The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) began the first phase of technical hearings in Tallahassee Monday for Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) proposed rate hike for its approximately 12 million customers.
FPL’s originally proposed base rate hike in February would have allowed it to collect $9.8 billion in revenue over the next four years — the highest in U.S. history. Since then, that has been negotiated down by approximately $2.9 billion — still far too high, energy advocates argue.
In her opening statement, Ali Wessling, attorney for the Office of Public Counsel (OPC), said the PSC’s statutory obligation is to regulate utilities such as FPL for the protection of the public welfare, which in this case means customers — not the corporation itself…