Most Of $11.4 Million FPL Received For "Green" Energy Spent On Marketing, Admin Costs

[hatrack]

MIAMI (AP) -- Nearly 39,000 Florida Power & Light customers gave the company $11.4 million over four years to develop green energy, but a report released Monday shows that most of the money went toward administrative and marketing costs. According to a 19-page report written by the staff of Florida's Public Service Commission, FPL's Sunshine Energy Program suffers from several problems and "does not currently serve the interest of the program's participants."

The voluntary program charges FPL customers $9.75 per month - on top of the regular energy bill - to help develop alternative power sources. Nearly 39,000 FPL customers participate in it.

According to FPL's web site, for every 10,000 subscribers, the company will develop 150 kilowatts of solar energy in Florida and buy 1,000 kilowatt hours of renewable energy credits.

Public Service Commission staff said only 24 percent of the $11.4 million collected from customers went toward developing renewable energy. The rest went to marketing and administrative costs. The PSC staff wrote that the program "must be redesigned to address state renewable energy policies and to better serve the interest of the program's participants." The staff will discuss its findings with the commission during a meeting in Tallahassee on July 1.

EDIT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_GREEN_PROGRAM_PROBLEMS_FLOL-?SITE=FLDAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-06-24-13-37-31

[Crazy Dave]

1. Give a doctor $10 million and he'll figure out a cure for AIDS or cancer

Give a corporation $20 million and they'll only do studies and then say they need more money to do more studies