“Duke Energy gets 90% of its electricity from burning gas or coal,” Maguire said. “They are an extremely dirty and polluting utility, and they essentially get to do that polluting for free because it’s the young people today that are going to deal with a warmer environment and stronger storms and more flooding in the decades to come.”
"It was really important to us for this to not feel like it could be an entity influenced by outside forces and it would really be a voter-led utility," said Raymer Maguire, who works on campaigns at The CLEO Institute, a Florida climate change advocacy group.
Electric utilities are one of the top sources of money and lobbying in Florida politics, spending nearly $80 million on political contributions alone from 2017-2025 according to a report from The CLEO institute. Some of that money has found its way into the pockets of Peter Schorsch. An invoice for advertising he shared with reporters from NPR shows that Florida Power & Light paid Schorsch at least $43,000 in 2021 alone.
“If St. Pete were to municipalize, the profit motive goes away. And this could allow the city to pursue lower-cost ways to meet the community’s energy needs.”
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