Red in More Ways Than One. About That FPL Bill.

I said I would come back to this topic.  If you're not up to speed, read several past posts.

I got my most recent FPL bill.  This time, they want over $52, for the past month (that I haven't been home, and have used next to no electricity).  Here's how they calculate it (as best I have been able to get anyone to acknowledge).  Their base rate used to be about $10. Maybe it was $9.99.  Then, they raised it a few cents, to $10.05.  There it sat for two years until early this year, when FPL, the Florida legislators they purchased, and the Public Service Commission all agreed that they could sort of double the base rate.  In part (this has been discussed in the Miami Herald and on the radio), this is because FPL is trying to make solar panels less valuable, and therefore less worth the expense, so FPL can maintain its monopoly.  (It turns out that in this red state of ours, where capitalism reigns, and the marketplace should control the economy, some people don't like one of the highest determinants of the economy: competition.)  

Then, I got a bill in the $30s, but I could lower it to $17-something if I agreed to be on some scheme called the "Budget Billing Plan."  So I did.  For one month.  Until that wasn't holding, either.  So I got myself off the meaningless "Budget Billing Plan," and I reverted to FPL's newest new plan, which involves raising the base rate again, and charging people $25 a month if they use less than $25 worth of electricity in a month.

So, I got my new bill.  The one for $52-something.  It had a carried over amount in the $20s, and a new monthly charge of $30.17.  You know, it's stupid, but you really have to continue to play the game, to see where it goes.  If you search around enough, you finally find a way to reach a person.  I've reached three people at this point, and two of them offered no rational or meaningful contribution.  I couldn't find out what the $20-something was about, and all I could find out about the $30.17 was that it contains the new and inflated $25 (what I have to pay for using less than $25 worth of electricity for the past month), plus all the taxes and other fees.

I then contacted lawyer #2.  Nobody wants to take this case.  I told them both they could create a class action suit, that would return very little to me, but make them millions of dollars.  But they weren't interested.  Or they didn't think they could challenge FPL, the PSC, and the Florida legislature.  Or they have conflicted interests.  I don't know.

All I know is that the bill keeps going up in this red state, this summer when I've been using about as little electricity as humanly possible (certainly less than any other summer), I resent it, and people who charge an arm and a leg for whatever they do don't want to do anything.