Melissa Williams, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
TALLAHASSEE, FLA—Sierra Club today filed suit in the Florida Supreme Court to block FPL’s rate hike for an energy plan that bilks millions of customers and further locks the Sunshine State into an over-reliance on financially risky, climate-disrupting gas.
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) approved FPL’s rate plan following a settlement between the company and a small number of other parties in mid-December. One month prior, Sierra Club had submitted nearly 6,000 comments to the commission from Floridians who said the rate increase posed an economic hardship for them. The commenters also stressed that there’s no need for the gas-burning power plants in Florida.
Already, nearly 70 percent of FPL’s electric generation relies on gas, while less than 1 percent comes from cheap, clean, home-grown solar power.
Yet FPL still wants to build new gas plants, while also spending $3 billion of ratepayer money to build the 515-mile Sabal Trail pipeline to transport fracked gas to central Florida. Construction of the Sabal Trail pipeline threatens local waterways and wetlands and the fragile limestone surrounding the Floridan Aquifer, one of the largest freshwater aquifers in the world.
“There’s absolutely no justification for making families and businesses pay more of our hard-earned money just so FPL can line its shareholders’ pockets and pollute our air and water in the process,” said Sierra Club Florida Chapter Director Frank Jackalone.
Sierra Club’s legal challenge arises from Florida law, which states that utilities may raise rates only after the PSC agrees that the increase is prudent and necessary to continue providing reliable, affordable power. To comply with Florida law, FPL was required to present the PSC—and the public—with substantial evidence to prove the gas plants were needed and were the least-cost option before building the plants or asking to raise customers' rates to cover the costs.
FPL admits it never did this. It never presented evidence that it considered other low-cost options, such as solar or energy efficiency. And its CEO testified that many of the plants may even be rendered obsolete by 2020.
By approving FPL’s request, the PSC’s action violated Florida law, too.
“The PSC is supposed to make sure our energy sources are safe, reasonable and reliable,” said Sierra Club Florida Chapter Chair Mark Walters. “Instead, they’ve chosen to let FPL leave us vulnerable to price spikes when investments in solar and energy efficiency are proving to be safer and cheaper in states across the country.”
Floridians made it clear in November that they want more solar by voting down Amendment 1, a failed multi-million dollar attempt by FPL and other Florida utilities to mislead voters and hobble solar growth in the Sunshine State.
“FPL should take full advantage of our state’s clean energy potential instead of stubbornly building out dirty, unnecessary gas plants and pipelines that increase pollution and electric bills,” Walters said. “Renewable energy technologies are smarter, more cost-effective and safer than fossil fuels. FPL needs to stop propping up its stockholders at the expense of our communities and our natural resources.”