By Jorge Aguilar, Food & Water Watch
It’s official: The Florida legislative session came to an end without the passage of affordable energy legislation. Families are struggling, yet none of the three bills that would have helped them achieve affordable energy were even debated on the Capitol floor.
Now that lawmakers have finished the regular legislative session, conversations of affordability must follow them home to their districts and remain a priority in next year’s 2027 session, because affordability is a year-round conversation.
It’s disappointing that legislation that would have helped families with electricity bills ended up stalling, given that nearly half of all Florida households struggle to make ends meet. And with energy prices rising at more than twice the rate of inflation last year, the problem is only getting worse. As electricity bills are set to rise with a sweltering spring and summer on the horizon, the conversation around affordable energy is as relevant as ever.
Since he entered office, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointed regulatory board — the Public Service Commission — has been a rubber stamp for investor-owned electric utility rate hikes due mainly to a reliance on costly methane gas and pass-through fuel costs. The impact has been bleak.
From December 2020 to January 2026, Food & Water Watch analysis finds that Tampa Electric (TECO) customer bills increased 86% — $980 more annually; 49% for Duke Energy — $747 more annually; and 45% for Florida Power & Light (FPL) — $511 more annually. In January, rate hikes for FPL and TECO went into effect, adding hundreds of dollars more annually onto bills for millions of Floridians. Opposition to unaffordable rate hikes is at fever pitch, and rate hikes for FPL and TECO are being appealed at the Supreme Court.
When the Public Service Commission approved FPL’s latest rate hike last year, it OK’d a disproportionately large return on equity at 10.95% — a figure that will cost Floridians hundreds of millions of dollars in excess funds annually. The Office of Public Counsel, which represents the people of Florida in utility related matters, called the choice “unconscionable” and that it would result in “more customer cash to shareholders.” But FPL isn’t the only utility company excessively padding profits. TECO pointed to its record profits last year as a direct result of its 2024 rate hike.
Because of these astronomical rate hikes, we know that affordable energy reform has emerged as a unifying bipartisan issue, and people across state and local governments are speaking out. Last fall, 29 elected officials urged DeSantis and his Public Service Commission to reject profit-driven rate hikes.
Bills introduced by Rep. Alex Andrade and Sens. Don Gaetz and Carlos Guillermo Smith in 2026 would have required real reform to lower power bills over the long term. Sen. Smith’s bill in particular would have capped a utility company’s rate of return (e.g. profits) and promoted more efficiency standards to reduce the amount of energy being used.
It would have also lowered the fuel cost increases that are always passed onto customers — a notable phenomenon that often happens when there is a jump in international energy prices due to geopolitical conflicts. Under current practice, ratepayers bear the full brunt of fuel price spikes. In our current system, utilities are not incentivized to transition off of expensive fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases that are causing increased temperatures and the resulting air conditioner-related costs that need to be combated. It’s a vicious cycle.
Affordability is the top priority for the majority of Floridians. By failing to act on energy costs this session, legislators have sided with corporate utility lobbyists over the needs of their constituents. It’s clear Floridians are being squeezed by an energy system that puts corporate profits and costly fossil fuels ahead of basic needs.
We already know what must be done to fix this system, so it’s time to act. We urge every lawmaker returning to their district this month to make the issue a priority and call for utility reforms that lower electricity bills and hold energy companies accountable.
Jorge Aguilar is Southern regional director for Food & Water Watch. Banner photo: A row of electric meters (iStock image).
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