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Topic: Florida

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[Episode #262] – All Transitions are Local

Nov 5 2025

Mini Episode

Successful energy transition projects are not one-size-fits-all. They are attuned to the local needs of their communities, and allow community priorities to shape resilience, affordability, and equity outcomes.

In today's conversation, Nadia Ahmad, Professor of Law at Barry University in Florida, shares findings from a three-year study of clean energy transitions in Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. Based on more than 100 stakeholder interviews, the research exposes a troubling paradox. Florida suffers from frequent hurricanes, tropical storms, and flash floods, but a utility structure dominated by investor-owned companies actively prevents the community microgrids that would build resilience.

Ahmad explains how legal, policy, and regulatory frameworks at county, municipal, state, and federal levels can support community-driven clean energy transitions. She shares important insights on designing approaches to accelerate the energy transition where you live, including the seven legal elements her team identified for successful projects and the pitfalls to avoid. For instance, Florida's challenges contrast with Germany's success, where nearly half of renewable energy capacity became citizen-owned by the 2010s.

Guest:

Nadia B. Ahmad is a Professor of Law at Barry University School of Law. Professor Ahmad’s research explores the intersections of energy siting, the environment, and sustainable development and draws on international investment law and corporate social responsibility. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice’s Environmental Justice Committee, and the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources’ Superfund and Natural Resource Damages Litigation Committee. She is an official expert for multilateral development organization, International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) Taskforce on Bamboo for Renewable Energy (TFB4RE), which promotes environmentally sustainable development using bamboo and rattan. Professor Ahmad is a member of the state bars of Florida and Colorado.

On Twitter: @nadiabahmad

On Bluesky: @nadiabahmad.bsky.social

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiabahmad/

On the Web:  Nadia’s faculty page at Barry University School of Law

Geek rating: 4

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[Episode #62] – How Advance Cost Recovery Swindled the South

Feb 7 2018

Mini Episode

How did the legal innovation of “advance cost recovery” allow utilities in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi to torch more than $40 billion on nuclear and coal plants that went way over budget or never produced a single kilowatt-hour of electricity? And what if this story is more than just a few poor decisions about a handful of power plants, but instead a long history of reckless behavior, if not outright fraud and corruption, by contractors, utilities, their regulators, and legislators, which customers in the South will be paying off for years to come? And what can be done to prevent such boondoggles in the future?

Our guest in this episode is a reporter from the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper, The Post and Courier, of Charleston, South Carolina, who has been contributing to a terrific series of articles about what went wrong with these power plants, by doing good old-fashioned investigative journalism. It’s a pretty incredible story they have uncovered and continue to tell in their newspaper every week as they work to uncover the truth and protect consumers. After you hear this jaw-dropper, you’ll probably never take the prospect of US nuclear or clean coal seriously ever again.

Geek rating: 2

Geek rating: 2

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