Daily Loaf

The Florida Public Service Commission will be deciding today whether or not to approve rate increases for proposed new nuclear reactors that Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light have proposed.

One leading environmental organization, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, released a statement on Wednesday calling for the PSC to reject the rate hikes:

The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) should not vote Friday to rubber stamp staff recommendations that would impose a $200 million front-end bite on ratepayers before a single kilowatt of power is produced by new nuclear reactors, particularly since the economic slowdown has already eliminated the need for four  nuclear reactors on the scale that both Progress and FPL are proposing, according to statements made today by experts during a news conference.

Speaking of the PSC, that agency yesterday recommended that public utilities in the state not be required to give customers new incentives for saving and reducing  their energy usage.

According to (again) the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy:

The staff recommendation is to help reduce energy use in Florida by 1.2% over 10 years. At least 25 states (see below) have recently adopted more aggressive goals: five, ten, and even twenty times more aggressive than the staff of the Florida Public Service Commission feel are in, well, someone in Florida’s interests.

The PSC’s recommendations come despite Governor Charlie Crist’s rhetoric that he wants a consumer friendly PSC.  So much for the power of the bully pulpit.

Speaking of the Guv, a new poll shows him (for once) losing some luster in popularity in the Sunshine State.

An InsiderAdvantage poll has his popularity now below 50% – however, a new Chamber of Commerce survey stays with the status quo, showing him with a 62% approval ranking.  I look forward to the next Quinnipiac poll on Charlie’s popularity, and the latest on the Crist-Rubio face off in the GOP Senate Primary.

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