Former Vice President Al Gore: Vote NO on Florida Amendment 1

Former Vice President Al Gore spoke in Florida at a rally for Hillary Clinton this week, where he specifically urged Floridians to vote NO on Amendment 1, which would kill rooftop solar in the Sunshine State to the benefit of entrenched utilities. View the video of the speech above, or see below for the transcript, edited for length (emphasis is ours):

Mr. Gore: Almost 100 years ago, America’s most famous inventor, Thomas Edison, said these words, this is an exact quote. I would put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power. I hope we do not have to wait until the oil and coal run out before we tackle that…I want to say a brief word about something else that all of you can do…Vote NO on Initiative One on your ballot.

Hillary mentioned that there are fewer solar jobs in the Sunshine State, Florida, than there are in New Jersey. Actually, Florida also lags behind Massachusetts, which is even farther north. Despite having three times the population of Massachusetts, Florida has less than half of the solar jobs that have been created in Massachusetts. Massachusetts installed more solar energy last year alone that Florida has installed in its entire history. Yes, it is ridiculous, that is exactly right.

The head of one of the fossil fuel-burning utilities here actually said last year, yes, Florida is the Sunshine State, but remember it is also the the partly cloudy state. Well, they are trying to cloud the truth by putting forward a phony baloney initiative that sounds like it protects solar. It does not protect solar.

The things they claim to protect solar are protections you already have. They are trying to bully you into amending your state constitution in a way that gives them the authority to shut down net metering and do in Florida what they did in Nevada and kill the solar industry. This is a question…Our Democracy has been hacked and the fossil fuel utilities here have spent more than $20 million to try to pull the wool over your eyes. And $20 million can buy a lot of wool.

Amendment one would benefit the incumbent fossil fuel companies here in Florida by making it harder for homeowners to go solar.