Dive Brief:
- Florida Power & Light (FP&L), the state’s dominant electricity provider, Duke Energy Florida, and Tampa Electric Company (TECO) have together donated $3.55 million in support of incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign. Scott is running against once-Republican, now Democrat Charlie Crist who, as Florida’s governor from 2007 to 2011, "sent shivers through the entire utility system," according to the incumbent.
- While the utilities have donated $500,000 to the state Democratic Party, FP&L has given a combined $1.2 million to Scott's political action committee and the Florida Republican Party, Duke Energy has contributed another $1.2 million, and TECO has contributed $1.15 million to the Florida Republican Party.
- Crist won the support of environmentalists and renewables advocates with programs that challenged utilities, while Scott’s administration backed utility rate hikes to pay for power lines, natural gas pipelines, and nuclear plants opposed by environmentalists and cut renewables programs, most notably solar rebates.
Dive Insight:
Scott has raised $28 million and Crist has raised $21 million.
California billionaire hedge-fund-manager-turned-environmentalist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate super PAC has run ads denouncing Scott’s support from the utilities and attacking his environmental record, while Scott’s campaign has attacked Crist’s approval of nuclear expansion in Florida.
Nonpartisan watchdog Integrity Florida published a report earlier this year that criticized Florida's top energy corporations’ for exerting political influence. The report said two-thirds of the $18 million in donations from utilities between 2004 and 2012 went to Republicans who approved legislation backing rate increases or was targeted at removing regulators who opposed rate hikes.
