TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Power & Light Co. has cut its proposed rate increase by reducing the costs it wants to pass on to customers for executive bonuses and pay raises as well as corporate aircraft.

FPL spokeswoman Jackie Anderson said Thursday the utility agreed to split those expenses between customers and shareholders because it didn't want those relatively small items to be a distraction.

The Public Service Commission had questioned those expenses during hearings on the rate request this week.

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By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer - Tue Oct 13, 2009 4:47PM EDT

NEW YORK - A small Miami-based company said the U.S. government has given it permission to lay the first optical communications fiber from the U.S. to Cuba. That could drastically cut the cost of calling the island nation and make the Internet more accessible to Cubans.

FPL customers could see a 6.5 percent drop in their monthly electric bills starting next year – even if regulators approve its request to increase base rates by $1.3 billion, FPL announced Thursday.

FPL submitted new fuel estimates to the Public Service Commission days before the agency holds meetings to weigh the proposed base rate increase.

Officials from FPL, the state’s largest utility with 4.5 million customers, say they’re estimating monthly bills will drop from $107.04 now – and $109.32 in December – to $100 in January for residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours, less than the average FPL customer uses. That’s $4 less than FPL previously estimated.

Josh Hafenbrack and Julie Patel
South Florida Sun-Sentinel


Tallahassee - A state regulator on Thursday called for an independent financial audit into Florida Power & Light Co.'s use of corporate jets, an emerging flash point in the lengthy, high-profile fight over the utility's request for a record rate increase.

The state's Public Service Commission, battered by conflict-of-interest allegations related to PSC staffers' ties to FPL employees, announced a two-month delay on its decision setting power rates for 4.5 million Florida customers. Under state law, FPL can boost rates in January even without a PSC decision. It would have to refund customers if the state later rejects the hike.

By LESLIE SCISM

Burgeoning state-created insurance pools that provide hurricane coverage in coastal areas have fueled a perception that rich homeowners are getting too good a deal. A new law in North Carolina asks both coastal and inland policyholders to give ground.

Under the law, which took effect late last month, coastal-area homeowners covered by the insurance pool can get $750,000 of coverage per dwelling, half of the $1.5 million previously available. About 3,000 homeowners who need more than $750,000 in coverage will go to private insurers to get the rest, at possibly much-higher prices.