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Florida Court Blocks Push to Break Electricity Monopolies

Florida Court Blocks Push to Break Electricity Monopolies

(Bloomberg) -- Florida’s top court ruled against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed customers to pick their electricity providers and threatened monopolies held by NextEra Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp.

In a ruling Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court said the petition’s language is “misleading” and doesn’t comply with requirements for the 2020 ballot. The measure’s sponsor, Citizens for Energy Choice, said the move ends the initiative.

“While we were confident in our plan to gather the remaining signatures required, we cannot overcome this last obstacle,” the group’s chair, Alex Patton, said in a statement.

The proposed measure was one of several efforts underway to deregulate U.S. electricity markets. Earlier this week, two Virginia state lawmakers unveiled a bill to allow residents and businesses to pick their electricity provider, threatening Dominion Energy Inc.’s longstanding local monopoly. And in Arizona, where Arizona Public Service Co. has long reigned, regulators are considering a similar move.

Nextera, which owns Florida’s largest utility, called the ruling “right,” saying in a statement that the proposed language was “clearly aimed to trick voters.” Its rejection ensures Floridians will continue to pay less for electricity than residents of deregulated states, the company said.

Duke said the court’s decision was a “win for our customers, and state and local governments.”

--With assistance from David R. Baker.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gerson Freitas Jr. in New York at gfreitasjr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Joe Ryan, Pratish Narayanan

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.