A bus packed full of young people from Orlando took off for Tallahassee on Wednesday, the day before Florida’s third annual Earth Advocacy Day on Thursday.
Organizers describe the event as a chance for young people under the age of 25 to get a close-up look at the legislative process while lobbying for environmental policy change. The young travelers from Orlando, mostly college and high school students, are expected to join hundreds of others from all across Florida at the state capitol.
A coalition of groups like genCLEO, Sunrise Movement and Youth Action Fund came together to organize this year’s Earth Advocacy Day. Isabella Montealegre is Florida State Organizer for Poder Latinx, another member of the coalition.
“We're going to go train young people on how to talk to lawmakers,” Montealegre said ahead of the trip to Tallahassee.
In the weeks leading up to the trip, three student interns traveling with Poder Latinx also received in-depth training on policy advocacy and how to engage with lawmakers, Montealegre said.
“We really are facing an affordability crisis in the state of Florida, and I think young people are feeling it across the board,” Montealegre said. “We definitely need to push for accountability when it comes to energy costs.”
Just before Thanksgiving of last year, the Florida PSC approved a controversial rate hike requested by the utility Florida Power & Light. The rate increase was the largest in U.S. history and is expected to cost Florida customers a collective $7 billion over the next four years.
RELATED: PSC OK's FPL deal that increases base rate in parts of Florida
Participants in this year’s Earth Advocacy Day support proposed legislation that would reform the Florida Public Service Commission, including by restricting the regulator’s ability to approve large rate increases for utilities.
“Basically, [restricting return on equity] would ensure that there's a limit to how much profit these utility companies can make,” Montealegre said.
Return on equity, or ROE, is a financial ratio representing how much profit a company makes for every dollar invested by shareholders. Nationally, the average ROE for utility companies sits around 9.7%, according to S&P Global. In Florida, FPL’s new rates will yield a higher, 10.95% ROE for shareholders, an outcome decried by energy affordability advocates.
As energy costs grow, Montealegre said, it’s critical for Floridians to speak up about how those rising costs affect them. “Young people are getting involved because people are seeing their costs go up consistently, and their quality of life isn’t improving.”
Lower-income households and vulnerable populations spend disproportionately more income on energy costs, creating a high energy burden.
RELATED: Electricity prices are climbing more than twice as fast as inflation
“A lot of lawmakers are just not conscious of what is going on on the ground, and the effects of the policies that they're pushing,” Montealegre said. “That's why civic engagement is so important.”
Elsewhere in the ongoing legislative session, Montealegre said she and other members of Poder Latinx have concerns about a bill proposing a liability shield for pesticide manufacturers. They support a different proposal that would require Florida municipalities to have a battery collection and disposal plan in place.
