Corporations-- too powerful by far ... by gimleteye

Too bad the Florida Public Service Commission is in an uproar and not the corporation that caused it. Some PSC staff are on administrative leave for ethical and perhaps legal transgressions in dealings with regulated companies like Florida Power and Light. The latest: avoiding public disclosure law by exchanging Blackberry PIN numbers with FPL representatives, allowing private, unrecorded conversations between regulators and regulated. What should really be on trial is Florida Power and Light. The corporation is pursuing its corporate interests by seeking both a 30 percent rate hike from utility customers and government approvals to build new power plants, including nuclear, in Florida.

FPL is pushing boundaries everywhere. Eyeonmiami reported yesterday on the fundraiser for an incumbent Miami-Dade County Commissioner, Rebecca Sosa, that will be co-hosted by a FPL executive, Manny Rodriguez, only weeks before an important vote on the $20 billion nuclear reactor project. Gov. Charlie Crist's biggest campaign fundraiser, Brian Ballard, is a lobbyist for FPL. Beyond ethical issues that do not rise to violations of law-- or not obviously so-- the FPL example points to a more fundamental question: why do corporations have more de facto power in America than citizens?

We have seen, ad nauseam, government employees and agencies favoring large and powerful corporations over people. An opinion expressed on Eyeonmiami by a former candidate for county commission who challenged incumbent Joe Martinez, makes the point clear as day: there is simply no getting around campaign contributions, whether from corporations or their proxies. You can't fight City Hall. Why? Because corporations have built such high walls and ramparts around legislators, virtually shutting out the public interest. Routine abuses of corporate power have topped alarming levels in the US, obscuring the causes of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Direct democracy initiatives like Florida Hometown Democracy are the remaining recourse to citizens trying to make changes that corporations would prohibit. In this topsy turvy world, the abuse of corporate power-- not just the transgressions of government staff-- should be loud and clear enough to require substantial constitutional reform.