Say 'No' to FPL's $1.3 Billion Rate Increase for More Fossil Fuels

 

 

No one thinks it's a good idea to hike up electric bills — especially not to fund fracked gas imports.

 

No one, that is, except Florida Power & Light (FPL) — the big power monopoly that just tried to dupe Floridians with its fake solar ballot measure.

 

As the millions of voters who beat that measure know — FPL will stop at almost nothing to stunt the clean energy economy in the Sunshine State.

Now, FPL has pivoted to the Florida Public Service Commission with a request for customers to fund more than one billion dollars' worth of new and expanded power plants that burn fracked gas from as far away as Pennsylvania and Texas.  

 

These power plants are unnecessary, as FPL has admitted homegrown solar and batteries could do at least as good a job of powering Floridian homes and businesses — at competitive prices. To make matters worse, FPL is also using these power plants to try to justify building unnecessary gas pipelines, such as Sabal Trail and Atlantic Sunrise.

 

The commission actually has an easy decision to make on Nov. 29: It should vote against FPL's request to charge customers for the unnecessary fracked gas power plants. The request is unlawful because FPL has flunked the test that Florida uses to decide whether power company expenses can be passed on to customers.  

 

As the commission has held, and the Florida Supreme Court has affirmed, that test is to minimize the cost of service by studying and then taking "every reasonably available prudent action." FPL did not.

 

Earlier this summer, when asked if FPL studied non-gas options, the company's president admitted: "at Florida Power & Light, I don’t know if we have that documentation." The president and other company executives also admitted that clean energy options such as solar and energy efficiency can be "very cost-effective."

 

Yet FPL never studied its clean options before moving forward with the unnecessary power plants.  Indeed, FPL still "doesn’t know" whether it will delay yet another billion-dollar gas plant, in Okeechobee, and the company is asking customers to pay for that, too.

 

Call the PSC today at 1-800-342-3552 to let them know you oppose FPL's rate hike request for unnecessary gas plants!