Ron DeSantis just re-stacked the deck on the board that sets electricity rates in Florida

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Photo credit: Ted McGrath

This is Seeking Rents, a newsletter and podcast devoted to producing original journalism — and lifting up the work of others — about Florida politics, with an emphasis on the ways that big businesses and other special interests influence public policy in the state. Seeking Rents is produced by veteran investigative journalist Jason Garcia, and it is free to all. But please consider a voluntary paid subscription, if you can afford one, to help support our work. And check out our video channel, too.

Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

A little over a year ago, Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a backwards-looking energy bill that, among other things, scrubbed the term “climate change” from state laws, banned the development of offshore wind energy, and rolled back regulations on gas pipelines and other fossil-fuel infrastructure.

Now, Ron DeSantis wants to put the sponsor of that law in charge of regulating the state’s energy companies.

DeSantis last week appointed former state Rep. Bobby Payne to the board of the Florida Public Service Commission — an obscure-but-powerful state agency that decides, among other things, how much monopoly companies like Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy can charge Floridians for electricity.

Payne was one of two new people DeSantis chose for the five-member PSC board, which are some of the more coveted assignments in state politics — because the appointments come with a taxpayer-funded salary of nearly $160,000 a year and near-constant wooing from some of the richest corporations in the country. DeSantis also appointed Ana Ortega, an aide to current PSC Chairperson Mike LaRosa.

But DeSantis’ selection of Payne stands out — and not just because Payne proudly sponsored last year’s infamous energy bill while simultaneously ridiculing climate change as merely an “initiative and ideology that is unfitting for our country.”

It’s also notable because the utility industry loved Bobby Payne while he was a member of the Legislature.

The state’s four corporate power companies — Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy, TECO Energy and Chesapeake Utilities — gave Payne more than $150,000 in combined campaign contributions during his eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, according to a Seeking Rents review of campaign-finance records. FPL alone gave him more than $50,000.

Payne worked with industry lobbyists on more than just that energy bill, too. For instance, as chair of the House’s tax committee, Payne helped get FPL a nearly $3 million tax break tied to a hydrogen power plant the company built in Okeechobee County.

Ron DeSantis’ latest PSC appointments are especially notable because they come just as FPL is asking the agency for permission to raise rates again.

Florida’s largest power company — which has roughly 12 million customers across the state — recently submitted a proposal that would allow the company to increase rates by nearly $7 billion over the next four years.

The proposed rate agreement would also let FPL — whose parent corporation, NextEra Energy inc., turned a nearly $7 billion profit last year — charge one of the highest profit margins in the nation. It may even enable the company to double-charge customers through an obscure tax-accounting mechanism that has drawn especially sharp criticism from the state’s main consumer advocate.

And this is all about to come to a head: PSC commissioners will begin hearings on FPL’s rate proposal this week.

Now, DeSantis’ newest PSC appointees, both of whom must be confirmed by the Florida Senate, won’t formally join the board until January.

But the governor’s latest choices — particularly his pick of one of FPL’s favorite former legislators — is a good reminder that it’s really Ron DeSantis who is ultimately responsible whatever the agency decides to do on rate hikes.

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.

‘This is what fetal personhood looks like’

When Miscarriages Become Crimes (Mother Jones)

Richard Corcoran: Rhetoric vs. record

Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida (Inside Higher Ed)

Ruh roh

Prosecutors convening grand jury in Hope Florida investigation (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: 3 board members leave embattled Hope Florida charity (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

Now about that environmental impact study

Feds pay Florida $608M for Alligator Alcatraz day before government shutdown (Tallahassee Democrat) ($)

See also: Rubber-stamping claims dog firm handling attorney access at Alligator Alcatraz (Miami Herald) ($)

See also: Florida farmers struggle as legal foreign workers worry about immigration crackdown (Orlando Sentinel ($)

When you orient your insurance ‘reforms’ around helping investors instead of homeowners

Miami Homeowners Pay More for Insurance Than Any Other City in U.S. (Miami New Times)

Perspectives

Campaign contributor skips line, gets big payday from Florida governor and Cabinet (Florida Phoenix)

Florida finds a new way to marginalize voters (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

High Heat, Higher Responsibility (2025): The Sunshine State Must Enact Policies to Protect Working Floridians (Florida Policy Institute)

DeSantis relied on Osceola sheriff, alleged crime boss, to oust prosecutor (Orlando Sentinel) ($)