The extreme cold weather has once again delivered “sticker shock” to many Jackson County Citizens as they remorsefully opened their monthly envelopes containing their electric bills. This is especially true of those residents and businesses which are located within the service area of Florida Public Utilities. The bills for those customers are some 30% higher than those in areas served by Gulf Power or West Florida Electric. This service area includes all of Marianna and the surrounding area.
These citizens are suffering under electric rates that rank among the highest in the state. The history of how this situation evolved, who is responsible for it, and what can be done to begin to restore a more equitable condition for our citizens is the subject of this column.
In the years before 2008 area customers of Florida Public Utilities enjoyed electric rates which ranked among the lowest in the State. This condition existed because FPU had entered into a very favorable long term contract with its power supplier, Gulf Power. Then fuel costs began to rise dramatically, and Gulf Power was not able to raise its prices to FPU because of the exiting contract arrangement. It is my understanding that they attempted to reopen the contract for renegotiation, but FPU refused. About this time Gulf power was also required by the EPA to install emission reduction scrubbers at their power plants which cost them millions of dollars in added investment.
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