Looking for relief from high utility bills? Florida isn’t the place.
With the rise in natural gas prices due to the Iran war, as well as the increased demand for electricity, is your local power company doing anything to reduce electricity costs?
David Jenkins, chairman of the Conservative Party for Responsibility, said: “Not very much.” Instead of diversifying into cheaper power sources, Florida’s utilities are passing the extra costs on to customers by raising rates, Jenkins said.
Jenkins points to a recent study by the Energy Policy Institute (EPI) that found the profits that commercial power companies earn are exorbitant. “From 2021 to 2024, the average profit margin for nearly 40 utilities was above 15%, meaning they kept more than 15 cents of each revenue as profit. Some utilities reported even higher profit margins,” the report said.
According to research by EPI, Florida Power & Light (FPL) returned 23.51% during the period 2021-2024.
Jenkins says the situation is getting worse and the utilities are not making it better.
Most electric utilities in the United States source the majority of the electricity they produce from natural gas-fired power plants. They built a ton of gas-fired power plants at a time when natural gas prices were sky-high.
Currently, more than 40 percent of our nation’s electricity is produced with natural gas, making power companies overly reliant on the fuel, which is significantly more expensive than other options such as nuclear power, wind, and renewable energy like solar.
“Studies show that the average residential utility bill in 2025 was about 30% higher than in 2021,” Jenkins said.
Another factor contributing to these price increases is the fact that most of our country’s natural gas-fired power plants are over 20 years old and are expensive to operate and maintain.
“There is nothing conservative about power companies in a state like Florida having monopoly power,” Jenkins said. “All three major power companies (FPL, Duke, and Tampa Electric) continue to push for higher rates and are rubber-stamped by the Florida Public Service Commission.”
