Ten years of fast-rising electric rates reveal Duke Energy Florida is not competitive

Somewhere along the way, things went terribly wrong.

Duke Energy, which last year bought Progress Energy Florida, has done a lousy job over the past decade running its power plants. This is the company that permanently closed the Crystal River 3 nuclear power plant after what should have been a routine maintenance upgrade.

This is the same company that said it would build a nuclear power plant in Levy County. It charged customers in advance to help start Levy, only to shelve the price-gone-wild project years later.

Customers were charged billions. No electricity was generated.

How did this mess happen? Where were the watchdogs? Why can't Duke Energy Florida be held accountable for squandering ratepayer money and jacking up rates?

Floridians should have answers to these questions. It's a terrible precedent in Florida that they probably won't get them, despite a weekend protest by customers outside Duke's headquarters in downtown St. Petersburg.

If the PSC accepts this settlement, Duke will not have to defend its wasting nearly $3 billion forced upon customers to pay in return for delivering zero electricity. Nor will it have to justify why it should get to keep $250 million it made on its two defunct nuclear projects.
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