Shame on the PSC

Re: His FPL bill averaged $15 a month — until it doubled with new minimum monthly charge

The Florida Public Service Commission should be ashamed. Global warming is a fact, clearly made worse by the burning of fossil fuels, as most power plants do. The need for environmentally neutral ways to generate power is critical to avoid catastrophic warming. The best options are wind and solar. I installed solar panels on my roof, which has significantly reduced my power consumption from Florida Power & Light.

Although I’m pretty healthy, at my age

(80) I’m unlikely to ever fully recover the cost of installation. I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do, for the people, country and planet.

What the five PSC commissioners (Andrew Giles Fay, Art Graham, Gary Clark, Mike LaRosa and Gabriella Passidomo) felt was the right thing to do was financially punish people whose power bills do not exceed $25 a month by letting FPL and other utilities arbitrarily add a base charge to their bills. So as of June, for the four or five months each year that my solar panels are most effective, I am forced to make an involuntary donation of

$100 or more to FPL.

This notice was slipped into my June bill in very small print: “A new minimum base bill of $25, which was approved by the Florida Public Service Commission, is now in effect for metered residential customers whose monthly base electric service costs fall below $25.”

This is morally wrong. The PSC should be encouraging, rather than punishing, homeowner investment in solar.

Jack Morton, Melbourne