If you get your electricity from Florida's power grid, you'll likely be paying a monthly fee to an investor-owned utility company — and your rates will likely go up.
Currently, just four utilities provide electricity to more than 15 million residents in Florida. In the Tampa Bay area, Tampa Electric Company (TECO) provides electricity to approximately 800,000 people. Floridians pay the fourth highest rates in the country, but rates are set to increase again. TECO has filed a rate increase that, if approved, would increase the average residential rate to at least $160.93 per month in January 2025. That's 62% higher than six years ago ($61 per month).
Floridians' high energy bills require local government action because state government agencies have failed to protect homes from these astronomical fees. The state's Public Utilities Commission (PSC) ultimately determines how much companies like TECO charge, but industry takeovers have turned the commission into a handing over of companies' high rate demands. Now, it's local governments that represent affected constituents.
Hillsborough County's seven commissioners represent 672,297 TECO customers – 84% of the utility's residential base. For over a year, concerned local residents in the Hillsborough Affordable Energy Coalition, representing 12,000 commission members, have been calling for the county to take action about increasingly high energy bills and the climate crisis they are causing. It's time to take action.
Here's how TECO wants to increase energy rates and what the Hillsborough County Commission can do about it.
TECO is asking for a generation rate increase of up to 12.6%. If approved, starting in January 2025, the average user would pay almost $20 more per month for the same amount of energy they use today. That figure would increase by nearly $30 per month by 2027. Part of this is for profit purposes, with TECO asking the state to issue an 11.5% return on equity to increase shareholder profits funded by these rate increases. That's an increase from the current 10.2% and significantly higher than the utility sector's average rate of 9.6%.
TECO is also asking for a 50.7% increase in its base rate to fund infrastructure expansion to lock in the fossil fuels that are causing the climate crisis and protect TECO from it. These costs will show up on your bill even if you never use electricity. This includes $500 million for a new headquarters, operations and data center that TECO will relocate to avoid rising sea levels, by TECO's own admission. Meanwhile, TECO plans to increase its reliance on fracked gas, which is causing sea levels to rise, even as it predicts gas prices will only rise.
The Hillsborough County Commission must step in to intervene in TECO’s rate lawsuit and advocate on behalf of its customer constituents for affordable clean energy.
The Hillsborough County Commission should also pass an affordable energy and climate plan to transition away from fossil fuels and keep bills low in the long term. The plan should promote energy efficiency programs and provide funding for homeowners, landlords and renters to install environmentally friendly appliances that use less energy, while subsidizing cleaner buildings. Ample availability of federal and state funding means many of these benefits come at little to no cost. Tampa's climate plan, released last year, will serve as a model for Hillsborough County. The city's fossil fuel transition plan is expected to significantly reduce energy bills.
The county took a step in the right direction. At advocates' urging, Chairman Hagan sent a letter from the full county commission to the PSC last April requesting a district-wide meeting to consider upcoming rate increases. As a result, TECO announced plans for local public hearings this June — the first in more than a decade. But there's still a lot of work to be done.
Local governments already have the solutions to address ever-increasing energy bills and the climate crisis they cause. Now is the time to act. In Tampa Bay, the Hillsborough County Commission should lead the way by intervening in TECO rate increases and passing an affordable energy and climate plan.
Brooke Ward is Florida senior coordinator for Food & Water Watch, a national environmental organization that mobilizes people to devise solutions to the pressing food, water and climate challenges of our time. This opinion piece was distributed by The Invading Sea website (www.theinvadingsea.com), which features news and commentary on climate change and other environmental issues affecting Florida.
