by Ron Hurtibise
MIAMI 2/24/16 — Florida’s two largest utility companies are the target of a lawsuit claiming a state law that authorized collection of $2 billion for construction of nuclear power facilities is unconstitutional.

The suit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Hagens Berman, which describes itself as a “national class action and complex litigation law firm.”

The suit accuses Florida Power & Light, headquartered in Juno, and Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of North Carolina-based Duke Energy Corp., of overcharging its ratepayers.

Relying on a 2006 state law that authorized the Nuclear Cost Recovery System, the utilities turned 6.4 million ratepayers into “involuntary investors in nuclear projects, charges them interest on their own money and never returns their ‘investment,” the suit contends. “When the projects are abandoned, the utilities keep the money and collect even more.”

Read the whole article: Sun Sentinel