Billion$ not enough for greedy FP&L, while many in Florida can’t pay their electricity

Florida Power & Light is Florida’s largest electric utility company. According to The Miami Herald, “FPL, a regulated monopoly with more than 10 million customers in Florida, is currently making profits at about 11.6%, the most allowed under current law.” Last year, when millions of Floridians had to stand in lines for food, and many could not pay their rent because of the Covid pandemic, FPL reported net income of $2.65 billion. 

I recently read about the groundbreaking working paper by Carter C. Price and Kathryn Edwards of the RAND Corporation that shows that from 1975 to 2018, radical inequality in this country had grown to over $47 trillion. In other words, as stated in a 2020 Time Magazine article, “At a recent pace of about $2.5 trillion a year, that number we estimate crossed the $50 trillion mark by early 2020. That’s $50 trillion that would have gone into the paychecks of working Americans […] $50 trillion that would have built a far larger and more prosperous economy—$50 trillion that would have enabled the vast majority of Americans to enter this pandemic far more healthy, resilient, and financially secure.”

It is why I balk at the thought of a Florida monopoly with more than 10 million customers, supposedly regulated by politicians and their subordinates, and who year after year makes billions in profits… is now asking the state for a $2 billion increase in base rate revenues. As reported by The Miami Herald, “FPL was asking the PSC to allow it to charge customers $1.8 billion to add 20 solar-power plants. Customers were expected to enroll to voluntarily pay more on their electric bills to finance the solar projects.” 

FPL, who makes money hand over fist, and who in 2019 paid its parent company chairman and CEO, James Robo, almost $70 million, is now asking Floridians, most suffering economically because of a pandemic that will soon have killed half a million Americans, to pay to help make improvements to a utility that will help make it more profitable so that the James Robos of the company can make their multi-million dollar salaries. All at the expense of the little guy, many who can’t even pay their rent and have a hard time paying their FPL electric bills. 

And that’s the world we live in…

The politicians and those they appoint

FPL is regulated by the Florida Public Service Commission, a five-member state board that regulates private utility and telecommunications companies in Florida. The FPSC members are appointed by the Governor of Florida and confirmed by the Florida Senate. There’s also the Office of Public Counsel, the legal office created to protect customers from excess utility profits in rate cases before the Florida Public Service Commission. As explained by the Miami Herald, “While the utilities have a team of lawyers and experts to make their case on behalf of their investors, the OPC has a smaller group of state-paid lawyers working on behalf of customers.” For the past 14 years they’ve been led by J.R. Kelly, who has been described as “a thorn in the side” of the utility companies for effectively fighting against FPL rate hike requests. The State legislature recently asked him to re-apply for the job he had held for 14 years. Seeing the writing on the wall, Kelly resigned in January.

Four people applied to replace Kelly. Mysteriously, three withdrew the application. Left standing was Richard Gentry, “a 70-year-old veteran lobbyist who last year lobbied for a utility-backed non-profit, Floridians for Government Accountability.”

Interestingly, again as reported by the Miami Herald, “In the last election cycle, FPL was among the largest contributors to legislative campaigns with $3.1 million in donations, according to reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections. Included in the 2020 contributions was $1.5 million to the Florida Republican Senatorial Leadership Committee, headed by [Senate President Wilton] Simpson…” It was Simpson who had targeted Kelly demanding that he re-apply for a job that he held honorably and effectively for more than a decade. 

So if you live in Florida, expect your electric bill to spike up. It’s our politicians in Tallahassee, led by Republicans, helping out poor FPL who is not satisfied making almost $3 billion a year profit. They need more money to add the solar power plants we should have had in place years ago and which they should be paying with the profits we the customers provide the company. 

Cases like FPL in Florida help explain why people around the country are just fed up with politicians, most who favor special interests over constituents they are elected to serve. It also helps us understand the case of a president whose intentions were not good, but who knew how to channel some of that anger to help him almost overthrow a government this past January 6.