I'm in agreement that solar panels in south Florida are a good idea, and that to single out this law as an end of American freedom is ridiculous. But we have to admit that this isn't the best way to address the problem. The law exempts houses in the case of shade, but there are are bound to be other edge cases where solar panels don't make sense. IMHO, the ideal way to address the problem of carbon dioxide emissions would be to tax it. A hefty carbon tax combined with a flexible electric utility infrastructure would do more to reduce emissions than compelling one particular house design over another.
Given that one of America's political parties has rejected the scientific evidence behind anthropogenic climate change and more or less equates taxation with theft, I don't foresee a carbon tax in the US any time soon. Compelling people to buy solar panels isn't a good law, but it might be the closest we can get in the current environment.
My thoughts are it seems that you either have to pick "mandate solar panels on homes" or "build more affordable housing" as both views don't seem to work together.
i remember feeling outrage when i first realised just by being born in a country one is subject to the country's laws. completely non-consensual.
tangentially: book recommendation: "The Wake" by Paul Kingsnorth. fictional account of life in England following the Norman invasion of 1066, written in a unique form of english. Here's the part I am reminded of - the narrator is enraged when the local official comes to his land to collect tax for the conquering foreign king:
> well i wolde not gif them geld no i wolde not gif naht to this ingenga bastard for what he done. i had naht to gif after all the wars and the fyr what had cum from him and these cyngs all feohtan ofer the right to play with small folc lic sum fuccan game and this is what i telt the fuccan weosul when he cum to me for geld
on another hand, now i slowly appreciate the "tragedy of the commons". oh to live in a world where nothing i did impacted anyone else, and nothing they did impacted me. how simple and independent and free we could all be. but the world is not like this, and becomes even less like this as time passes.
To single out this law, which appears to be an overwhelmingly a good idea, as the "bad" one, seem a bit nonsensical.
If your against all regulation of building, then that might be a stand that you could try argue for. But to pick out this one new law seems weird.