The FPL-Duke Energy deal could raise Floridians’ rates
Will a Florida energy company soon upend stability for Sunshine State families by reducing competition, hiking rates, and diminishing service quality?
Throughout the country, cronyism and backroom dealmaking have slowly but steadily become business as usual in state energy policymaking and procurement.
From Exelon in Illinois to FirstEnergy in Ohio, the pattern is becoming clearer by the day — shower politicians with favors and cash and wait patiently for results that benefit lobbyists and special interests.
From locked-in contracts to special carveouts to rate increases, nothing appears entirely out of reach as long as certain energy companies make the right friendships and financial moves.
Now, this alarming trend has come to the shores of Florida.
At issue is the interest that NextEra Energy, a Juno Beach-based energy corporation, recently expressed interest in acquiring Duke Energy, another utility company that provides power to over 1.8 million Floridians.
As the parent company of Florida Power and Light (FPL) and Gulf Power Companies, which provide service to over 5 million state residents combined, NextEra is already a massive force in the state. Acquiring Duke would transform the company into a nearly unchecked Florida monopoly — a position that would give it unprecedented leverage and opportunity to raise rates and reap windfall profits on consumers’ backs.
Florida ratepayers have every reason to be concerned about FPL’s potential acquisition of Duke Energy Florida. After all, it’s the fear of rate increases that caused regulators in Hawaii and Texas to block previous takeover attempts in those states.
And consider FPL’s record of cutting jobs as it increases its market share. Since acquiring Gulf Power last year, it laid off more than 22 percent of the utility’s workforce. If FPL were to acquire Duke Energy Florida and build a monopoly within the state, more than 1,000 jobs could be at risk. During this time of economic uncertainty and pandemic, can Florida afford to lose a single job, let alone 1,000?
The energy giant’s predatory playbook appears only to get bolder with time. In
South Carolina, NextEra has proposed a deal to acquire Santee Cooper, a state-owned electric and water utility, which would allow it to increase rates by a cool $160 million over two decades.
While not always successful, FPL’s massive Florida political and lobbying machines could make its potential acquisition of Duke Energy Florida more likely to happen.
Look no further than FPL’s recent attempt to acquire Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA), owned by the city of Jacksonville. The company singled out wellconnected staffers from the Jacksonville mayor’s office and JEA itself and hired them as consultants. In the weeks and months that followed, these consultants flew key officials, including the mayor, on a private aircraft and to an Atlanta Braves game, seemingly to help grease the deal.
As if that’s not enough political cronyism, FPL also tasked its lobbyists with finding charities and organizations closely tied to Jacksonville city council members that would have to vote on the JEA sale. The lobbyists developed suggested donations of tens of thousands of dollars to initiatives and nonprofits led by their target lawmakers.
This effort culminated in investigations from local leaders and federal prosecutors.
The company’s bid for JEA, while unsuccessful, shows two things: just how much weight it carries in the state’s political circles, and its no-holds-barred, ethically dubious approach to getting it what it wants.
It remains to be seen what this company, which the Energy and Policy Institute described as “one of the largest spenders on politics among utilities, one of the worst for disclosure policies,” will do in Florida in the absence of regulatory scrutiny. But here’s hoping the state won’t have to find out.
FPL is already too big and too powerful. Florida officials and regulators should be doing everything they can to crack down on its practices, not empower it to become a monopoly in the state. Instead, what’s needed is proper regulatory oversight to ensure that Florida consumers get affordable, clean, and reliable electricity. No more backroom dealing — and please, no more monopolistic practices and corporate cronyism.