Lawmaker proposes bills to cut utility costs

Utility customers could save significantly under a series of reforms proposed in the state Legislature.

State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, has proposed four bills that would:

• Allow property owners to generate solar power and sell it to renters on their property.

• Stop utilities from raising rates to cover the cost of cleaning up environmental damage caused by the utility.

• Require utilities to charge 25 percent less for the first 500 kilowatt/ hours of energy usage.

• Repeal a law allowing utilities to charge customers extra to finance the building of nuclear power plants before the plants are built.

“One of the things in my view that holds us back as a state is our energy system,” Rodriguez said. “We have these regulated monopoly systems that stifle innovation and competition and are really a drain on the pocketbooks of customers, businesses and homeowners alike.”

The nuclear energy bill would repeal a part of state law called the Nuclear Cost Recovery Clause. It allows utilities to increase charges to customers to finance the construction and development of nuclear power. But if those proposed nuclear power plants aren’t built, the utilities can pocket the money.

In 2015, FPL charged customers an additional $34 million for two new reactors at the Turkey Point plant in Miami. Those reactors — meant to go online in 2018 and 2020 — have now been delayed for at least a decade.

In 2014, Duke Energy kept $50 million meant for improvements to the Crystal River nuclear power plant that were never completed.

“I think the case has been strongly made” that nuclear cost recovery doesn’t work, Rodriguez said. “It’s not saying don’t get reimbursed for your costs, it’s saying you can get reimbursed once you’ve built.”

But supporters in the utility industry say that without being able to finance new construction, utility companies would rely increasingly on natural gas and other fossil fuels. In 2013, the latest year available, 70 percent of FPL’s energy already comes from natural gas, according to the company’s website, with nuclear in second place at 17 percent. Solar and other renewable energies account for about one percent of FPL’s energy creation, with the rest coming from oil and energy purchased from out of state.

The bill to prevent utilities from passing on the cost of fixing environmental damage also originated with the Turkey Point nuclear plant, which faces a federal Clean Water Act lawsuit over contaminated leaks into Biscayne Bay. The lawsuit currently awaits a judge’s decision on FPL’s motion to dismiss the case because of lack of standing. Stephen Smith, the executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said he expects the judge’s decision soon.

Rodriguez said itwas wrong for any utility to pass the cost of cleanup on to the customer.

“Why on earth the utility that knowingly caused or let the contamination of the cooling canals happen would be able to pass the cost on to us is a head-scratcher,” Rodriguez said.

Charging customers less for the first 500 kilowatt/ hours of energy use is meant to both encourage less energy consumption and protect poor households that don’t use as much energy.

The bill allowing property owners to generate their own solar energy is similar to the language of a proposed solar amendment that failed to get on the ballot in 2016. That amendment was strongly opposed by utility companies, which funded their own petition drive for an alternative amendment that made it onto the ballot andwas defeated in November. “Property owners can generate energy themselves for people on the property. So, it’s a much narrower version. It’s a relative of the amendment that didn’t make it,” Rodriguez said.

None of Rodriguez’s bills have a House companion, and as a Democrat, the senator faces long odds of success in the Florida Legislature, where Republicans dominate both chambers and the utility companies employ an army of lobbyists.

State Sen. Jeff Clemens, DLake Worth, and state Rep. Lori Berman, D-Lantana, have filed identical bills in the Senate and House thatwould make permanent a pilot program that allows local governments to give $300,000 to businesses in “energy economic zones.” These zones, created by local government, would have to be rebuilt over time to allow for less automobile use, more jobs in the renewable energy industry and new buildings that are certified as environmentally sound.