This opinion piece was authored by Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah. Lee County is located in Southwest Florida. There’s been a lot of talk coming out of Tallahassee recently about fewer government regulations and more market-driven solutions. A similar sentiment was echoed at the recent Florida Energy Summit, sponsored by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, where [...]
According to a new study from Citizens for Tax Justice, Duke Energy led five other Southeastern utilities in avoiding federal corporate income taxes. Compared to the statutory 35% corporate tax rate, Southeastern utilities paid about 10.5% of pre-tax profits in federal taxes during the 2008-10 time period. Duke’s effective tax rate of -3.9% (that is, [...]
Just a brief update for those who are interested in why Florida is moving so slowly on energy efficiency. As recently noted by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, “regulators in Florida … took actions to render their energy savings target ineffective.” Similarly in response, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is protesting [...]
–SACE’s High Risk Energy Choices Organizer, Mandy Hancock, contributed to this blog post. Last month, SACE again participated in the nuclear cost recovery hearings for Progress Energy Florida (PEF) and Florida Power & Light (FPL) at the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) in Tallahassee. This is the third consecutive year that these Florida utilities have [...]
North Carolina is increasing energy efficiency, cutting waste I’m a native Floridian and as long as I can remember, there’s always been a special relationship between Florida and North Carolina, especially in the heat of summer when some Floridians retreat to the mountains for milder temperatures. Both states nicely combine the gracious hospitality of Southern [...]
The following is an adaptation of a story about SACE’s early work. The original story appeared in a publication released by the Energy Foundation: Our battles require consistent and focused pressure here in the conservative Southeast, a region that is slow to embrace progressive energy policies. Energy Foundation support starting 17 years ago has enabled [...]
The long darkness is over! OK, that’s a bit melodramatic but … after many years of very little access to energy efficiency programs, Southeastern households and businesses are finding that their utilities may be offering attractive and comprehensive energy efficiency programs. As recently as 2008, significant energy efficiency programs in the Southeast were limited to [...]
Two weeks ago, SACE provided detailed analysis and findings based on evaluation of proposed energy efficiency programs filed by Florida power utilities. Over the past couple of days, one of those utilities responded. Progress Energy Florida feels that our comments “should not be considered ” by the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC). Progress Energy also [...]
Recently in the Southeast we’ve had some exciting announcements about utility plans to begin retiring and repowering some of their oldest and dirtiest coal plants. By our estimate, eleven retirements are in the works representing over 25 million tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions. As the proverbial ‘writing on the wall’ gets clearer that global [...]
August 2009 was busy in Tallahassee for Florida utilities. With lots of attention from the media, early in the month, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet approved new nuclear reactors for Progress Energy. There are now four such nuclear reactors proposed for the state, and the expansion of Plant Vogtle involves both Gulf Power (via [...]
