Insure advocacy for public

Florida Power & Light says the company needs about $430 million more next year from customers to keep up with the cost of doing business. FPL wants $122 million on top of that in 2007. The Office of Public Counsel, however, says the utility is overcharging customers by nearly $680 million.

The two sides will argue out that slight disagreement during hearings this year before the Florida Public Service Commission. Whatever happens, consumers at least will know that someone was armed with information and advocating for them. Compare that situation with what happens when an insurance company asks for a rate increase, such as Allstate seeking an average 29 percent hike in premiums.

There is an Office of Insurance Regulation, which will review the request. After Allstate announced its demand, the OIR did fuss. And Allstate did say later that the increase would be phased in. But there is no insurance counterpart to the Office of Public Counsel, which the Legislature created specifically to be the consumers' representative before the utility-regulating Public Service Commission.

The OPC has a staff of just 16 people, four of them lawyers. But over the past three decades, since the Legislature created it, the office has been a dog chewing on the pant leg of electric and phone companies. Last year, Public Counsel Harold McLean, one of the lawyers, went before the PSC to argue against the largest local phone rate increase in state history.

The OPC's mission is to make a utility prove that it needs an increase and, if the case isn't there, to persuade the Public Service Commission to reduce or deny it. The OPC can bring its own expert witnesses, as it did to challenge FPL's latest latest request. "That office," wrote the Florida Supreme Court, "was created with the realization that the citizens of the state cannot adequately represent themselves in utility matters, and that the rate-setting function of the Commission is best performed when those who will pay utility rates are represented in an adversary proceeding by counsel at least as skilled as counsel for the utility company."

Similarly, citizens can't adequately represent themselves against insurers. This year, the Legislature could have created an Office of Public Counsel for insurance. Any legislator wanting to balance things more toward the consumer and thus score points with voters in an election year will sponsor the legislation in 2006.