Regulators get too cozy with utilities

In May, the staff lobbyist for the Florida Public Service Commission "dropped by" a Kentucky Derby party at the home of a Florida Power & Light executive in Palm Beach Gardens. Ryder Rudd, the recent recipient of an 8 percent pay increase, claims he and his wife took time out from their vacation so he could mingle and gather information from the executives of the state's biggest electric utility on behalf of the ratepayers of Florida. But mint juleps, utility executives and PSC staffers should never mix.