Michael Mayo: FPL executive pay jolts the outrage meter

Sun-Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo has been doing some further reading into executive pay levels at FPL ... and he's outraged.

In the face of a 30% base-rate hike request, he's outraged at FPL executives' shameless "country club memberships, home security systems, leased vehicles and gasoline, even flights and lodging for an annual physical."

FPL's response? Spokesperson Jackie Anderson resonded to a query from Mayo that given record profits last year the executives' perquisites were "reasonable, appropriate and in line with the needs of the business."

Huh?!?!?!?

Want to read more? Take your blood-pressure medicine first, then sit down at your computer screen to read Michael Mayo's full column online, here.

Ah, the chutzpah! FPL rate hikes not kosher, says Sun-Sentinel reader

Doncha just love those Sun-Sentinel readers?

In response to the paper's coverage of the FPL base rate hike request, reader Bronen Bello of Pompano Beach responds:

Re: "FPL seeks 30 percent increase in base rate" in your March 19 edition. I read that a primary factor in the increase is to "retain investor confidence" by providing a 12.5 percent rate of return to the company's stockholders. Where do I sign up? If the rate increase is not granted, FPL stockholders will have to settle for a measly 4.7 percent and 3.1 percent in 2010 and 2011. A cursory survey of the low rates of return currently available shows the 12.5 percent return FPL wants to soak its consumers for would make Bernie Madoff proud. The only thing standing between us and this rapacious scheme is Florida's Public Service Commission. Where is Michael Mayo when we need him?

Online, here.

Another Brilliant FPL Cartoon: Courtesy of Jim Morin, The Miami Herald

Another brilliant FPL cartoon in today's Miami Herald, courtesy of Jim Morin, showing two FPL "suits" and their out of work victim. In clear reference to the requested FPL base rate hike, the caption on the cartoon reads:

THERE GOES ANOTHER VICTIM OF THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN... 'TASE HIM, BRO!!!

Reject FPL hike, says Bradenton Herald: "Rate request excessive in recession"

The Bradenton Herald today joined in the call to reject FPL's outrageous request for a base-rate hike, publishing an editorial that calls the rate request "excessive," particularly in the midst of an economic recession:

We’ve got to admire the chutzpah radiated by Florida Power & Light.

Their creative-writing division came up with a classic snow job in an appeal to our environmental sensibilities. The key subject of the press release concerned rates, but not until deep in this writing exercise did that reality set in.

The editorial goes on to explain why the rate request is beyond the pale, saying in conclusion that:

We’re not falling for FPL’s smooth line. The utility will get a hearing before the commission in a few months, with a decision by the end of the year. New rates would hit in January.

We don’t mind paying a fair rate of return, but FPL should not ask for $1 billion next year alone — not during a severe recession. Everybody’s feeling the pain, and corporate giants should, too. The company’s creative writers must be aware of that as well.

The Public Service Commission should reject this request.

Read the full Bradenton Herald editorial online, here.

PSC should just say No to FPL rate-hike request: Miami Herald editorial

The Miami Herald editorial this morning took on FPL and the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) in its editorial this morning condemning the FPL request for a billion-dollar rate hike request, to begin January 2010:

The Public Service Commission should emphatically deny the request, though not for the sheer audacity of FPL's timing. The request should be rejected because it isn't warranted -- and because it is asking too much of too many who have too little.

If granted, the rate increase would push FPL's monthly base rate to $51.71 from $39.31. This is what FPL gets before adding other charges for taxes, fuel conservation, franchise fees, customer charges, capacity payment, environmental charges, etc.

What's more, the Herald challenged FPL's misinformation about whether or not the huge rate-hike would result in higher electric bills:

Customers could actually end up with lower bills even with the rate hike once the improvements take effect and are combined with current and projected lower costs for fuel, FPL says. This is, in fact, true, although not very likely. As they say in car-mileage commercials, ``Actual results may vary.''

FPL was kind enough to list the many ways that ''actual results may vary'' in its press release last week. Information about the rate-hike request was presented in one-and-a-half pages. Possible variances to the lower-payment scenario required four-and-a-half pages of small print, in legalese.

That explains why some papers around the State actually portrayed the hike as a reduction ... accomplishing the FPL Corporate Communications strategy of misinforming the media and the public in order to have its way with the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Kudos to the Herald for clearly spelling this out and standing up in the public defense on this one!

The full text of the Miami Herald's editorial is online, here.

FPL seeks $800-million-plus base rate increase, for 4.5% avg monthly bill hike

In a press release out of its Juno, FL headquarters today, FPL requested that anticipated monthly base rate increase previously set at a total of between $850-$900 million dollars that will go in part toward paying for another two new nuclear reactors at the Turkey Point power station in Miami-Dade County.

Released on the same day as FPL revealed that 11,000 customers had lost power in South Florida as a result of a rainstorm, the news announcement says that if approved by the Florida Public Service Commission:

Under the company’s proposal, the typical 1,000 kilowatt-hour residential customer bill would decrease by an estimated $4.92 monthly, or 4.5 percent, from $109.55 to $104.63 on Jan. 1, 2010.

The release also said that the base rate will principally go toward increasing capital investment (that is, expansion of power generation, transmission and distribution facilities), including "strengthening the transmission and distribution system" as well as "existing fossil fuel power generation facilities" and "existing nuclear power generation facilities."

In a previously released 10-K SEC filing by Florida Power & Light Co, the company said that:

In November 2008, FPL notified the FPSC that it intends to initiate a base rate proceeding in March 2009. In the notification, FPL stated that it expects to request an $800 million to $950 million annual increase in base rates beginning on January 1, 2010 and an additional annual base rate increase beginning on January 1, 2011. These amounts exclude the effects of depreciation, which depend in part on the results of a detailed depreciation study that FPL is currently finalizing. Further, FPL expects to request that the FPSC continue to allow FPL to use the mechanism for recovery of the revenue requirements of any new power plant approved pursuant to the Siting Act that was established in FPL's 2005 rate agreement. Hearings on the base rate proceeding are expected during the third quarter of 2009 and a final decision is expected by the end of 2009. The final decision may approve rates that are different from those that FPL will request. (yellow-highlighted emphasis is ours)

In other words, any power plant approved by the Florida Public Services Commission under the terms of the 2005 base rate agreement -- including Turkey Point 6 & 7 nuclear reactors that are yet to be built -- are going to be funded by slapping another $4.92 monthly onto the average consumer's electricity bill!

Read the full FPL news release online, here.

FPL's nuclear workers still asleep at the switch? Long hours, exhaustion the cause

The Miami Herald reports today that "Five times since 2000, operators of U.S. nuclear power plants have been found slumped over their controls asleep, according to federal documents."

And the reason, says the newspaper, is "exhaustion from long stretches of overtime." Citing federal documents, today's report goes on to say that:

In the first six weeks of of 2008, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that Florida Power & Light's nuclear plants had 21 overtime ''deviations'' in which 17 plant operators had worked more than 72 hours a week, the maximum now allowed. Two of those workers were involved in a spill of 200 gallons of boric acid used to control the nuclear reaction in the core, but there was no indication from the NRC on whether fatigue could have caused the error.

Our view: It's not like FPL doesn't make enough money to hire sufficient workforce to make sure competent, alert plant workers are manning the controls ... last year's gross profit by the FPL Group was a whopping $5.47 billion, with 4Q-08 gross profit coming in at an incredible $1.41 billion ...

Read the full Herald story online, here.

Your FPL dollars at work: the FPL Pavilion at the 17th Green

Ever wonder what the money you pay to FPL every month goes toward? Electricity, right? Wrong! It also goes for a lot of other things, including marketing spend ...

FPL, like most big private corporations, has a huge marketing budget that serves not only to print up masses of glossy brochures touting things like how clean nuclear energy is, but also to ... fund the 2,322 square-foot public hospitality area with covered stadium seating known as the "FPL Pavilion at the 17th Green" during the PGA Honda Classic this week !!!

First spotted this online at the Sun-Sentinel. But, check out the online pitch for what to do while you're enjoying the The Honda Classic at the PGA National Resort and Spa's Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens this week:

The FPL Pavilion overlooking the 17th green is another great place to hang out. For starters, you have a signature par-three hole bordered by water. The Pavilion also treats general admission fans to theatre-style seats, flat-screen televisions, and unobstructed sight lines to the hole. Just outside the FPL Pavilion is the FPL Village where you'll find lunch and a cold drink, interactive expos from FPL and you and the kids can cool off in the FPL Cool Mist Zone.

Nothing against golf ... after all, golf courses are where all the big deals are sealed in the private sector and where lobbyists get to talk privately to politicians ... and all the big deals are sealed!

Still, you would think FPL would have learned from the banking sector's excorciation over throwing bailout money around for obscene parties and spa retreats. Like, maybe it's not such a great idea to sponsor a PGA golf tournament at a spa venue and then expect not to run into opposition when asking the FPSC for nearly a billion dollars in base rate hikes later this Spring.

On the other hand, maybe FPL's marketing department has been hanging out in the FPL Cool Mist Zone for way too long ... maybe it's time for the public and their customers to start turning up the heat on 'em!

Gov. Crist wants diversified energy supply, FPL continues to push nuclear

The FPL PR campaign against choosing renewables that actually offset carbon emissions and in favor of gas-fired and nuclear-powered generation doesn't miss a beat.

While Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was telling the State legislature in Tallahassee that his "administration is committed to a diverse energy supply that balances solar, wind and nuclear," FPL spokespersons were continuing to push their two-part messaging built around zero-carbon emissions to the media.

First, goes the messaging, if John and Jane Q. Public want cleaner energy, then they should be be prepared to pay higher prices for it on their monthly electricity. Witness a perfect example of the messaging as picked up and localized in today's story in Florida Today titled "Want cleaner energy? Get ready to pay."

That's customers who should pay ... with no shouldering of the cost or responsibility for clean energy accruing to "good corporate citizen" FPL's investors, who in February saw their shareholder dividend payouts increased by 6 percent to 47.25 cents per share hot on the heels of FPL Group's announced 4Q-08 increase in profits of 82%, even as fuel costs to the energy giant were falling like a rock.

Second part of the messaging? Note FPL spokesperson Randy Clerihue's comment to Florida Today:

... that 70 percent of FPL's fuel for powering electricity-producing turbines comes from natural gas and nuclear power. Natural gas has about half the carbon emissions of coal while nuclear power has zero carbon emissions.

The clear subtext of that statement is that nuclear is clean and green, with zero carbon emissions, so if Floridans want clean energy and zero carbon emissions, they should be prepared to put up with FPL's ongoing expansion of nuclear energy.

Or, if you have a problem with nuclear -- maybe that pesky little detail, that nobody has yet figured out how to safely dispose of the radioactive waste generated by nuclear plants that tends to hang around the planet for millions of years -- then why not try gas-fired plants as the next best thing! Just witness the wonders that the West County Energy Center is doing for the environment in Barley Barber swamp ...

No emphasis on conversion to true renewables like solar here in the Sunshine State, no real dedication to harnessing the winds that blow almost constantly across the Florida peninsula.

Just take what's on offer from FPL and the PSC and the politicians whose campaign coffers are filled with FPL-linked donations funnelled by the legions of FPL lobbyists deployed around the state. True competition will be blocked, communities from South Daytona to Biscayne Park who want to renegotiate their FPL franchise agreements in order to switch to providers who can help them convert to alternative renewable energy will be bullied ....

Oh, and by the way, you'll also have to pay for it -- and in 2010, FPL customers will have to pay for two new reactors at Turkey Point to the tune of nearly a billion dollars more -- whether you like it or not!

So, thanks Guv ... glad you're committed to energy diversity, but we'd like to see a bit more real "balance" in the equation, so that solar- and wind-generated power can come close to the nuclear-powered and coal-fired electricity that FPL keeps sending us through the grid and that required to subsidize, like it or not!

FPL makes fortune in 2008, makes "Fortune" list in 2009

It's more than appropriate that FPL Group was named to Fortune magazine's list of "Most Admired Companies" this year ... and not because we think FPL Group is to be much admired, at all.

It's appropriate because FPL Group truly made a fortune last year -- posting an 82% increase in profits during 4Q-2008, 25% for the year -- while hitting customers with a fuel surcharge that raised monthly electricity bills, even though fuel prices had dropped dramatically by the end of the year.

FPL Group was so proud of itself that it quickly pumped out its own press release today, trumpeting "FPL Group named No. 1 in electric power sector on Fortune magazine's 2009 'Most Admired Companies' list."

What FPL Group didn't say is that it didn't even make Fortune's "Top 50" in the most-admired listing, where it nevertheless would have joined such examples of corporate citizenship as Wal-Mart; or the pride of our illustrious investment banking industry, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan; or one of our shining examples of retail banking, Bank of America -- quick to take bailout money, slow to lend and now teetering on the verge of going belly-up!

Oh, well. Guess FPL's consolation is that they're looking forward to a big decision by the Florida Public Service Commission in their favor sometime after March that will help them to make a real "fortune" again in 2010 -- this time hitting customers with a base-rate hike of nearly a billion dollars beginning Jan. 1, 2010 to pay for two new and unnecessary nuclear reactors at Turkey Point!

Once again, FPL stands to make a fortune, while its customer base is fast headed toward poverty!

FPL plans to request new $800-950 million annual base rate hikes

Very interesting paragraph way down in an excerpt from the new 10-K SEC filing by Florida Power & Light Co, issued this morning:

In November 2008, FPL notified the FPSC that it intends to initiate a base rate proceeding in March 2009. In the notification, FPL stated that it expects to request an $800 million to $950 million annual increase in base rates beginning on January 1, 2010 and an additional annual base rate increase beginning on January 1, 2011. These amounts exclude the effects of depreciation, which depend in part on the results of a detailed depreciation study that FPL is currently finalizing. Further, FPL expects to request that the FPSC continue to allow FPL to use the mechanism for recovery of the revenue requirements of any new power plant approved pursuant to the Siting Act that was established in FPL's 2005 rate agreement. Hearings on the base rate proceeding are expected during the third quarter of 2009 and a final decision is expected by the end of 2009. The final decision may approve rates that are different from those that FPL will request. (yellow-highlighted emphasis is ours)

So, any power plant approved by the Florida Public Services Commission under the terms of the 2005 base rate agreement -- including Turkey Point 6 & 7 nuclear reactors that are yet to be built -- are going to be used by FPL as justification for requesting yet another base rate hike of as much as $800 million to $950 million annually that would be passed along to its customers.

Get ready, folks! Looks like FPL is getting ready to stick it to us again!

See the full Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operationsfrom the 10-K filing online at Marketwatch, here.

Has FPL over-expanded capacity? CEO says customers "cutting back"

Electric utilities may not be going the route of the belly-up banking industry, but Andrew Gordon of Investor’s Daily Edge suggests that there are reasons for investors to sell off stocks as the “recession has finally caught up to the utilities.”

In an online post at the blog Offshoreinn, titled No Shelter for Safe Investors in Utilities, Gordon is quoted as saying FPL is cutting back spending and citing FPL CEO Lewis Hay for the reason why:

“A lot of people think demand for electricity is inelastic. It’s not. Our customers are cutting back, and they’re not paying their bills, either.”

So, did Florida Power & Light just think the heady days of development and expansion would last forever? Did they simply over-expand, lobbying legislators and cities and counties for more power-plant construction and transmission line extension without anticipating that someday it would all come grinding to a halt?

And, what is the public left with? FPL's record profits for 2008, costs continually passed along to their customers, ongoing FPL-caused environmental degradation and the constant bullying for more nuclear and coal-fired plants, high-voltage lines and right-of-ways through our communities ...

Time to stand up and fight to end the monopolistic control of our energy future in Florida by a single provider! Time to Stop FPL!

FPL hikes electric rates, boosts shareholder payouts 6%

Florida Power and Light Co. has boosted electricity bills for Florida consumers by 6.2 percent -- even though fuel costs have fallen dramatically since the summer -- marking the largest increase in electricity bills by any utility in any of the five largest states in the U.S., reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

This, despite the fact that "natural gas prices have dropped more than 25 percent and oil prices have plunged about 50 percent since early 2008," the paper reported. And, despite other competing utility providers in the State having opted to lower their rates because of lower fuel costs:

Progress Energy Florida announced Thursday it would lower its rates, in part, because of the lower cost of fuel. FPL did a fuel forecast in early November that slightly decreased rates starting in January, though the combination of fuel and other fees still mean customers are paying more than they did a year ago.

The revelation comes at a time when New York Stock Exchange-listed parent corporation FPL Group has announced it is raising its quarterly dividend payout to shareholders. According to an Associated Press report, FPL Group announced that investors will see their dividends rise by 6 percent to 47.25 cents per share.

FPL Group profits jumped by 82 percent in 4-Q 2008, according to the company's year-end statement.

Online petition to Stop the FPL Monopoly!

There's a new online petititon that's been launched to "Stop the Florida Power & Light Monopoly!"

Sponsored by a group called People for Fair Utilities, the goal is to get 10,000 signatories in a drive to break FPL's monoplly over electric rates in Florida. The petition reads:

It is time that we say "No" to FPL making profits off of our need for electric. I have looked for ways to cut my electric or go solar but FPL has us by the you know what. I can live without alot of things but my family and animals need air conditioning to survive in South Florida.

According to the FPL website FPL.com:

"for the full year 2008, FPL Group reported net income on a GAAP basis of approximately $1.64 billion, or $4.07 per share, compared with $1.31 billion, or $3.27 per share, in 2007". That is NET income!

Also on the FPL investors site it states, "We are pleased to report that 2008 was our best year ever, which is something we doubt very many companies can say." And, their future outlook is "FPL group is well positioned for earnings growth in future years".

ANYONE ELSE HAD ENOUGH??? ANYONE ELSE OUTRAGED???

Anyone can sign the "Stop the Florida Power & Light Monopoly!" petition online. Just go to ...

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-florida-power-light-monopoly

FPL Group profits jump 82 percent

FPL Group's 2008 profits actually jumped by 82 percent, despite the country being in a recession, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Julie Patel in a blog post today.

Juno Beach-based FPL Group, parent company of Florida Power & Light, reported today that its fourth quarter net income increased from $224 million, or 56 cents a share, in 2007 to $408 million, or $1.01 a share, last year. Its annual profit increased 25 percent, from $1.31 billion to $1.64 billion.

Even so, the Group's Florida unit -- Florida Power & Light -- somehow reported a 13 percent drop in fourth quarter earnings and plans to ask Florida State regulators in March for an increase in its base rates to take effect in 2010, the paper noted.

Read the full Sun-Sentinel blog entry online here.

FPL backed down by consumers over fuel surcharge

Great blog post at Sun-Sentinel.com by Michael Mayo on FPL backing down in the face of public pressure over it's "shameless request for higher fees to cover fuel costs in 2009."

We won't spoil the fun ... read the complete post online, here.

How FPL tries to fool customers with 'Sunshine Energy" surcharge

Great post over at Eye on Miami titled "How electric utilities abuse us"

Ol' Gimleteye ponders how FPL tries to get its customers to pay extra through a "Sunshine Energy" surchage on our monthly bills to provide clean energy, which is of course "something FPL should have been doing for its customers all along."

Noting that while the FPL-touted reputation as the largest wind energy producer nationwide does nothing for Floridians (that's generated by FPL in Texas, not here in the home state), Gimleteye goes on to ask pointedly how one would know if the extra charge would be "going to serve its stated purpose: development of alternative energy in Florida by FPL?"

And, citing a story in the Palm Beach Post, goes on to respond that the Florida Public Service Commission apparently has the same question ...

As reported by The Palm Beach Post last week, a probe of FPL’s “Sunshine Energy” program “began in September with requests to the company for documents and explanations. FPL repeatedly responded by filing records under seal, saying the related documents were “proprietary business information” and “contractual vendor data”. Finally, FPL opened its books.

“The bulk of the $9.5 million raised in FPL’s Sunshine Energy Program between 2004 and 2007 was paid to a contractor in Texas for salaries, office expenses, business travel, research, marketing and a public relations consultant to administer the program.” (Palm Beach Post, June 20, 2008, “Bulk of FPL money for renewable energy goes to start-up costs”)

“In the final report, released May 30, all of the findings were blacked out at the request of FPL. However, in papers filed with the state this week, FPL asked the commission to keep only a few sentences confidential because it is “proprietary business information”.

We wouldn't want to steal any more of the punch from this great Eye on Miami post, so we suggest one go on over and read it in its entirety, here.