Panhandle backlash on FPL rate hike helped spark DeSantis veto of rooftop solar bill

For the past four months, the reliably Republican Florida Panhandle community has been doing something very uncharacteristic for conservative voters: It has been revolting against Florida’s largest electric utility. And, in a gesture that cuts to the core of the utility giant’s expansion goals, some Pensacola officials want to establish their own municipally-run utility.

Three years ago, FPL bought the home-grown electric utility, Gulf Power Company. In January, when a rate increase took effect along with rising fuel prices as part of a four-year deal, Northwest Florida faced sticker shock.

FPL said that average Gulf Power residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours a month would see their electric bills go from $129.24 to $137.49 in January, but hundreds of people complained on a social media site that the average was much higher. Business owners complained of having bills inexplicably triple. As temperatures dipped below freezing, Panhandle residents who couldn’t afford the increases reported

Big Pharma and the chemical industries, personally financed months of television ads blasting the “shameless greed” of FPL and the “dysfunctional failure” of the Public Service Commission, that regulates utilities.

“This is so bad, we’ve had to spend $40- $50- $60,000 to get the message out there that something is so upside down we have to do something about it,’’ Papantonio told the Herald/Times last week.

DeSantis cited “the worst inflation in 40 years” and said he was vetoing the bill because “the state of Florida should not contribute to the financial crunch that our citizens are experiencing.”

POLITICAL CALCULATION