Floridians for Solar Choice (FSC), a grassroots effort to change unfair state energy policies, is proposing a 2016 Solar Ballot Initiative amendment to the Florida Constitution that gives home and business owners a solar option for power needs, as well as which source that provides it.

Ironically, Florida is one of only five states that deny the choice to buy solar-generated electricity directly from a company other than a monopoly electric utility. Past legislative efforts to overcome barriers to solar choices have been defeated due to lobbying by Florida Power and Light and Duke Energy.

FSC needs to collect 800,000 signed petitions to allow registered Florida voters the chance to vote on this issue. So far, 100,000 petitions have been signed in the first month of the state petition drive and are being certified by local election supervisors. Of these, 68,314 signatures must be validated in order to trigger Florida Supreme Court approval of the language.

“In total, we need 663,149 signed petitions collected by December 2015 to allow time for county supervisors of elections to verify the signatures by the deadline date of February 1, 2016,” says Susan Glickman, of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which is backing the FSC drive. “Signing the petition will help FSC to secure a place for solar choice on the 2016 ballot.”

View the petition and get more information at FLSolarChoice.org.