Oral arguments are scheduled for this Thursday morning at the Florida Supreme Court in the legal challenge of the "nuclear cost recovery" payment plan for proposed new reactors, which has angered consumer advocate groups since the Florida Legislature passed the Florida Energy Act in 2006.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is challenging the constitutionality of the controversial pre-payment statute, which allows Florida Power & Light (FPL) and Progress Energy Florida — known as Duke after its recent merger — to collect millions of dollars in advance from Florida consumers' utility bills to help create nuclear reactors that may never be built.
During a conference call Wednesday morning, legislators and other officials once again denounced the program.
New Port Richey Sen. Mike Fasano voted for the 2006 bill, but has made mea culpas about it since. He said what's most concerning is that executives at FPL and Progress never give a definite answer about whether their proposed nuclear power plants will be built.
"It's not even a maybe, they just ignore the question," he said.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2012.