Two Florida power regulators took a hosts-paid West Palm Beach retreat. Their commission is set to rule on Duke’s data center plan Nov. 3

Two of five commissioners went to the Ben in July

In July, two of Florida’s five utility commissioners attended a private retreat at the Ben Hotel in West Palm Beach with representatives of the industry they regulate, the Tampa Bay Times reported Oct. 13, citing public records: the calendars of Commissioners Mike La Rosa and Bobby Payne each committed three weekdays to it. The commission’s docket, revised Oct. 20, schedules Nov. 3 as the conference at which it takes up Duke Energy Florida’s proposed terms for serving data centers and other large power users (Tampa Bay Times; Florida Public Service Commission).

The retreat was hosted by a nonprofit, the Regulators Roundtable Institute, and the hosts picked up the commissioners’ travel costs, the Times reported; summer room rates at the Ben start above $500 a night. The Washington Post first reported the all-expenses-paid retreat in August, writing that handouts said reporters and constituents were not welcome; it did not name any Florida commissioner (Tampa Bay Times; The Washington Post).

Your stake: if you are one of Duke Energy Florida’s two million customers, Nov. 3 is when the commission is scheduled to take up Duke’s terms for serving its largest users, which Florida Rising’s lawyer says leaves billions of dollars for other ratepayers and Duke says leaves any shortfall to shareholders through 2027 (FOX 35 Orlando; WFTV; WUSF).

The commission says the trip was legal

Commission spokesperson Devyn Irvin told the Times the hosts covered “event-related” expenses for featured speakers, so La Rosa and Payne could accept them under state ethics law; they spoke on the first and second full days, “generally discussing Florida’s energy landscape.” She said the Roundtable does not take money from utilities the commission regulates and that staff confirmed none, such as FPL, Duke or Tampa Electric, sponsored the retreat, but she could not provide a list of its donors or sponsors. Payne and La Rosa did not respond to the Times’ voicemails (Tampa Bay Times).

State law bars a commissioner from accepting anything from a regulated utility. At a conference, a commissioner who is a speaker or a committee member of the sponsoring group may attend events not sponsored in whole or in part by a regulated utility (s. 350.041, Florida Statutes). Caroline Klancke, a former general counsel for the Florida Commission on Ethics, told the Times the commissioners appear to have followed the law; Sen. Don Gaetz, who leads the Senate ethics committee, called it “very bad judgment at the very least and an ethical violation, in my view” (Tampa Bay Times).

A GOPAC fund helps run the host group, and utilities give to GOPAC

The Roundtable’s president, Elizabeth Gianini, confirmed that the GOPAC Education Fund “provides administrative and human resource services as well as strategic guidance and counsel” to the group, declined to give a full list of donors or sponsors, and said “no official actions by public service and utility commissioners can nor do occur during programming.” Federal paperwork shows GOPAC received more than $100,000 each from Florida Power & Light and Anthropic this year, and Duke gave it $365,000 last year, the Times reported; the Post reported that Dominion Energy, Duke and NextEra have given GOPAC $950,000 since 2025. Duke says its political giving “come[s] from shareholders, not customers”; FPL did not respond. No record ties any commission vote to the retreat or to GOPAC’s money (Tampa Bay Times; The Washington Post).

Duke’s large-load plan is on the Nov. 3 agenda

The commission voted 4-1 on July 7 to deny consumer advocates’ motion to dismiss Duke’s petition, and held its hearing Aug. 25. La Rosa dissented in the written order: “In my view, the petition appears facially noncompliant with the mandatory statutory requirements of Senate Bill 484.” The docket now calls for a staff recommendation Oct. 22, the commission conference Nov. 3 and a final order Nov. 23. FPL’s, Tampa Electric’s and Florida Public Utilities’ large-load filings are also on the Nov. 3 agenda, but only for steps to suspend their tariffs (E&E News; Florida Public Service Commission).

Duke says a large-load customer’s shortfall before its rate settlement ends in 2027 “will fall to shareholders, not existing customers,” and that “we do not have a large load client in Florida currently.” Jordan Luebkemann, the lawyer on Florida Rising’s brief, says Duke’s own projections show the cost to serve its first three data centers far exceeds the revenue it expects, “billions of dollars of difference” that “will fall on other rate payers”; the figures are redacted as confidential (WUSF; WFTV).

What comes next is the staff recommendation

The staff recommendation is due Oct. 22, the conference is Nov. 3 and the order Nov. 23. La Rosa and Payne have not commented beyond the commission’s statement in anything we read (Florida Public Service Commission; Tampa Bay Times).

Correction

Correction, Oct 26, 2026: An earlier version of this story said the commission takes up Duke Energy Florida’s proposed rate for data centers and other large power users, and called the case Duke’s rate case. No rate is at issue: Duke asks approval of a large-load policy and agreement under which those users would take service on its existing general service rate schedules, and it defers a new rate class to its 2027 rate case (Florida Public Service Commission staff recommendation, docket 20260064-EI, Oct. 22, 2026).