Florida Power & Light could well have become an affiliate of Baltimore Gas & Electric. FPL Group, the Florida utility's parent, agreed to merge with BGE parent Constellation Energy Group a few years ago. The companies scrapped the merger after they got resistance from the Maryalnd Public Service Commission.

New details have emerged about how cosy FPL is with the Florida PSC. A state lobbyist who partied with a top FPL exec on Kentucky Derby Day resigned Tuesday, and two other PSC staffers were placed on leave. The Miami Herald reported that an FPL executive had requested and gotten confidential Blackberry messaging codes from one state commissioner and two state staffers. The codes would have reduced chances that the communications would leave a record, the Herald reported.

Meanwhile FPL is asking for a 30 percent rate increase, part of which would be devoted to buying a $31 million executive jet. Beautiful.