The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) filed an appeal on December 21, 2011 with the Florida Supreme Court challenging the Florida Public Service Commission’s (PSC) Final Order in the 2011 Nuclear Cost Recovery docket.

The November 2011 docket approved a combined $282 million in cost recovery for Progress Energy Florida and Florida Power & Light for proposed nuclear reactors. The appeal also challenges the constitutionality of Florida’s early cost recovery statute, Fla. Stat. 366.93.

Progress has proposed building two reactors with an estimated cost of $22.5 billion, and FPL has proposed building two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Turkey Point nuclear plant with an estimated $20 billion price tag. The Turkey Point project had a planned construction timeframe of 2018 to 2020, but a delay in construction may push it beyond that.

In January 2010, FPL said it would pursue a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the new reactors but would not go beyond what is required for the license after the PSC approved a $75.5 million base-rate increase, less than 6 percent of the amount the company requested. FPL also said it would suspend $10 billion in capital projects over the next five years after the PSC’s decision.

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