Paula Huband, Executive Director of the Florida Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association (FRACCA) addressed a meeting of the Gainesville Air Conditioning Contractors Association (GACCA) in Newberry, FL on November 15, 2018 to discuss Florida Power and Light ‘s (FPL) expansion in to the air conditioning arena.

Co-sponsored by the Newberry Jonesville Chamber of Commerce, the meeting was attended by area contractors seeking information on the utility’s non-regulated subsidiary FPL Energy Services purchasing Jupiter Tequesta Air Conditioning, Plumbing and Electric earlier this year. The utility has been accused of subsidizing Jupiter Tequesta AC, a state-licensed company, with ratepayer funds and assets. Newberry City Manager Mike New and Florida State Representative Chuck Clemons attended the meeting to familiarize themselves with the situation.

Currently, Jupiter-Tequesta A/C is marketing itself as an FPL Energy Services company and is utilizing FPL’s name and logo in all of its advertisements. FPL is also subsidizing Jupiter-Tequesta A/C in other ways such as recruiting employees, transferring incoming calls directly to the for-profit subsidiary, marketing their services in utility customer invoices and sharing a myriad of infrastructure and other ratepayer funded resources.

Paula encouraged those present to join the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Coalition for Fair Competition (MEPCO) and donate to the fund established to educate the public and legislators about the situation.

Gulf Coast Builders Exchange Endorses Coalition to Oppose FPL’s Predatory Expansion

The Gulf Coast Builders Exchange (GCBX), which represents a broad cross section of the building industry in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte Counties, today announced that they have endorsed the MEP Coalition for Fair Competition. The coalition recently organized to oppose Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) entrance into the home services market including air conditioning, heating, plumbing and electrical services.

The GCBX joins more than a dozen organizations representing hundreds of companies that have endorsed the campaign. Those organizations consist of the Florida Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association and all of its eight regional associations, the Sarasota County Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors and two national associations including the Virginia-based Air Conditioning Contractors of America and the Minnesota-based Nexstar Network.

Petition Launched

Florida Taxpayers for Utility Monopoly Oversight launches petition to demand incoming Attorney General Ashley Moody investigate the business practices of NextEra Energy and Florida Power & Light (FPL). Visit https://www.change.org/p/attorney-general-ashley-moody-we-want-utility-monopoly-oversight to sign the petition.

Visit mepcoalition.org for more information and to join the cause.