Legislators must push back on FPL rate increase
State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith is showing up for his constituents in a time when summers are hotter, bills are higher, and Florida families are struggling to afford the cost of living.
This week, Smith and 27 other Florida elected officials sent Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Public Service Commission (PSC) a letter urging them to reject Florida Power and Light’s greedy rate $10 billion hike request — the largest request in U.S. history. It would raise Floridians’ bills while guaranteeing utility profits above the national average, all while allowing continued investment in costly, dirty fracked gas. This on top of already high bills — Food and Water Watch analysis finds that from December 2019 to June 2025, FPL customers saw a 38% increase in electricity bills.
As a member of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, Smith’s pushback matters. The more gas Florida utilities burn, the more extreme weather events like deadly hurricanes Helene and Milton occur — and the more our utility companies charge us to recover from those storms.
Utility companies making billions in profits off dirty energy are now asking for more of our hard-earned dollars. Legislators are waking up to corporate utility price gouging. More of our state senators need to follow in Smith’s footprints and say no.
Brooke Ward St. Petersburg
Brooke Ward is the senior Florida organizer for Food & Water Watch.
Seminole’s budget is bloated
Seminole County has a bloated budget that wastes our money, no matter how hard they try to deny reality. They were so determined that they did not reduce their proposed tax increases by even one red cent despite the pleas of many residents. We desperately need term limits to silence the echo chamber at Board of County Commission meetings.
Richard Creedon Geneva
Richard Creedon is president of the Geneva Citizens Association.
No kings, just a great president
The country thanks all of you for your “No Kings” protest. We thought a king was going to take the place of our amazing President Donald Trump. But thanks to your tireless efforts, Trump still remains our president. Thanks for supporting our esteemed president and making our country great again.
David Mosrie Winter Springs
Leaders are manipulating us
Sunday’s letter to the editor “Americans are being gaslit” is worthy of praise to the author, Maggie Culp. It also brings about the question, is this what you voted for?
Gaslighting is defined as a form of psychological manipulation where a person is made to doubt their own reality, memory, or sanity through tactics like lying, denying events, and trivializing feelings to gain power and control over them. It can lead to the victim(s) questioning their own judgment and becoming more dependent on the abuser.
Common tactics include denial that an event actually happened; countering by questioning your memory of an event; blocking or diverting by changing the subject or questioning your thinking; trivializing by making your needs or feelings seem unimportant; withholding by pretending to not understand or listen to you; blame-shifting by making you feel bad for bringing up an issue and telling others you are crazy to make them doubt your perception of events.
Millions of people in red states and blue states took to the streets for “No Kings Day” to protest the government. The White House response: it was mostly left-wing lunatics in blue states. In my view, this is an example of trivializing, withholding, blame-shifting and lying.
Disagreeing with your views is OK, but mass psychological manipulation by those in power is not OK. Don’t let it happen — seek the truth before it dies and alternative facts become the norm.
F.S. Liddle Orlando
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