Those that were bloodied in the battle: The Babcock Ranch project which aspires to be one of the first solar-powered cities in the world and many thousands of laborers who would have found employment building new power plants.
Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said "We are extremely disappointed...The people of Florida should feel cheated by their legislative leadership."
In the Legislative body's final days, emotions were high and at one point Gov. Charlie Crist pleaded to the House for a renewable energy standard. Crist's pleas went unanswered and it was then that a major producer of renewable energy , Florida Crystals turned on Florida Power & Light as they were trying to create a solar deal of their own, which then failed.
In 2007 Crist requested that the Public Service Commission require power companies to generate 20% of their electricity from renewable resources to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
The PSC subjected several major environmentalists and utility Representatives to four workshops in 2007. The experts in charge of the workshops had more questions than answers so the PSC didn't reach any decisions, either. The 2008 Legislature had the same problem, so they discussed the issue at great length and gave it back to the PSC.
More workshops were attended. The PSC then passed the problem to the Navigant consulting firm. That body of experts produced a 200 page monstrosity at a cost to taxpayers of $135,000.
If anyone read it no one commented on it.
FPL thinks nuclear power is a "clean energy" and should be considered so in a standard. It argues that nuclear power can generate enormous amounts of electricity with no emission of 
Greenhouse Gases. Environmentalists disagreed, they were in favor of solar, which nuclear plants negated.
The commission presented a 167 page document to the Legislature because it couldn't say in a few dozen words that by 2020, 20% of power should come from renewables, unless it increased customer bills more than 2% per year.
If we do find that it increases customer bills more than 2% per year, what then? Never mind?
The document said the Legislative body "may wish to consider" adding nuclear power to the standard.
Senator Jim King created a "compromise bill" and nuclear was included, only to five% of the 20% standard, however.
Environmentalists scoffed at the nuclear provision but were told by King that it wouldn't pass without the inclusion of nuclear.
Gaston Cantens of Florida Crystals said that Senator King "did a masterful job." He said that not everyone was pleased with everything, but everyone liked something so no one was overly concerned.
The bill languished in the House, which wasn't ready for company after the indictment of speaker Ray Sansom. Glickman said the House hadn't "any appetite for this." ' We did energy last year,' he sulked.
House leaders redesigned a bill covering energy to include offshore drilling, making it virtually impossible to pass by the environmentalists. "
FPL, who supports Green projects if it is a certainty that its customers will pay for them also, has arrangements with the Legislative body for assistance with solar projects. Renewable energy proponents were angry that FPL was getting the solar deal, as they were getting nothing. Enough of a protest was made that an FPL deal was retracted.
Jackie Anderson, an FPL spokeswoman made it clear that she was disappointed that the governing body did not push forward for the development of renewable energy as Florida needed. She raised the subject of the economy needing the push that construction of these plants could have provided. She mentioned a job fair that was held recently where 8,000 prospective applicants attended to fill positions at the plants.
