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FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Tuesday, November 08, 2005

The Entreprenurs Are At It Again

    "FPL is asking regulators to be allowed to charge customers 16 percent more in their monthly electric bills to pay for increased fuel costs caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."
    Technically, the fuel-increase surcharge is not a ''rate increase'' -- a point that PSC Chairman Braulio Baez emphasized Monday, saying that the improper use of rate-related terms is a "pet peeve" of his. Baez helped lead the charge in July to tack a $1.68 monthly surcharge on FPL customers' bills to help pay for storm damage last year. That charge, to last through February 2008, includes $34 million to reimburse FPL for "lost revenue" -- money it lost out on because it wasn't providing electricity to blacked-out homes after storms.

    Consumer advocates, among them AARP lawyer Mike Twomey, say that fee amounts to charging customers for power they didn't use. Swank said the "lost revenue" term was used by PSC staff, not FPL. He said the company is charging people for the recovery of costs incurred in restoring power, but that no one was charged for power they didn't use. Baez said he wasn't sure if the PSC would consider another such fee, pegged to Hurricane Wilma's damage. "I don't know what to foresee," he said.

    As for the latest fuel-related surcharge request, advocates from the Office of Public Counsel, the state consumer-advocacy agency, say there's little it can challenge before the PSC, except for a portion of the fuel-recovery money sought by Progress Energy, which might have bought coal from a subsidiary for more than the market rate. The group is also protesting FPL's decision to use $25 million in fuel-recovery money to repair steam-generator pipes for one of its nuclear generators in Port St. Lucie.

    "It doesn't make sense. What they're basically asking for is a tune-up, and they're claiming it should be paid with gas money," Twomey said. "They should pay this out of their base rates, not take even more from the consumer's pockets. People are paying enough already."
    "FPL is set to raise bills by 16%".

7:10 AM

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