As a student of history, I am recently reminded of the Robber barons of the 19th century and early 20th century who became wealthy after taking unethical steps to create large enterprises, while at the same time distracting or placating the public with a smokescreen of charitable deeds and promises. Tampa Electric Company (TECO) and Emera, its Canadian parent company, under the leadership of Archie Collins (TECO CEO) and Scott Balfour (Emera CEO), respectively, are acting no different.
The smokescreen is in the talking point repeatedly shared by Archie Collins, the current CEO of TECO. He says that TECO is looking to raise our bills by an average of $13, but we shouldn’t worry because two other increases are “expiring.” What he doesn’t say is that those are surcharges that TECO will look to renew or extend later, after this rate increase takes effect.
The fuel cost surcharge depends on the price of fracked gas, and guess what? TECO and the company that sets the price and sells TECO gas, Peoples Gas, are owned by the same parent company! TECO is a private company that answers to shareholders who only care about making a return on their investment, so they choose to invest in a massive gas plant because it is the best way to increase their profit without accounting for people’s lives. With an investment in renewable energy and battery storage, their sister company loses the enormous revenue stream of selling itself gas, financed by Tampa Bay residents such as my friend Krystal Pate, a single earner household with four children feeling the squeeze of having to make a decision between paying utilities or putting food on the table. They struggle to pay the energy bill every month since their bill increased.
TECO is also keeping rates high to finance more pollution on the coal front. TECO is currently operating two uneconomical plants—Big Bend Unit 4 and Polk Unit 1—that burn coal, the dirtiest and most expensive fuel. Not only is the cost of purchasing coal and operating those old coal plants higher than the cost of generating energy from clean solar and storage, but the costs of bringing those coal plants into compliance with environmental regulations promises to get steeper and steeper each year. What makes this situation even more egregious is that TECO can apply for federal funds under the new Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program, which would provide the company with a low-cost means of retiring its old coal plants and investing in new, clean, renewable resources that would serve Florida communities for years to come. Even without this funding, TECO could simply invest in cheaper alternatives and stop placing the high costs of operating obsolete coal plants on TECO customers.
From 2021 to 2023, TECO raised customer bills by an average of $60! Now again they ask for a new bill hike totaling over $1.1 billion dollars over the three years of the bill increase, from 2025 to 2027. Our bills are already higher than the national average, and our most in-need communities, mainly our Black and brown communities, are already suffering a higher energy burden (i.e., the percentage of a household’s income spent on energy bills), just as they tend to suffer more from health issues because they are exposed to higher rates of pollution from TECO’s coal plants.
A spokesperson for TECO told WUSF in February that they know there’s never a good time to raise rates, and they feel for customers who are facing hardships. That empty and insincere response from the utility shows how out of touch the for-profit company is from Tampa Bay residents’ real lives. During a recent meeting with Archie Collins, he committed to participating in a transparency session where the public will ask him questions directly. This would be a step in the right direction, removing the veil of the smokescreen, but it needs to be followed by more concrete steps to protect Tampa residents from dangerous pollution, including committing to retire all coal-burning capacity in TECO’s service territory.
By: Walter L. Smith, II MPH, MLA, LEP
Tampa Bay Organizing Representative
Beyond Coal Campaign
Sierra Club