Environmental cost recovery.

(1) As used in this section, the term:

(a) “Electric utility” or “utility” means any investor-owned electric utility that owns, maintains, or operates an electric generation, transmission, or distribution system within the State of Florida and that is regulated under this chapter.

(b) “Commission” means the Florida Public Service Commission.

(c) “Environmental laws or regulations” includes all federal, state, or local statutes, administrative regulations, orders, ordinances, resolutions, or other requirements that apply to electric utilities and are designed to protect the environment.

(d) “Environmental compliance costs” includes all costs or expenses incurred by an electric utility in complying with environmental laws or regulations, including, but not limited to:

1. Inservice capital investments, including the electric utility’s last authorized rate of return on equity thereon.

2. Operation and maintenance expenses.

3. Fuel procurement costs.

4. Purchased power costs.

5. Emission allowance costs.

6. Direct taxes on environmental equipment.

7. Costs or expenses prudently incurred by an electric utility pursuant to an agreement entered into on or after the effective date of this act and prior to October 1, 2002, between the electric utility and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the exclusive purpose of ensuring compliance with ozone ambient air quality standards by an electrical generating facility owned by the electric utility.

8. Costs or expenses prudently incurred for scientific research and geological assessments of carbon capture and storage conducted in this state for the purpose of reducing an electric utility’s greenhouse gas emissions when such costs or expenses are incurred in joint research projects with Florida state government agencies and Florida state universities.

9. Costs or expenses prudently incurred by an electric utility after July 1, 2021, pursuant to an agreement between the electric utility and a governmental wastewater utility for the exclusive purpose of the electric utility constructing and operating a wastewater reuse system where operation of the system will serve to further compliance with environmental laws or regulations that apply to the electric utility and where the system fully or partially satisfies a local government’s reclaimed water reuse requirements under s. 403.064 or s. 403.086. At least 50 percent of the reclaimed water the system produces must be used in conjunction with the water requirements of an electrical generating facility or facilities owned by the electric utility to offset all or part of the electric utility’s water use authorized by permit.

(2) An electric utility may submit to the commission a petition describing the utility’s proposed environmental compliance activities and projected environmental compliance costs in addition to any Clean Air Act compliance activities and costs shown in a utility’s filing under s. 366.825. If approved, the commission shall allow recovery of the utility’s prudently incurred environmental compliance costs, including the costs incurred in compliance with the Clean Air Act, and any amendments thereto or any change in the application or enforcement thereof, through an environmental compliance cost-recovery factor that is separate and apart from the utility’s base rates. An adjustment for the level of costs currently being recovered through base rates or other rate-adjustment clauses must be included in the filing.

(3) The environmental compliance cost-recovery factor must be set periodically, but at least annually, based on projections of the utility’s environmental compliance costs during the forthcoming recovery period, and must be adjusted for variations in line losses. The environmental compliance cost-recovery factor must provide for periodic true-up of the utility’s actual environmental compliance costs with the projections on which past factors have been set, and must further require that any refund or collection made as part of the true-up process include interest.

(4) Environmental compliance costs recovered through the environmental cost-recovery factor shall be allocated to the customer classes using the criteria set out in s. 366.06(1), taking into account the manner in which similar types of investment or expense were allocated in the company’s last rate case.

(5) Recovery of environmental compliance costs under this section does not preclude inclusion of such costs in base rates in subsequent rate proceedings, if that inclusion is necessary and appropriate; however, any costs recovered in base rates may not also be recovered in the environmental cost-recovery clause.