Renewable energy advocates on Wednesday launched a campaign aimed at defeating Amendment 1, a solar initiative supported by Florida's largest utilities appearing on the general election ballot.

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Complicating the effort by Floridians for Solar Choice, however, is the amendment's timing. Its fate will be decided less than three months after Floridians overwhelmingly approved another solar measure, Amendment 4, which appeared on the Aug. 30 primary ballot.

Floridians for Solar Choice had supported that initiative, which sought to prevent property tax increases resulting from the installation of solar panels.

Conditioning green energy-minded voters who approved the first amendment to vote against the second won't be easy, the group's leaders admitted. Their slogan, 'utility-backed Amendment 1 blocks the sun', was designed to cut to the heart of a complicated issue in a simplistic way.

Amendment 1, which gained access to the ballot largely through generous funding from utilities including Florida Power and Light and Duke Energy, would codify an existing state regulation preventing solar panel companies from installing their equipment on rooftops and selling the power the panels generate to building occupants, typically for substantially less than energy purchased from utility companies.

"They don't want businesses coming in here and actually helping their customers save money and not buying more power from them, so we should really question the fundamental premise of what they're saying," said Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a member of the Floridians for Solar Choice coalition.

The group leading the effort to pass Amendment 1, Consumers for Smart Solar, disagrees with that characterization. They argue that the initiative, which critics have called a "wolf in sheep's clothing," would grant local governments more flexibility to implement "common sense" solar regulations and prevent Floridians from being fleeced by unscrupulous solar companies.

"Under Amendment 1, all energy consumers will be treated fairly whether they choose solar or not by allowing government to protect consumers from being forced to subsidize the energy choices of others," said Sarah Bascom, a spokesperson for Consumers for Smart Solar. "Further, Amendment 1 allows for state and local governments to retain their abilities to protect consumers from scams and rip-offs."

An initiative backed by Floridians for Solar Choice that would have allowed the direct sale of solar power failed to gain the requisite number of voter signatures to make the 2016 ballot. The coalition's leaders have pledged to redouble their efforts, eyeing inclusion on the 2018 ballot.