Opinion ID: 1789106
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Consistency with Purpose of Chapter 366

Text: First, Seminole argues that Commission jurisdiction over Seminole's rate structure is inconsistent with the purpose of Chapter 366, Florida Statutes. Citing City of St. Petersburg v. Carter, 39 So.2d 804 (Fla. 1949), Seminole asserts that the underlying purpose of Chapter 366 is to prevent potential abuses of monopoly power when the public obtains electric service from a monopoly provider. Seminole points out that LCEC is not a captive customer of a monopoly provider, but instead, its obligation to purchase power from Seminole was the result of voluntary contractual negotiations. In Carter, the court stated that [t]he Florida Railroad and Public Utilities Commission was created for the purpose of protecting the general public from unreasonable and arbitrary charges that might be made by railroads and other transportation companies which may be classified as monopolies. Id[.], at 806. While this may be an accurate general statement of this Commission's original purpose, it clearly does not provide an exhaustive list of this Commission's purposes in 2000, much less the present purposes of Chapter 366, Florida Statutes. The Legislature's intent in making its original grant of jurisdiction to this Commission is not determinative of the Legislature's intent in making subsequent grants of authority, such as that made in Section 366.04(2)(b), Florida Statutes. It is more appropriate to look to the purpose of the statute in question to determine whether a particular construction of that statute is consistent with its purpose. Seminole, however, has not offered any argument concerning the specific purpose of Section 366.04(2)(b), Florida Statutes. Section 366.04(2)(b), Florida Statutes, was enacted in 1974 as part of Chapter 74-196, Laws of Florida (the Grid Bill). The Grid Bill gave this Commission jurisdiction over all electric utilities, including, for the first time, rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities, for the purpose of assuring an adequate and reliable source of energy for the state. Specifically, we were granted jurisdiction to oversee the planning, development, and maintenance of a coordinated electric power grid; to require electric power conservation and reliability within a coordinated grid; to prescribe a rate structure for all electric utilities; and to resolve territorial matters. An argument could be made that our rate structure jurisdiction was intended to provide us some limited measure of control over the rates charged by municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives to protect captive retail customers from unreasonable charges. However, given the clear purpose of the Grid Billto assure an adequate and reliable source of energy for the stateit appears equally, if not more, likely that our rate structure jurisdiction was intended to ensure that rates were structured in a manner consistent with the goals of reliability and conservation. The allegations of LCEC's complaint and petition indicate that LCEC is concerned with Seminole's new rate structure at least in part because of its potential to harm LCEC's conservation efforts and to encourage development of uneconomic generation. This type of harm appears to clearly fall within the jurisdiction granted to this Commission through the broad language of the Grid Bill. The lack of a distinction between retail and wholesale rate structures is further evidence of the broad jurisdiction granted by the Grid Bill.