Speaker: Taylor Neverman
Taylor Neverman: Hi, my name is Taylor. Never. And I live in Miami, Florida. Um, I've lived in Florida my whole life so I'm no stranger to our high temps and high electricity costs. Um, but lately things have been getting out of hand. Um, when I first moved into my current apartment a year ago I was paying, you know, anywhere from $70 to $90 a month in the hottest months of the year. Um, and now in those same months my bill is, um, almost $300. It's $280 a month. Um, this is with keeping the ac at 78 degrees all day. Um, and, you know, relying on internal fans and that kind of thing to keep cool, um, during heat waves, which we're currently experiencing, um, these high energy costs are untenable and, um, I don't know how we can keep affording them.
Taylor Neverman: I think Florida's energy corporations need to realize that they can't keep investing in dirty energy and expect there to be no consequences. We keep fueling climate change, literally and worsening the impacts of extreme weather like hurricanes and just ramping up the costs that are going, they're keeping passing on to consumers. And that can't go on forever. Um, eventually we will not be able to pay for those things. And so the smart business decision and the ethical decision is to invest in clean energy now, um and stop making our problems worse. Um, and to Florida politicians, I would say look at our utilities, they're supposed to be regulated for the people's best interest. Um but they're not and we know where the money is coming from to your campaigns. And so they, they can't keep hiding that forever and expect us not to do something about it. So I would want Florida politicians to know that we're paying attention and we're following the money.
