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Florida solar customers, others shocked over new charge on electric bills - YouTube
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in our continuing look at how the
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weather is impacting central florida
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forecasting change some duke energy
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customers got a pretty big shock when
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they opened their january electric bill
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the utility began requiring customers
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spend at least 30 dollars a month if
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they didn't they were charged money to
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make up the difference news 6
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investigator eric sandoval found out
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that is making a lot of customers angry
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quite a few guys these customers
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actually called our newsroom trying to
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find out what was going on now this is
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called a minimum bill dukes is about
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thirty dollars a month florida power and
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light just approved a similar measure
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twenty five dollar minimum bill per
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month there we found out this comes as
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the legislature is looking at green
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lighting this for all utilities
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so how many panels do you have up there
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27. scott weinstein says the solar
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panels he installed on his winter garden
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home given the power to sell some of the
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electricity he generates back to duke
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energy that has dropped his monthly
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electric bill from a hundred twenty
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seven dollars to twenty three dollars so
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when he opened his duke energy bill and
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saw he had an added charge of seventeen
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dollars i immediately called duke energy
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and said what is this and they said oh
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this is a new fee that we put on
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and i said are you kidding me and they
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said no i said where did this come from
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my neighbor called me and said did you
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see this charge bill hackett also has
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solar on his home and sell some of his
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power back making his monthly bill
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around 12 dollars a month in january his
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bill was also adjusted to 30 dollars
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what did you think when you saw that
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charge i didn't think i got mad i just
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i'm like why we asked duke energy why
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they said this minimum bill of thirty
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dollars helps make sure that everybody
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is paying for the upkeep of the
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electrical grid which they say everybody
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is still using as for claims they're
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targeting solar customers they said only
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a small portion of solar customers are
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impacted the larger portion they say is
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made up of a variety of different
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customers including seasonal customers
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and customers who have multiple
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properties is this something you're
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seeing across the nation
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it's definitely something i'm seeing
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suggested in many places uc berkeley
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economics professor severn bornstein
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specializes in the energy sector he says
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his research shows these minimum bills
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don't generate that much money the
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problem is if you institute the minimum
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bill at the levels they talk about
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they're talking about 25 35 a month
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it has so little effect
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there's so few customers who are below
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that level
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that it really doesn't raise much
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revenue at all the new minimum bills
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come as lawmakers in tallahassee
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consider changing rules on solar
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electricity senate bill 1024 and house
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bill 741 would end what is called net
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metering and prevent solar customers
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from selling their excess power back to
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utility companies at retail prices
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that could mean higher bills
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weinstein agrees and now we're actually
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talking to friends who were thinking of
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solar and now they're all laying back
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they're saying why should we
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they're afraid of what's going to happen
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again florida power and light approved
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their 25 dollar minimum bill as well but
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duke is actually quick to point out that
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only a small number of solar customers
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are impacted by these minimum bills
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their words still if these pieces of
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legislation that we just talked about
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are approved in tallahassee all
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utilities could soon implement these
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minimum bills in addition to the monthly
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charges that they already have so like
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duke has a 12 monthly charge they're
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going to tack on another charge to bring
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you up to this just seems so
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counterproductive
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from what where we're trying to go here
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this almost seems like an attack on
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solar energy is that what it is an
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attack on solar in the sunshine state
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ironically and that is what some
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customers are telling us they say that
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they wanted to save money they also
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wanted to help the environment by going
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solar now with these minimum bills and
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the possibility of solar users not being
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able to sell their power at a higher
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rate
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this really could deter a lot of people
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from putting all to make sure the power
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companies keep getting those checks
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i didn't say that
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i did
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thank you eric
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