As a solar owner,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0spent years helping neighbors understand their energy choices, especially seniors, working families\u00a0and\u00a0veterans living on fixed incomes.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0seen firsthand how rising electric bills<\/a> strain household budgets.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why I oppose JEA\u2019s decision to pursue an oversized, risky new gas plant.<\/p>\n Last August, JEA\u2019s board approved plans for a 675-megawatt natural gas plant with a price tag of\u00a0$1.57 billion. This figure is already 139% higher than the utility\u2019s original estimate due to supply chain problems and construction delays.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even more troubling, an independent analysis by the Rocky Mountain Institute\u00a0finds that this project could\u00a0ultimately cost\u00a0customers up to\u00a0$2.5 billion\u00a0more<\/a> than cleaner, less volatile alternatives like utility-scale solar, battery storage\u00a0and\u00a0energy efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gas turbines are in short supply nationwide, pushing costs higher and delaying projects across the country. For this plant, the timeline has already slipped by at least two years\u00a0(from 2029 to 2031)\u00a0leaving customers exposed to fuel price spikes<\/a> in the meantime. These are exactly the kinds of risks utilities are supposed to protect customers from, not lock us into\u00a0\u2014\u00a0again\u00a0<\/p>\n What makes this especially frustrating is that better options are readily available. According to\u00a0the Rocky Mountain Institute\u2019s analysis, portfolios built around utility-scale solar, energy storage\u00a0and\u00a0efficiency can meet Jacksonville\u2019s reliability needs at lower cost and with far less financial risk.\u00a0Clean energy alternatives outperformed the gas plant once updated market conditions were taken into account.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Even JEA did not\u00a0dispute the report\u2019s technical findings; it simply disagreed with the conclusions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Solar power has become one of the cheapest sources of new electricity generation. It can be deployed faster than gas plants, avoids fuel price volatility\u00a0entirely\u00a0and\u00a0produces no harmful emissions. Just as importantly, Jacksonville should\u00a0be expanding\u00a0access to customer-owned solar<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Restoring fair net metering\u00a0\u2014\u00a0known as rooftop solar credits\u00a0\u2014\u00a0would allow customers to receive credit for the electricity they generate and feed it back into the grid.\u00a0<\/p>\n Net metering<\/a> is a proven policy that lowers bills, strengthens grid\u00a0resilience\u00a0and\u00a0keeps energy dollars circulating locally. I can say\u00a0from personal experience and\u00a0without hesitation that distributed solar paired with battery storage improves household affordability. These benefits multiply when more customers are allowed to\u00a0participate, while also providing backup power during major storms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Restricting net metering does the opposite:\u00a0It discourages local investment\u00a0and\u00a0limits consumer choice,\u00a0while harming\u00a0residents and local businesses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jacksonville residents are still paying for past mistakes\u00a0and\u00a0JEA customers currently face higher bills tied to debt from Georgia\u2019s Plant Vogtle nuclear project<\/a>, which ballooned to\u00a0roughly double\u00a0its original cost. Building another large, delay-prone power plant risks repeating history\u00a0at a time when families can least afford it.<\/p>\n Beyond repeating history, there are real health and economic risks. Fossil\u00a0fuel\u00a0generation today contributes to air pollution<\/a> that worsens asthma and other respiratory conditions, which drives up health\u00a0care costs. Clean energy alternatives reduce these risks while creating hundreds of millions of dollars in local economic benefits that\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0be outsourced.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jacksonville deserves an energy strategy that reflects today\u2019s realities, not yesterday\u2019s assumptions. Investing billions in a new gas plant makes no sense when cheaper,\u00a0cleaner\u00a0and\u00a0more flexible alternatives are available. JEA should pause this project, update its analysis, restore net metering, accelerate utility-scale solar and battery storage\u00a0and\u00a0expand energy efficiency programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have to choose between reliability and affordability. We can have both\u00a0\u2014\u00a0if JEA is willing to choose a future that works for the people it serves, not against them.<\/p>\n Martin Taylor is an Air Force veteran and a proud solar owner. He lives in Jacksonville. This opinion piece was originally published<\/a> by the Florida Times-Union, which is a media partner<\/a> of The Invading Sea. Banner photo: A natural gas power plant (iStock image).\u00a0<\/p>\n Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here<\/a>. To support The Invading Sea, click here<\/a> to make a donation. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Martin Taylor Jacksonville is in an affordability crisis, and\u00a0JEA\u00a0(as our public utility)\u00a0should be part of the solution\u00a0\u2014\u00a0not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[836,42973,58033,116,92114,118,117,868,92115,22370,58037],"class_list":["post-199187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-affordability","tag-air-pollution","tag-gas-turbines","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-electric-authority-jea","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-natural-gas","tag-net-metering","tag-power-plants","tag-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Solar-farm-1024x576.jpg\")
Solar power has become one of the cheapest sources of new electricity generation. (U.S. Department of Agriculture via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Martin-Taylor.jpeg\")
Martin Taylor<\/p>\n