Is Duke Energy involved in campaign against Pinellas County cities looking to sever ties with them?

Records show similarities between the energy company and the nonprofits running these campaigns.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The cities of Clearwater and St. Pete have made their intentions clear: they’re considering pulling the plug on Duke Energy.

Both cities are currently exploring making their own municipal electric utilities, which they say could save residents at least 10% on their bills, according to a study by NewGen Consultants released in September.

Duke Energy has made it known that it thinks it’s a bad idea and said it would cost Clearwater $1 billion to take over Duke’s equipment.

“The city’s own report actually has made it clear that there is no guarantee that Clearwater will achieve cost savings,” said Duke spokesperson Ana Gibbs in September. “We do believe that the best path forward is to, in fact, have cities negotiate the franchise agreement with us. We are very open to negotiating with the city.”

But that campaign may not just be limited to the public statements Duke has put its own name behind.

Over the course of the last few months, organizations like Pinellas Energy Alliance, Clearwater Energy Alliance and St. Pete Energy Alliance have started popping up, releasing social media ads and canvassing across Clearwater and St. Pete to criticize the efforts of these cities. They’ve warned taxpayers of what they say would be a rise in taxes as a result of this switch away from Duke.

Residents were joined by St. Pete City Council Member Richie Floyd on Wednesday for a press briefing and said they’ve noticed the alliances, too — and felt they raised some red flags.

“It’s hard to say, but what other business has such a big stake in Duke Energy that they want them to stay in our community,” said Marley Price with Dump Duke, a group that has been leading a campaign against the energy company.

Records show the nonprofits’ messages may not be their only similarity to Duke.

“There’s a breadcrumb trail leading back to Duke Energy through the filings for the organization, but like so many things in politics, it’s a dark money organization,” Floyd said. “I couldn’t tell you for sure that that’s who it is, but every arrow points in that direction.”

All three alliances share the same registered agent and address, which also happens to be the same as Duke Energy’s — CT Corporation System, located at 1200 South Pine Island Road in Plantation. The registered agent and address are the person or company officially designated to receive legal and government documents on behalf of a business.

That, of course, could just be a coincidence.

But when you look further into the records, they show the nonprofit’s incorporator is Lisa Lohss, who, according to her LinkedIn page, was a manager at Duke.

Meta ads also show her alliances are spending like a corporation, with close to $100,000 being spent on advertisements since October.

Duke Energy declined 10 Tampa Bay News’ request for an interview but responded in a statement, saying the alliances “are not controlled by Duke Energy,” and Lohss “is not a Duke Energy employee and has not been for years.”

10 Tampa Bay News also reached out to these alliances and Lohss to discuss these similarities with Duke Energy, but they did not respond to our requests.

“I specifically want to ask Duke Energy and their affiliates and their front groups to not do disinformation, to present correct factual information when we’re having this discussion,” Floyd said. “There’s already been flyers going around saying that this is going to impact taxes, which is a lie. Energy rates are paid for by the utility payers, not the taxpayer, no matter who provides the service.”

Dump Duke members and their allies also discussed concerns over rate increases on Wednesday, claiming Duke Energy customers are currently facing the highest rates in Florida’s history this month.

“Many families here in St. Pete lost their homes and had thousands of dollars in damages, and what did Duke Energy say to that? Too bad, and they passed their charges, their cost, onto their customer to guarantee their 9% to 11% profit margin,” Dump Duke organizer Jason Scott said.

Duke said in a statement to 10 Tampa Bay News that customers can expect February’s bill to be approximately $33 cheaper compared to January’s and then another $11 cheaper in March after the removal of the storm cost recovery charge for hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton and the seasonal decrease. Duke says the storm cost recovery charge will be removed a month earlier than the company initially expected.

“Duke Energy continues to make decisions rooted in value for customers, investing wisely, modernizing responsibly and doing all we can to keep costs as low as possible for our customers,” a spokesperson said in a statement.