How a Florida Republican handles utility companies

[HAB911]

POW! KABOOM!

Sen. Jack Latvala, a Clearwater Republican running for governor, vowed to not take any more money from the electric utilities until they strengthen the power grid.

"In this cycle," he said, "I'm done taking money from them."



Utilities face barrage of questions as power returns to Tampa Bay

Nearly all of Tampa Bay has electricity again a week after Hurricane Irma shredded the power grid, but elected officials here say the problem is far from solved.

They have many questions about the strength of local power utilities' infrastructure and failing communication systems that forced angry residents to report the same outages multiple times before getting help.

HURRICANE IRMA: Read the latest coverage from the Tampa Bay Times.

Much of residents' ire during and after the storm was directed at Duke Energy, the main provider in Pinellas County, where roughly 400,000 customers were left in the dark last week.

"I'm very concerned about the outages and the process that took place," said state Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, who was named to a special House committee that will look at hurricane preparedness after Irma. "I intend to ask a lot of difficult questions."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/utilities-face-barrage-of-questions-as-power-returns-to-tampa-bay/2338002

[KG]

1. we shall see. these are repooks, after all.

[HAB911]

2. Sounds like the briar patch for Duke

TOO FUNNY

[Solly Mack]

3. "In this cycle"

I'm sure not taking their money (in this cycle) will show them!

Unless he's also saying that by not taking their money (in this cycle) he also won't be favoring them as well.

Which means he gets paid to play and is admitting it.

It's all in how you read it.

[DetlefK]

4. So... He's basically admitting that he does what his donors want, not what his voters want.

[superpatriotman]

5. Bury the lines

[gratuitous]

6. "I intend to ask a lot of difficult questions"

No word on whether Sprowls will insist on answers or if it will be enough for the energy companies to issue a big statement that begins with "Pay to the order of."