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Jason Scott From Dump Duke Energy Calls Into Hoppe Hour With Ryan Hoppe · Hoppe Radio (Hoppe Hour) With Ryan Hoppe

0:05
What's up? This is Hoppy Hour. I am your host,
0:07
Ryan Hoppy. And if you are a resident of St.
0:09
Petersburg, we all dread that email that we get
0:13
to our Gmail, which shows the overpriced ripoff
0:16
that is Duke Energy as it's... 100 degrees every
0:19
single day here, yet we get screwed having to
0:22
be comfortable. So about the other day, I was
0:25
covering the whole thing going on of the chance
0:30
of St. Pete having its own company, and I was
0:34
playing a clip from WFLA, and I saw the Dump
0:37
Duke people were out there, and on the phone
0:40
line is the leader of it, Jason Scott. What's
0:43
up, bro? Hey Ryan, thanks for having me. I'm
0:47
Jason Scott. I'm a dump duke organizer along
0:51
with many others. And we just believe that we
0:55
have other options on the table and residents
0:58
really need to have a voice and be able to make
1:00
a decision here in St. Pete. I found it fascinating,
1:06
Jason. I cover the news on my show. I look at
1:09
FLA, TSP, all the local news. I was really encouraged
1:14
last year when it was August 2025, and they were
1:18
talking about, oh, we got a year left on the
1:21
lease. The thing that drives me nuts about the
1:24
Tampa news is they're very optimistic on things,
1:27
but a lot of times what they say there is kind
1:30
of just like fan fiction. Because I was getting
1:32
my hopes up hearing, oh, there might be a community
1:35
-owned or a St. Pete company. And then the year
1:41
flies by and it's like the middle of July and
1:44
all of a sudden the news is like there's two
1:47
weeks left on the deal with Duke. And I'm like,
1:50
how did you let the whole freaking year go by?
1:54
Because were we dealing about with the Rays or
1:56
are they not caring because of the election coming
2:00
up? But Jason, doesn't it feel like it began
2:03
with promise and then all of a sudden it kind
2:06
of just was not covered? Yeah, well, I will say,
2:11
you know, this issue has been slow rolled since
2:14
the beginning. I will shout out city council
2:17
member Richie Floyd. Yes. He actually started
2:20
the conversation back in 2024. So it's been a
2:24
long, a long road to get to this point. And,
2:28
you know, the dump do campaign started a year
2:30
and a half ago. Yeah. We fought hard to just
2:32
get the study approved. And that was multiple
2:35
months. And it took forever just to get the RFP
2:39
out and have that approved. Yeah. Speaking of
2:42
money, what drives me nuts, I don't know what
2:44
politician it was locally. It was a city council
2:47
member. It might have been with the Clearwater
2:49
deal. But they were talking about, oh, it's going
2:51
to cost all this money. I'm like, you guys are
2:55
the ones that can afford it because you're making
2:57
six figures. The whole thing's a massive ripoff,
3:01
dude. It makes me so mad. So I want to give you
3:04
the floor. How would you explain Dump Duke to
3:08
people? What are the options? Because obviously
3:11
anything is better than Duke. But what are the
3:14
options that are coming to your mind if you were
3:16
to be given the power and they're like, hey,
3:19
Jason Scott, create your own electric grid or
3:22
whatever. How would you do it? What is the plan?
3:26
Yeah, absolutely. So we want to follow a successful
3:28
model that we have here in Florida. There's over
3:32
30 cities across the state. They have public
3:35
power, all of which on average are paying 20
3:38
% to 30 % less than we do. The last city that
3:41
moved away from Duke was Winter Park. They did
3:44
this back in 2005. They're paying significantly
3:48
less than we do, and they had huge success in
3:51
putting their lines underground. Over 80 % of
3:54
those lines are now underground. So they have
3:58
better resiliency. Just being able to respond
4:03
to storms and outages faster than Duke Energy
4:07
does. Yeah, Jason, I thought it was amazing.
4:10
This is sarcasm on my end. I thought it was so
4:13
amazing when they're talking in these meetings,
4:17
and you probably know more than me, but one of
4:20
them was like, well, we got the power back on
4:23
after Helena Milton. It's like, congratulations.
4:26
That's your freaking job. That would be like
4:29
somebody working at McDonald's being like, oh,
4:32
well, I got the McDouble out fast. It's like,
4:34
well, that's what you're supposed to do. That's
4:36
not really, I don't know. That was one thing
4:39
that really made me mad. And here's the catch.
4:44
We got charged a billion dollars for that storm
4:48
response from Duke Energy. Did we really? Yes,
4:51
they raised our bills in 2025. And we collectively
4:55
paid over a billion dollars. And they actually
4:59
overcharged us by 90 million. And that's why
5:03
our bills went down this summer because the state
5:05
held them accountable and they had to give us
5:08
that money back through a rate reduction through
5:11
the summer. Do you think Duke has always been
5:16
like this or have they gotten maybe greedier?
5:20
post COVID with the, you know, inflation everywhere
5:25
and price gouging that companies are doing. Yeah.
5:29
I mean, across the U S you see this from investor
5:32
owned utilities like Duke energy, where they're
5:35
trying to maximize their, their profits and increase
5:39
revenue anywhere they can. And yeah, I mean,
5:43
it has over the last like 10 years, we have really
5:46
seen a sharp increase. Not too long ago, investor
5:50
-owned utilities and public power companies weren't
5:53
that too different when it came to prices and
5:56
reliability. But now we see a huge, stark difference
6:01
between the two. And it's clear what the option
6:04
is. So we're hopeful that the study comes back
6:08
positive, and we believe residents should make
6:11
that choice. What's the key to having a good
6:14
study? I don't know much about this. Sorry, can
6:19
you repeat that? What's the key to having a successful
6:22
study? What needs to go right? What needs to
6:26
align with the universe for it to come back being
6:28
positive? Sure. We just want to leave it to the
6:33
professionals. The city has contracted Nugent,
6:37
who is an engineering firm that has done studies
6:41
across the U .S., both showing it's feasible
6:45
in some cities and not feasible in others. They
6:48
recently did a study in Clearwater showing residents
6:50
could save 15 % on their bills in the very first
6:54
year, which is roughly a collective $35 million.
6:58
Unfortunately, the city council there decided
7:00
to take a $2 million package for the city instead.
7:06
But just leaving it to the professionals to look,
7:10
what does it cost to separate from Duke Energy?
7:14
How much does it cost to buy electricity wholesale
7:17
and the cost of operating it and running it here
7:20
in St. Pete? The other thing, dude, is it's just
7:25
such a bummer when I open up that email, dude.
7:28
There's two emails that are real bummers for
7:31
me working on radio. And I'm sure you've had
7:34
this at your day job where an employee that you're
7:37
friends with that you talk to in the break room
7:39
gets laid off. That email sucks. And then the
7:43
email from Duke of either how much you've used
7:46
or your bill. I think my favorite part about
7:50
the winter is that I don't need the air as much
7:53
because I'm a really sweaty guy. I'm six foot
7:55
nine. I sweat easily. So I need a cold. So it's
7:58
just like it's ridiculous. And it's like I don't
8:03
even know how to explain it. Like the one thing
8:05
that really makes me mad, bro. is that you can
8:09
only extend the due day twice. Like, if you're
8:15
going to be price gouging me, at least allow
8:18
me to wait 14 days to pay it. I hate, dude, it's
8:22
an absolute scam. The funny part is I've been
8:26
blocked by some of the CEOs because what I do,
8:29
like you guys saw, I sent the collab invite with
8:31
you guys. I always try to get the attention of
8:34
whoever I'm talking about. I mean, I've gotten
8:36
the attention of everybody from Dump Duke to
8:38
Chelsea Hamler. Because everybody checks the
8:41
folder for the collab. And nobody checks the
8:45
tag. But that's some advice for people listening.
8:49
Send a collab to whatever you're talking about.
8:52
I'm telling you, dude, they hide too because
8:55
they know that they're price gouging us. They
8:58
know that we don't like them. And if you, well,
9:02
first of all, forget about my tangent. We have
9:05
the election coming up. And I was talking to
9:08
you about this yesterday, and I want you to kind
9:10
of say it again. What does Charlie Crist... and
9:16
Ken Welch, both running for mayor of St. Pete.
9:20
What does Ace say about all this? Yeah. Well,
9:25
first, I'll start with Ken. You know, working
9:28
with him has been slightly difficult. You know,
9:31
he projects himself as being open to it. Yeah.
9:34
But, you know, we have been slow -rolled just
9:37
getting this process through the door. having
9:40
it approved. We didn't have to go to city council
9:42
to have this approved. He could have done this
9:44
on his own volition and had this study done two
9:49
years ago. He could have done it out of his own
9:53
will. But it required hundreds of residents and
9:58
over 5 ,000 supporters to pressure the city council
10:02
to approve it. And so I'll just say for Ken,
10:06
he projects himself as open. Open to the idea,
10:10
but when it comes to action, we have been absolutely
10:14
slow road getting just the study approved. Well,
10:17
Jason, of course he's not really freaking out
10:20
about it. The guy makes $243 ,000 a year. So
10:26
that's what drives me nuts is these politicians,
10:29
when you look at how much they're making, it's
10:31
like, well, of course you can afford it. You're
10:33
not one of the... I speak, I try to speak for
10:37
the everyday average Joe. You know what I mean?
10:40
And they can't speak for us. He's making $250
10:44
,000. That bill is on an automated whatever to
10:47
him. That's what I can't stand about politics
10:51
is when they claim to want to help us and then
10:54
when there's opportunities, we're like, eh. Drives
10:58
me nuts. No, exactly. And I'll just add, Ken
11:02
Balch used to work as an accountant for Florida
11:05
Power, which is now Duke Energy. So he also has
11:12
a close relationship with the executives at Duke
11:16
Energy. And then for Charlie, at first he tried
11:21
to place himself as the middle road type of guy.
11:24
He's open to it, but he wants to be financially
11:28
responsible. And then on the back end, we saw
11:31
Tempe Times release an article where he's accepted
11:34
over $480 ,000 from Duke Energy funneling money
11:39
through PACS. So that doesn't really build a
11:42
lot of confidence. His campaign manager is the
11:48
wife of Peter Schwartz as well. Oh, really? Yes.
11:52
And he has been an advocate against... looking
11:56
into our options. I think that was the guy I
12:01
was talking about earlier that was on the news.
12:03
I believe that was who I was talking about. Yeah.
12:07
Yeah, yeah, go on. I was just going to say, each
12:11
option doesn't really build a lot of confidence
12:13
that they would make the right decision for residents.
12:18
And that's exactly why Dump Duke joined a coalition
12:22
with Sierra Club, Clio, Florida Rising, Youth
12:27
Action Fund, and People Power to build a ballot
12:32
initiative so residents can sign a petition and
12:36
get us on the ballot in 2028 so that we don't
12:40
have to rely on Charlie or Ken when this decision
12:44
comes up. So what I'm curious about, I'm going
12:48
to make an analogy right now. So when people
12:51
think about shooting three -pointers, they think
12:53
of Stephen Curry. When I think about winning
12:55
football games, you think about Brady. Everyone
12:58
uses the word goat a lot. What is the goat company
13:02
of locally owned? What is an example of a company
13:05
that, if someone's listening from St. Pete City
13:09
Council, what's like, I know you said Winter
13:14
Haven, right? Is that one of the really good
13:16
ones? Winter Park. Winter Park. Yeah, Winter
13:19
Park is a great example of what you can accomplish
13:22
with public power. Because, you know, they did
13:24
this in 2005. That's not too long ago. And when
13:27
they started, they they brought in a third party
13:30
operator for the first 10 years to help them
13:32
get off the ground. And they have been successful
13:36
throughout the entire process. But you have other
13:38
successful municipalities with public power across
13:43
the state. I mean, the large majority are like
13:47
20 or 30 percent more affordable than Duke. On
13:50
average, they're like. updated twice as fast
13:54
on responding to outages than Duke Energy. I
13:58
like to shout out Orlando. Orlando is a huge
14:00
utility, and they do great for affordability
14:03
and responding to outages as well. But we have
14:07
success across the state, and that's why we want
14:09
to actually look into our options and see if
14:12
that's on the table for us. Yeah. Have you ever
14:17
heard back from anybody at Duke? I mean, we run
14:24
into Duke consultants or so when we're going
14:30
to these meetings. But no, I haven't had a real
14:34
one -on -one conversation with Duke Energy. I
14:38
don't think there's really much to say because
14:40
it's just like, well, I just think it's an absolute
14:43
scam. Like I said earlier, their whole braggadocious,
14:47
oh, well. We broke the record. They were trying
14:50
to say something like that. They broke the record
14:52
for how fast it was to bring back the power after
14:56
the hurricanes. Like, cool. Drives me absolutely
15:00
nuts, dude. One thing I want to ask you, though,
15:02
if you were to explain to somebody, because obviously
15:08
when you send an email, when you go to... What's
15:13
your official website? DumpDukeStPete .com. When
15:16
you go there or you go to the link tree, Dump
15:19
Duke Campaign, linktr .ee slash Dump Duke Campaign,
15:24
which I'll have all the links in the podcast
15:26
bio. What's the key to sending an efficient email
15:29
to City Hall or to St. Pete City officials? Because
15:33
obviously you don't want to come out like...
15:35
It's kind of like watching Floyd Mayweather box.
15:38
You don't want to attack him at first. You want
15:40
to make him tired. So what's the key to messaging
15:44
them and getting their respect so you're not
15:47
just saying, oh, F you or whatever, you know?
15:50
Yeah, absolutely. So first, just be nice. You
15:55
know, you want to make your community a better
15:58
place. And, you know, they do too, you know.
16:02
You know, you can have differences and, you know,
16:08
maybe different. How to phrase this nicely, but
16:12
maybe a difference in opinions for how to solve
16:15
some issues. But at the end of the day, you just
16:18
want to make your community a better place and
16:20
also tackle the affordability crisis that we're
16:24
all facing. So there's no need to be like rude
16:28
or just be nice and point out the actual facts.
16:32
that we have. So, obviously, Saturday 9 -26 is
16:39
in the past, but how did that petition go? For
16:44
which one? The event Saturday 9 -26, two days
16:48
ago as we were recording. How did that go? The
16:50
petition collecting. The canvas? Yeah, yeah.
16:53
Oh, yes. No, it's great. It's easy to talk to
16:56
folks. It's really easy to get them on board
16:59
and understand. what's at stake, because we're
17:03
all facing the same issue here. And, you know,
17:07
we've been focusing a lot on folks downtown and
17:11
around South St. Pete, where you have higher
17:15
outages and you have folks on fixed incomes around
17:20
South St. Pete as well. So, I mean, it's not
17:24
really a challenge to get folks on board on this.
17:26
But it's difficult to have all those conversations.
17:31
Our volunteer base is limited, and we've got
17:35
to get over 16 ,000 petitions. Our goal is 20
17:40
,000, and we have to have that by 2028. So it's
17:44
going to be a huge challenge to get this accomplished.
17:49
Explain to me, on the website, it says the Dark
17:54
Money Group. What is that? Sure. Not too long
18:00
ago, maybe six months or more, Duke Energy supposedly
18:07
had a dark money group started here in Pinellas.
18:15
I forget the actual name of their group, but
18:19
essentially they hired canvassers to go to door
18:22
-to -door saying, hey, public, moving away from
18:27
Duke Energy, Increase your taxes. You know, the
18:32
city should focus on schools, which cities don't
18:35
fund schools. That's the county. And just other
18:38
lies about affordability and reliability and
18:42
calling us exploring our options as dangerous,
18:47
more or less. And, you know, they use dirty tactics
18:51
as well. And the Tempe Times covered it where
18:54
they were going down to blood banks. to pick
18:58
up folks who are in hard times and exploited
19:05
them by having them work and do these canvassing
19:10
in exchange for getting sign -ups against this
19:14
can enter in a raffle or have some financial
19:18
rewards for that. And it's really disgusting.
19:23
Isn't it just crazy just how... I'm trying to,
19:27
obviously, when I do my Duke rants, I'm much
19:31
more outspoken. But, I mean, isn't it just ridiculous
19:35
how this just keeps happening? I just, I don't
19:39
even know how it's even fair. It's ridiculous
19:41
to me. Because, first of all, I mean, to say
19:45
we didn't choose to live here. I did choose to
19:47
move here from Chicago 11 years ago. But we didn't
19:50
choose to have global warming or whatever's going
19:52
on with the climate. It's ridiculous. This whole
19:57
thing, Jason, this is why it feels good to have
20:00
you on because then I get kind of like the meat
20:04
of everything because I don't know how to approach
20:08
this subject because I will tell you, I said
20:12
this before earlier in the show, I think, or
20:15
maybe on the phone, but I'll say it again. It
20:18
drives me nuts. There was one guy in Clearwater
20:21
that was like, well, you know. It costs about
20:24
$500 ,000 to do some stuff. I go, okay, that's
20:29
what you're elected to do is to make life as
20:33
good as possible for the resident of whatever
20:35
city you live in. And boo -hoo if you have to
20:40
pay a half a million. We're paying whatever we're
20:43
paying on our bill per month. It's just, it's
20:46
astonishing. This area, dude, I love... I love
20:51
Tampa Bay, but there are some things about it,
20:53
man, that I don't know, dude. It's just, I mean,
20:57
just the whole dark money thing is ridiculous
20:59
because you're preying on people that need help.
21:03
Yeah, and look, this is going to be a long road.
21:07
Duke Energy is going to drop hundreds of thousands,
21:10
if not millions, against this initiative. So
21:15
we're not going to be blind to this. I mean,
21:19
they have run... social media ads, what have
21:21
you. The whole idea is just to build a scare
21:24
tactic and fear monger over what we could have.
21:30
And really, as long as residents are informed
21:33
and know what options are on the table, I think
21:36
it's going to be an obvious choice of what we
21:39
need to do. Where do we go from here? What do
21:42
we do? Absolutely. So I would suggest everyone
21:47
to go to publicpowersaintpete .com. Go to how
21:53
to sign and download our petition and you can
21:57
fill it out and mail it to us. The mailing address
22:00
is on the petition itself. Yes. Because we need
22:03
to get as many petitions as we can as fast as
22:06
we can. And it's a huge goal. And if you have
22:11
any issues with Duke Energy and you want to be
22:17
able to have a voice, actually decide what happens
22:19
to our energy future, which this would impact
22:23
us for generations. Yes. So we really need to
22:27
at least have it on the table for us to decide,
22:30
because if we don't make it to the ballot, I
22:33
can tell you right now, Charlie and Ken is not
22:35
going to help us out. They're not going to look
22:38
into the options. Yes. And so we need to have
22:40
the decision making in our own hands. So go to
22:44
public power, stpete .com. and download the petition.
22:48
And I will put the link tree and the website
22:51
in the podcast description. So to whoever's listening
22:56
right now, if you're listening on iHeart, Apple,
22:59
Spotify, in the podcast description, everything
23:02
is there. Once again, before I let you go, my
23:06
man, first of all, this has just been very therapeutic
23:09
because I can do my shock jock thing and talk
23:12
smack, but it really is important to have facts.
23:17
Anything else you want to say? Is there anything
23:20
that you were maybe wanting to say that I haven't
23:23
asked? No, I think we covered a lot of material.
23:27
But I'll just say again, this is a simple ask
23:33
to get us on the ballot so residents can make
23:35
that final decision. Across the state, we have
23:39
higher affordability. more reliability, having
23:43
local control in your own backyard when it comes
23:46
to utility easements and vegetation management
23:49
and making sure you don't have outages during
23:52
simple storms, just rainstorms. This is how you
23:57
do it. This is how you do it. Having public power.
24:00
And it has been a successful model across the
24:03
state of Florida. And I know we can do something
24:05
better here as well. Do you guys have any events
24:10
coming up? In like October? Yes, we're going
24:15
to be at the Saturday morning market on October
24:18
3rd. Oh, nice. So if you can't print it out and
24:22
mail it, come see us in person at the Saturday
24:26
morning market downtown. We will also be there
24:29
on first Friday. I don't know how that will go,
24:31
but you might catch us around there as well.
24:34
You might be a few drinks in. I'm just kidding.
24:36
That would be me. Dude, this has been... Just
24:40
so awesome because I'm so passionate about the
24:43
topic. Yeah. I didn't really quite know how to
24:46
go about it. And, uh, I love what you guys are
24:49
doing. Just going against the man. Cause I feel
24:51
like in just in life in general, we just allow
24:55
these things to happen over and over again. And
24:59
we all, I mean, there's nothing worse, dude.
25:03
Then when you get your check and the check is
25:07
like, okay, well this, whatever you're paying.
25:10
There's no worse feeling, at least to me, if
25:13
I pay for internet or whatever. At least with
25:17
that, it's providing me internet to watch things.
25:21
With Duke, it just feels like a big scam. So
25:25
this has been very therapeutic. You know what
25:27
I mean? No, absolutely. I mean, we're all facing
25:31
the national affordability crisis. And so we
25:35
just need to make sure that... We do everything
25:37
in our power to relieve residents of that crisis
25:42
as much as we can. And this is definitely a positive
25:46
avenue we can go down. Well, to the Hoppy Hour
25:50
listener listening right now, like I said, look
25:52
at the podcast description for all the links.
25:55
And Jason Scott of Dump Duke, Florida, you are
26:00
the absolute best, dude. You are out there doing
26:03
something that I think everyone thought. but
26:06
didn't know how to go about it. And I know you
26:08
have a day job. So thank you very much for speaking
26:12
for us. Speaking for us. No, and thank you. Yeah.
26:15
Yeah, and thank you for having me. And actually
26:17
looking into the local issues here in St. Pete.
26:20
I mean, it's really big. So thank you. Like I
26:24
said to you on the phone when we talked yesterday,
26:27
I'm like very much a guy that I want to get involved
26:31
in things, but sometimes I don't want to seem
26:33
like I'm pandering or being fake. But when I
26:36
saw this and I saw you guys, when I was making
26:39
my video ranting about Duke, I literally paused
26:43
the video where it said Dump Duke and followed
26:46
you guys because I was like, you guys are just
26:47
speaking my language. So once again, Jason Scott
26:51
of Dump Duke, Florida. Keep up the good work,
26:54
and I will definitely come to some events soon.
26:57
Awesome. Thanks, Ryan. Awesome, Jason. All right,
27:00
bye. And that was Jason Scott of Dump Duke, Florida,
27:07
as he called into Hoppy Hour. He does a very
27:10
good job of not being a loud mouth like me. Obviously,
27:14
I can't stand Duke. I've done rants about them.
27:17
I have been blocked by their CEO. But the thing
27:21
is, I don't care because, you know, if you really
27:26
are a politician that claims to care about the
27:28
everyday average Joe, you would dump Duke. Happy
27:32
Hour. Happy Hour. Happy Hour will be right back.