I wonder if Senator Simpson knows about that

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

“King David is a hero of our faith. You should grow up to be just like King David,” the college freshman remembered hearing his grandmother say. As a student in Old Testament Survey, the young man learned of King David’s adulterous relationship with the wife of a brave soldier sent to his death by the king. Shocked to learn of King David’s less than perfect record, the young man said to himself, “I wonder if my Grandma knows about that?”

This past week, listening to State Sen. Wilton Simpson rail against the Florida Municipal Power Agency before the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee, I wondered if the west central Florida legislator is aware that his new buddy, FPL C.E.O. Eric Silagy, leads a company that lost $4.2 billion over the past 13 years hedging fuel prices.

As a percentage of total revenue, the FMPA’s fuel hedging losses were no greater than FPL’s, but the truth is never to be put before politics. Simpson, a likely future president of the Florida Senate, is cozying up to FPL, and one can understand why. This year alone, the utility giant has made more than $4 million in political contributions.

This past weekend, Simpson was Silagy’s special guest at the NextEra Energy Resources 250 race at Daytona. Simpson was honored to drop the green flag to start the race, an experience he described on his Facebook page as “awesome.”