Why being greedy can backfire

Florida Power and Light's grid did not fare well under Hurricane Irma, despite the company's assurances that it had spent billions hardening its systems after 90% of its customers lost power to 2005's Hurricane Wilma. But one thing has changed since 2005.

Solar. Many of the FPL customers who are living through dangerous heat without power now have solar panels on their roofs that could keep them going while FPL repairs its infrastructure after a storm. Except that doing so is illegal, thanks to FPL's lobbyists, who literally ghost-wrote much of Florida's dreadfully inane solar rules.

Under these rules, Floridians with solar panels are required to shut them down when the power goes out "In order to prevent dangerous back feed on FPL's grid. This is required to protect FPL employees who may be working on the grid." But the same rules mandate that these homes include a switch that cleanly disconnects their panels from FPL's system while keeping the rest of a home's power lines connected, but Floridians are prohibited from flipping this switch and turning their power on (FPL is allowed to disconnect and padlock the switch at its discretion).

So in conclusion folks, the moral of the story is that when a disruptive technology comes along that threatens your business model, and you choose to put shackles on it, you'll never know what kind of domino effect it will have.