Florida Power & Light eliminated their maintenance budget 10 years ago...

[eomer]

and that is the reason that a relatively weak storm like Wilma has become a significant disaster for an entire region.

That is what I have heard (roughly third hand) with the original source allegedly being employees of FP&L.

Supposedly their reasoning for eliminating the maintenance budget was that it would be more profitable to wait and let disasters occur because then they would get federal money to do the emergency work instead of using their own money to do the preventive work.

I can add my personal observation that I used to see FP&L and Asplundh trucks working around town cutting back trees around the power lines and so on but haven't seen any such activity for quite a few years. 10 years ago sounds about right for when it might have stopped.

If this is true then it is one more case to add to the large pile of cases where our government and their contractors are working for the good of the corporations and are perfectly willing to screw all the people if it is profitable.

[William769]

1. I am so glad I have a coop for a power company in Florida.

[gristy]

2. I doubt they eliminated the entire maintenance budget

It's more possible, though certainly not proven, that they did what you described - that they stopped or cut back on spending money on trimming trees.

[eomer]

4. I was just quoting...

from someone who quoted someone who quoted someone (third hand).

So you may be right, it doesn't seem possible they could have eliminated the entire maintenance budget but, nevertheless, that is the wording that was used.

I've heard separately (in the news) that there are major elements of the infrastructure that were taken down by Wilma, not just trees knocking down neighborhood lines so that might point in the direction of neglecting more than just cutting trees.

And I put it out there hoping that someone else may have more information, not claiming it as fact.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Thank Deregulation

Deregulation of utility companies over the past decade has failed to increase industry competition, for the most part. So consumers aren't seeing the savings they were promised in utility costs.

However utility companies have"streamlined" themselves to the bare bones under deregulation. They've eliminated their public relations personnel, stopped doing home energy audits, and discontinued giving financial incentives for energy-saving measures.

They've also cut down on, or in the case of Florida P&L discontinued maintenance.

Deregulation means utilities no longer consider themselves public servants of a sort, with an obligation to the citizenry and customers. Now they're running on unfettered greed just like every other run-amok corporation in B*shworld.