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Climate Change - We Call for Fairness and ClarityWe have concluded that the goals of emission reductions are met best with a directly imposed CO2 price or fee. However, we also suggest that a modified cap and trade program which incorporates a price ceiling and floor and auctions all of the allowances, while more complex and less attractive than the direct fee approach, could offer similar benefits, providing confidence in long-term greenhouse gas reductions and price stability to protect the economy. What we call for is a policy that is efficient, effective and fair and provides clarity for the right investment choices in the future. At Florida Power & Light Company, our electric utility in Florida, we have invested significantly in making our existing power plants more efficient and building new, highly efficient plants to meet the needs of our 4.4 million customers and the growth of approximately 90,000 new customers each year. We expect to build on average a new power plant a year to meet continued anticipated growth. Our fuel mix is diversified, but more than half of the electricity we supply today is generated from cleaner natural gas and a fifth from nuclear. That starkly contrasts to the total U.S. fuel mix used to generate electricity – with coal producing about half of the nation’s electricity. Our FPL customers have enjoyed lower emission rates than most of the nation, but they also have paid a premium for cleaner skies. We would not want Floridians burdened with the additional cost of helping electric utilities in other areas reduce their carbon emissions from predominantly traditional coal plants – which would most certainly be the result of a cap and trade program if allocations are provided free to utilities based on their historical emissions.
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