and the jobs fact sheet here.

Excerpts below:

State policy in Florida has been unable to keep pace with the growing business demand for renewable energy, according to a national business group.

The Advanced Energy Economy's "Florida Energy Roadmap" report says the state has 160,000 "advanced energy" jobs in 2017, up 4.6 percent from 2016. The increase was three times the national average increase.

"This industry has grown substantially without a lot of policy help from the state," Ray Fakhoury, the group's state policy manager, told POLITICO in an interview.

"These are policies that are market-based," he continued. "We are not sitting here picking winners and losers but simply saying by embracing a diversified portfolio, you are able to deliver benefits ... that will substantially outweigh the costs that are associated."

The report calls on the next governor to work with the PSC and utilities to meet the growing renewable energy needs of businesses without hurting other customers who don't participate.

Fakhoury said the report is intended to be a "conversation starter" with the approach of the Nov. 6 general election.

"Florida doesn't have to reshape its entire energy market in order to deliver some of these economic benefits," he said. "There are some ways a governor could tweak or modify the rules that already are on the books to allow for direct access or other ways to secure additional resources that are more cost effective."

See the complete Politico Florida story here.