Jack Sullivan

A wealth of opportunity is knocking on Florida’s door. But over the past several legislative sessions, and again this week, our policymakers have not answered the call.

Every time our policymakers leave town without taking action on renewable-energy policy, Florida forgoes tens of millions of dollars in potential revenue, the opportunity to establish a manufacturing base, and the ability to attract research and development facilities. We say "no thanks" to tens of thousands of jobs across a variety of fields -- from programmers and engineers to electricians and roofers.

Florida can be the “Renewable Energy Peninsula” and a leader in job creation, much like Silicon Valley’s dominance in information technology. But unless we make a very important change in our state’s renewable-energy policies, that simply will not happen. Fortunately for Floridians, lawmakers will have one more chance in September. And they will be urged on by a growing number of Floridians who are anxious to open the door to development of a renewable-energy economy here in the Sunshine State.

I was heartened to see the expanding support across economic sectors, occupations and academic disciplines that was evident at the Florida Energy Summit hosted earlier this month by the newly formed Citizens for Clean Energy. Elected officials, business leaders, clean-energy advocates and ordinary citizens all gathered to figure out how to expand and grow a new industry in Florida based on renewable energy.

Florida’s academic institutions know the recipe for success to attract knowledge-based businesses and investment to the state. Our Centers of Excellence program has funded several research centers -- among them the University of Central Florida’s Photonics Lab, the University of Florida's Center for Regenerative Health Bio-Technology and Florida Atlantic University's Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology -- that have proved themselves incubators of cutting-edge technology.

Other independent efforts -- such as Scripps Florida, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Max Planck Florida and the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies -- have drawn in millions of dollars in federal research funding, creating jobs and investment in local communities.

As a state, we have taken important steps to create the research and development environment necessary to attract renewable industries to Florida, from the 1975 establishment by the Legislature of UCF’s Florida Solar Energy Center to the appropriation of $40 million for the Florida Energy Systems Consortium to create a unified network of renewable-energy research programs at our universities.