TAMPA, Fla. — During public remark at an April 5 assembly, the Hillsborough County Commission were given an earful from involved TECO consumers who shared worries about fresh rate will increase.
“I’m here today because our electricity bills keep going up,” stated a lady all the way through public remark.
“I’m coming to you today to ask for your help,” stated a person.
They additionally voiced considerations about now not gaining access to the meetings the place the ones will increase are made up our minds.
“The customers who paid the bill should have access to the hearing,” stated a TECO buyer.
“Tallahassee is too far!” stated any other guy.
Right now, maximum of the ones meetings are held within the state capital with representatives of the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) which oversees utility charges in our state.
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But other people like Brooke Ward with the non-profit Food and Water Watch stated they need to see the ones meetings occur in the community, so they are going to have an opportunity to weigh-in in individual.
“An email, a written letter that does make a difference, but nothing is as impactful as or as effective as when people are able to come together as a community to lift their voices up and let their concerns be known,” she stated.
And the county fee agreed.
“The audience this morning raised an important point about what we might be able to do,” stated Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp.
On Tuesday, the fee despatched a letter to the PSC asking for local meetings to be held when TECO makes any request that can lead to a rate building up. It’s a transfer that Ward and her workforce are praising although additionally they stated they would like to peer the fee take issues a step additional.
FPSC Local Meeting Request Letter Signed 4-11-23 by way of ABC Action News on Scribd
“And what we hope to see next is that the county intervenes further in the PSC or Public Service Commission proceedings and that they can do everything in their power to make sure that energy utilities are making rate-lowering decisions like phasing out costly fossil fuels, bettering efficiency standards, and investing in resiliency projects that are meant to protect our pocketbooks and the environment,” stated Ward.
We additionally reached out to TECO for extra information about those local meetings. The corporate informed us that they provide local alternatives for public remark when asking to set the overall utility rate, which is able to occur as soon as each few years.
More just lately, they asked to adjust rates to make up for emerging herbal fuel costs and to make up for cash misplaced all the way through typhoon season—and the ones meetings had been held solely in Tallahassee.
