Data points to a drop for businesses but hard to quantify total dollars

Gov. Rick Scott wants to reduce the pain of electricity costs for business.

"Address Florida's relatively expensive electricity costs so businesses could save approximately $3.25 billion," Scott wrote in his 7-7-7 campaign plan in 2010.

In 2011, we rated Scott's promise In the Works for the progress he made on short-term savings to businesses' energy bills.

We wanted to check his progress after the Legislature's session in the spring of 2013.

This is not a simple promise to measure because there are dozens of utilities across the state. Florida's Public Service Commission regulates the rates of a handful of the largest ones. Also, there are various ways to measure electricity bills -- base rates only or the total bill -- for various sized customers and different points during the year.

J.R. Kelly, who works in the office of the public counsel, suggested that we examine customers' base rates. There are other types of charges that are included in the bill and the big one -- fuel -- could go up or down regardless of any actions by Scott.

The Public Service Commission sent us charts showing charges for different sized businesses for a handful of utility companies including Florida Power & Light -- the largest one in the state -- for December 2010, 2011 and 2012. Note that is not an average for the year; it is the cost for one month of the year. We started the clock ticking in 2010 before Scott took office as a base comparison to see if rates dropped while he was in office.

We looked at both small and large businesses and the components of the bills that PSC told us would add up to the base rate. We did not find any significant differences during Scott's tenure.

The PSC also shows the combined charges for commercial/industrial customers in comparative rate statistics reports. We looked at FPL as an example -- the largest provider -- and again found little change.

FPL spokesman Mark Bubriski shared data with us that reflected full years of averages -- unlike the PSC reports that reflected only one month.

Their data showed how rates have changed for different sized businesses since 2010. For the small businesses, on average the bill dropped by about 7 percent between 2010 and 2013. For the medium to large commercial businesses the savings were about 15 percent. The costs includes base and fuel charges, plus other surcharges.

In 2011, the PSC signed off on a request by FPL to offer discounts to large businesses to lure them to Florida. Hertz will save about $125,000 over four years through that discount, Bubriski said.  

Susan Glickman, a clean energy lobbyist, told PolitiFact Florida in an email: "The governor has done nothing to reduce energy costs for consumers -- businesses or residential. In fact, by supporting new nuclear, he has in fact done the opposite. He has done nothing to encourage efficiency or homegrown energy sources."

So what are we left with here? Clearly some businesses have seen their electricity bills drop, but it's difficult to pinpoint why they dropped and by how much. Fuel costs, for example, go up or down regardless of any actions by Scott. Some evidence suggests that overall electricity costs haven't changed significantly. We also did not find evidence to show that the savings added up to $3.25 billion.

If we find more evidence, we'll look at this promise again. For now, we rate it Compromise.