EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson met with Congressional leaders yesterday and essentially backed down from any significant oversight of carbon emissions for the foreseeable future.  Coal and oil lobbyists from around the country could be heard dancing in the streets. 

According to a report by the New York Times, Lisa Jackson made clear that "no stationary sources will face greenhouse gas regulations this year and that small sources will not be subject to permitting requirements any sooner than 2016. EPA is also considering "substantially" raising the thresholds in its proposed "tailoring" rule to exempt more facilities from requirements that they minimize their greenhouse gas emissions".

This is just another example of the Obama adminstration talking out of both sides of their mouths.  You cannot go before the world like he did at the climate change summit in Copenhagen and cojole polluting countries to make sacrifices for the good of the world and then come home and make the easy decisions to save your political hide.

After initially gaining some bi-partisan support in Congress the clean energy bill has gotten lost in the pile of agenda items by this administration, a pile that is overwhelmed by health care maneuvering and deal making. This decision by the President and the EPA Administrator has just raised the stakes on climate action through Congressional legislation.  If legislation fails there will be no doubt who will be to blame for the failure to reduce emissions in this country.  More importantly all that rhetoric coming from the President during his campaign and at Copenhagen will be viewed as a farce.   

Governor Charlie Crist's budget for 2010-2011 provides 2.1 billion for Florida's environment and includes all of the 176 million in clean energy funding from the federal government in the last fiscal year.  Total funding set aside for the state solar rebate program? $10 million.  That is barely enough to satisfy all of the Floridians who have already invested in solar and are still on the waiting list for rebates. That means that the Governor's allotment of funds will do nothing to spur additional incentive for energy consumers to invest in solar energy.  
 
With this budget and a large amount of federal funding to spend, the Governor missed a golden opportunity to add some stability to what is a highly volatile solar energy market in the state of Florida.  Refunding the Solar Rebate for 1-2 years or more would have been an effective way to spur additional investment and send a clear signal that Florida is going to be a leader in solar energy.

Certainly government incentives are not a long term solution to the weakness of the Florida solar market.  What is going to sustain the market is innovation and good business practices by companies looking to build their market share.  Also, creative purchase agreements at the municipal level will go a long way toward stability.

However, in order to invest in technology and the resources needed to deliver on quality products and services solar businesses need an initial impetus for consumers to take a serious look at the benefits of solar energy investment.  Given current economic conditions Florida consumers are wary of the significant initial investment required for solar energy despite the economic benefits of doing so.

Governor Crist appears to have spread out the money from the federal government to several different programs to set a wide base for a renewable energy industry whose direction is still very much unclear.  If he is planning to augment solar incentives with additional federal funding from the clean energy bill that is being debated in Congress then this budget will have been a good start.  If this is a one time distribution of significant funding then it is simply not enough to provide any significant boost to the solar energy market in Florida.