Tampa Electric CEO pressed for answers on utility’s rate hike request

For more than eight hours over two days, Tampa Electric president and CEO Archie Collins was questioned by lawyers in Tallahassee as the utility’s quest to raise its customers’ rates was essentially put on trial.

In hearings over the utility’s base rate hike request held by state regulators, Collins discussed internal company documents that showed Tampa Electric executives knew its customers were increasingly struggling to pay their utility bills last summer.