Rate Hike for Florida’s Most Expensive Gas Peaker Power Plant Ever Built Should be Reversed

Tallahassee, FL -- Today, the Sierra Club presented arguments to the Florida Supreme Court in a case seeking to reverse the Florida Public Service Commission’s (PSC) approval of a rate hike for Florida Power and Light’s (FPL) buildout of gas-burning peaker power plants in South Florida. The Sierra Club contends that neither the Commission nor FPL performed the legally required analysis of whether there were better, lower-cost options to serve the public.

In response, Susannah Randolph, senior representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Florida released the following statement:

"FPL failed to prove building these peakers all at once was even necessary, much less the best choice for customers. The Commission nonetheless approved a rate hike, shifting the costs and risks of the peakers onto customers. Our Supreme Court should reverse the Commission’s decision and ensure that the public only pays for prudent investments. Unless and until FPL proves that the peakers were prudent investments, the cost of those peakers should be carried by FPL, not the public. Otherwise, monopoly power companies like FPL win at the expense of the public, who would lose fundamental protections against rate hikes for imprudent investments by FPL.”