Florida's electric utilities: not a pretty picture ... by gimleteye

I'm opposed to the proposed $20 billion nuclear reactors that FPL wants to build in brain-dead Homestead. But my position is based less on opposition to nuclear power than to the fact Florida's utilities are doing everything possible to maintain profits based on units of energy produced: growth by the megawatt. Not conservation. My point of view: solve the underlying policies so utilities are compensated for conservation, before any consideration of new nuclear.

Sure, FPL is building big solar projects and, outside Florida, is the nation's largest producer of energy by wind power. But here, the utility is like an aging body builder on steroids, exercising its special prerogatives imagining its glory days are still ahead; most recently in its effort to increase base rates while hiding how many employees are being paid millions of dollars. While the earth burns, FPL dithers in the kinds of gamesmanship that should have citizens and ratepayers plotting revolution.

Consider yesterday's AP report, ambiguously titled, "Fl. energy panel rejects environmentalists' plan". Florida's utilities successfully petitioned the Florida Energy and Climate Commission against setting profits to conservation. Howell Ferguson, CEO of Lykes Brothers, pointed out: "... Florida’s utilities currently rank 107th to 177th in efficiency and conservation nationally." Pathetic. (For the full article, click 'read more')


http://www.news-press.com/article/20090827/NEWS01/90827067/1075
*The Associated Press*

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Energy and Climate Commission sided with the
state’s major power companies and against a pair of environmental groups
Thursday in a dispute over setting conservation and efficiency goals for the
utilities.

The panel, created by Gov. Charlie Crist and state lawmakers last year,
voted 6-2 to recommend that the Public Service Commission adopt a
goal-setting procedure based largely on a long-used method favored by the
utilities.

It reduces efficiency requirements to avoid rate increases that may be
needed to pay for fixed costs such as power plants if power sales decline
because of conservation.

Jeremy Susac, the commission’s executive director, said that’s the only way
to meet a requirement in state law for the panel to consider cost in its
recommendation.

“We’re all for energy efficiency, but ... you have to look for the
least-cost alternative,” said Susac, who drafted the commission’s
recommendation.

The final vote came after the panel rejected an alternate method, which
counts conservation savings as a benefit rather than a cost to consumers. It
was proposed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Southern Alliance
for Clean Energy and has been endorsed by a consultant for the Public
Service Commission.

The environmentalists say their method would result in at least five times
as much in energy savings. They acknowledge rates would go up slightly but
argue consumers’ bills would be lower overall because they’d be using less
power.

“That is a win-win for everybody,” said Commissioner Howell Ferguson, chief
executive officer of Tampa-based Lykes Brothers Inc. But Commissioner
Christian Poindexter, retired chairman and CEO of Maryland-based
Constellation Energy Group, said “I don’t believe it’s true.”

Commissioner Nicholas Gladding, a Sarasota lawyer, also opposed the
environmentalists’ plan, saying the resulting “burden on the general rate
payer would be just extraordinary at this time, given the economy.”

Ferguson and Debra Harrison, Florida program director for the World Wildlife
Fund, were the only commissioners who voted against Susac’s draft and for
the environmentalists’ proposal.

“We have lost a tremendous opportunity to us to provide leadership on an
issue that we’ve been charged with by the governor’s office,” said Harrison,
who introduced the failed proposal.

Crist has been a vocal advocate of conservation and alternate energy sources
to reduce greenhouse gases that have been blamed for global warming.

The panel acted at an emergency meeting, with Susac and four commissioners
participating by phone. The vote came one day ahead of the commission’s
deadline for sending a recommendation to the Public Service Commission,
which will make a final decision later this year. The 10-year goals are
revised every five years.

The majority recommendation combines the utilities’ rate-focused method with
consideration of benefits reaped by consumers who participate in energy
conservation programs.

Ferguson said Florida’s utilities currently rank 107th to 177th in
efficiency and conservation nationally and the commission’s recommendation
would do little to change that.

“The state’s utilities, this commission and the governor should wince at the
low level of energy efficiency,” said George Cavros, a lawyer for the
environmental groups.