Florida utility companies like NextEra and Duke Energy are getting exactly what they bargained for when they donated millions of dollars to Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaigns. 

A new report by The Lever reveals that in November of 2021, the DeSantis appointees on Florida’s Public Service Commission (PSC) struck down a previous rule that sought to track the data of utilities customers impacted by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This decision came after the PSC granted companies the ability to raise their rates and reap in profits: Costs for customers have risen by 20% since this agreement.

These bureaucratic calls now merge to create little transparency regarding such corporatism. We now have no way of knowing how many people in the Sunshine State have had their power cut off because of these price hikes. 

“If that disconnection rate continued … NextEra would have shut off 1.2 million customers in 2022,” writes Lever reporter Matthew Cunningham-Cook. 

“But we do not know the total, because the DeSantis-appointed Florida PSC allowed the company to hide the data.”