Save energy by encouraging rooftop solar panels?

Power companies: Hey, Florida, remember when we said we wanted to help customers save energy by encouraging rooftop solar panels?

Florida: Sure do. And some homes are more energy-efficient now. Congratulations!

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Power companies: Yeah, well, that's costing us a boatload And its bad for business. Wall Street wants us to increase demand, not reduce it. We'd like for you to go ahead and help us kill those efficiency programs.

Florida: No problem.' We're only the third-biggest electricity user in the country. What do we need to save power for?

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Hard as it is to believe. Florida has managed to launch an even more irresponsible energy policy than it had in the first place.

We're talking an astronomical hosing of power customers. How so? Here's what you need to know:

Duke Energy Florida (the largest provider in Central Florida) planned to conserve 333 giga watt-hours of electricity in 2019. Now, thanks to Florida's Public Service Commission, which is supposed to regulate utilities, that number just dropped to only 2L

Floridians soon won't be able to get rebates from Duke or Florida Power & Light for installing solar panels. And other energy-efficiency programs (incentives for upgrading to a new air-conditioning unit, for example) will go away, too.

■ The utilities say reduced energy-conservation goals will save customers money because those programs are too expensive. You know what won't save customers money? Building new power plants. And the faster utilities can increase demand for power, the faster they can get the PSC to sign off on new plants.

Utilities are guaranteed a profit by the state of Florida when they build new plants. That's part of the deal power companies get when they sign up as regulated monopolies. And that's why they are always so gung-ho about building.

■ Right now natural-gas prices are low. so the utilities argue new natural-gas plants are most sensible. But natural-gas prices are also extremely volatile, and nobody knows what they'll be in a few years (as the utilities used to argue when they wanted to build more coal plants).

Florida already gets more than 60 percent of its power from natural gas. About 21 percent comes from coal and 12 percent from nuclear. Just 5 percent comes from other sources.

If Florida really wanted to have a responsible energy policy it would set some standards, like most other states do, for how much power utilities have to come up with from solar, wind or other nonpolluting sources.

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Florida is No. 3 when it comes to potential for rooftop solar, according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory report

■ That kind of thinking, which favors the big utilities, is exactly why it won't be any surprise if the PSC allows FPL and Duke to start charging customers to invest in out-of-state tracking ventures.

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FPL is itching to bill customers for natural-gas exploration. Duke may not be far behind. The utilities like the idea of charging customers for another profitable venture. And, they argue, consumers could save in the long run because natural gas would remain cheaper.

Buy now, save later. We've heard that before. Remember Duke's failed nuclear plants, the ones we're still paying for?

I'd love to say the PSC is smart enough not to repeat that mistake. But first I'd have to believe the commission really is looking out for customers.