By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

In a deal that gives the owner of Florida Power & Light even more influence on electrical policy in the Sunshine State, NextEra Energy has entered into agreements to purchase two more Florida utilities for nearly $6.5 billion.

NextEra announced plans to purchase Gulf Power from Southeast utility giant Southern Company, as well as Florida City Gas. It will also purchase ownership interests in two natural gas plants currently owned by Southern.

The transactions will give the owner of Florida’s largest utility more incentive to push a natural gas – rather than a renewable – future for its customers.

“We look forward to updating the Florida Public Service Commission and other key stakeholders in the state and believe our deep operating expertise in Florida, strong financial profile and track record of and commitment to making smart, long-term capital investments offer uniquely compelling advantages for Gulf Power and Florida City Gas customers,” said Jim Robo, chairman and chief executive officer of NextEra Energy.

While the company’s press release extols NextEra Energy’s ownership of Florida Power & Light, which appears to have seen the solar light after spending millions of dollars on an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to inhibit the growth of rooftop solar in 2016, the purchases do enhance the possibility the company will slowly steer away from a solar future to a natural gas one.

It also provides a monopoly-like grip on Florida electricity customers, adding more power – literally and figuratively – to a company that already wields legendary power in Tallahassee.

The acquisitions of Gulf Power and the ownership interests in the Oleander and Stanton generating plants are subject to receipt of approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The Florida City Gas acquisition is subject to the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and is conditioned on the consummation of Southern Company’s previously announced dispositions of the Elizabethtown Gas and Elkton Gas divisions of Southern Company Gas.

It is unlikely that FERC or the Florida Public Service Commission will stand in the way of the acquisitions, particularly under the current administration in Washington.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Three months after announcing it would completely eliminate coal from its portfolio, Detroit-based utility DTE Energy announced on Friday it, along with partner Consumers Energy, was accelerating plans to increase its clean-energy portfolio to reach a generation target of at least 50% by 2030.

The utility’s announcement came on the same day President Donald J. Trump tweeted that the United States has 250 years of “clean coal” in its energy mix and touted the fact he ended the mythical “war on coal.”

DTE Energy’s announcement is further proof that the era of coal is rapidly coming to a close whether coal barons like failed Senate candidate Don Blakenship or President Trump want it or to or not, and no amount of regulation or edicts from the federal government will stop it from coming. For example, DTE said it would reach its goal by investing in a goal of at least 25% renewable energy reaching the remainder of its goal through energy efficiency programs.

“Our two companies [DTE and Consumers Energy] are overwhelmingly in favor of renewable energy and are focused on bringing additional energy efficiency opportunities to our customers,” said DTE Energy Chairman and CEO Gerry Anderson and Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe. “We will continue to work within the framework put forward by our legislature and regulators to build on our environmental initiatives to benefit all residents of the state.”

The decision to accelerate the clean-energy program is at least in part the result of an agreement with progressive billionaire Tom Steyer’s Clean Energy, Healthy Michigan (CEHM) group to place aside a ballot proposal to increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard. The group had gathered enough signatures to put an increase in the RPS on the ballot.

Details of the two companies’ plans to retire coal plants and increase wind and solar generation will be outlined in their respective Integrated Resource Plans.

Trump has routinely touted the benefits of “clean coal” without seeming to understand what that phrase means or that “clean coal” is really just coal, with all the requisite carbon emissions that would result from burning it.

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Though North Carolina will bear the overwhelming brunt of Cypress Creek Renewables’ decision to cancel 1.5 GW of projects in the wake of the Trump Administration’s tariff imposition, it isn’t the only one.

In all, 11 states will feel the sting of what company spokesman Jeff McKay called the “lost investment opportunity” that will result from its pullback.

“We’re projecting that the tariff will cost into the billions of dollars in lost investments,” McKay told SolarWakeup. “It’s no secret that the solar industry’s record rate of growth will be harmed by the tariff. We aren’t the only ones pulling back.”

The company has been looking at projects since last year to determine whether they are still economically viable under the new tariff regime, McKay said. Then the company acted to reduce the number of marginal projects in its pipeline.

The biggest state affected was North Carolina, but there are other states that will see noticeable effects, including:

“We now have some projects due to the price sensitivities around utility-scale solar that no longer have a clear path forward,” McKay said. “That means that we a substantial amount of lost investment opportunities. That’s translates into jobs that won’t be created and new tax revenue that communities will not receive.”

The news comes as Bloomberg reported earlier this week that “Republican senators from five states with big solar farms are asking the Trump administration to exempt the workhorse of industrial solar panels from tariffs imposed earlier this year.”

Exempting utility-scale solar modules from the tariffs doesn’t really solve the overall problem, which is that the duties have cost 9,800 downstream installation and other non-manufacturing jobs, as well as having thrown the industry into chaos for the past year and a half. And it bears repeating that the tariffs were imposed on the whims of two companies that, in short order, will no longer exist.

But the exemption might be a good step toward fixing this unforced error that is harming the overall U.S. economy.

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Low And Behold, GOP Finds Solar Tariffs To Be A Bad Idea