The public counsel who was appointed by the Florida Legislature to represent utility customers eviscerated a deal proposed by Florida Power & Light and mostly big-business interest groups to settle the utility’s rate case, saying Monday the proposal would result in an “unconscionable” rate of return for shareholders and “unfair, unjust, and unaffordable” rates for residents.

The proposed settlement “is in the special interest of a few,” Walt Trierweiler wrote in new filings, in which he repeatedly referred to the settlement as the “Special Interest Parties’ Proposal.”

It’s also not legally valid, he argued, because it doesn’t represent a compromise between parties that were genuinely at odds and is therefore “against public policy, and against the public interest.”

Trierweiler’s stateme

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