Local Energy Rules podcast: Public power is on the ballot next week in Florida!

One Hundred Years of Public Power

Gainesville formed its municipal utility in the early part of the 20th century. Since then, Gainesville Regional Utilities — which provides electric, gas, water, and wastewater services — has been a driver of growth for the city. According to Eastman, Gainesville’s early water treatment facilities made the city an attractive home for the University of Florida, and over the years, the municipal utility has reinvested in the local economy and community.

“So much of what we love about this city and what makes this city what it is, is because we made the great decision back over a hundred years ago, back in 1912, to invest in a municipal utility.”

Gainesville Regional Utilities was also an early adopter of renewable energy. When utility leadership proposed building a new coal power plant in 2007, the city decided instead to invest in a biomass plant and in rooftop solar, as more environmentally friendly alternatives.

State Legislature Steps In

Unfortunately, the decision to invest in biomass proved to be a financial miscalculation, leaving Gainesville Regional Utilities with a high debt load compared to other municipal utilities. The final power purchase agreement with the biomass plant closely preceded a big, unexpected drop in methane gas prices, and the utility struggled to sell excess generation from the plant.

As Eastman explains, certain Republican state lawmakers had long opposed both the biomass plant and the municipal utility itself, and once they gained leadership roles, they were able to push through legislation that took Gainesville Regional Utilities out of the city’s hands. The 2023 law unilaterally changed the city’s charter, establishing an independent authority with a governor-appointed board to run the utility, which has put Gainesville in the unique position of having a municipal utility that is controlled by the state.

“There is no [other] city in the United States in which the governor has control over portions of the city that the city taxpayers pay the bills on, that the city taxpayers take the legal and financial responsibilities of.”

Putting Local Control to a Vote

The new Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority has not improved the situation at the utility. Before losing control to the state, Gainesville had already made efforts to address the utility’s debt load, at the great cost of laying off 125 city employees and raising local taxes. In comparison, Eastman shares that the governor-appointed board has increased CEO pay, cut rooftop solar compensation, moved away from affordable renewable energy options, and overall, created a chaotic environment for utility employees.

“When you talk to GRU employees, the number one frustration that they have is that they are very proud of the work that they do . . . and they are frustrated that they seemingly are always getting politicized.”

On November 5, Gainesville voters will be asked if they want to return control of the municipal utility to the city. The referendum, which the City Commission voted to place on the ballot, would remove the section of the charter that created the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority . If it’s successful, Eastman says that they would focus on following studies that show renewable energy is their least cost option, creating stability for utility employees, and treating the utility “like a utility and not like a political football.”

Episode Notes

See these resources for more behind the story:

• Read Bryan Eastman’s overview of the fight over Gainesville’s municipal utility.
• Learn more about the timeline of Gainesville Regional Utilities over the past two years and about the upcoming city referendum.
• Listen to other interviews with Gainesville leaders on the city’s early investments in solar and its clean energy goals in episode 8 and episode 114 of Local Energy Rules.
• Hear from Maggie Shober on the Tennessee Valley Authority in episode 183 of Local Energy Rules.
• Listen to Bryan Eastman’s wife, Nina Bhattacharyya, discuss Gainesville’s zero waste efforts on episode 131 of ILSR’s Building Local Power podcast.

For concrete examples of how towns and cities can take action toward gaining more control over their clean energy future, explore ILSR’s Community Power Toolkit.

Explore local and state policies and programs that help advance clean energy goals across the country using ILSR’s interactive Community Power Map.

This is the 221st episode of Local Energy Rules, an ILSR podcast with Energy Democracy Director John Farrell, which shares stories of communities taking on concentrated power to transform the energy system.

Local Energy Rules is produced by ILSR’s John Farrell and Maria McCoy. Audio engineering by Drew Birschbach.

For timely updates from the Energy Democracy Initiative, follow John Farrell on Twitter and subscribe to the Energy Democracy weekly update