florida power and light scandal

Perkins has alleged in a lawsuit that Pitts led a rogue group of Matrix employees who undertook work on FPL's behalf that he only learned about after Pitts departed work worth millions in fees. An analyst at Seaport Global, a capital-markets firm, said recent reporting on FPL has "made us reassess FPL's risks" and that the research firm has "grown uncomfortable" with the "growing media scrutiny of FPLs lobbying practices against distributed solar and retail choice (deregulation), among others. The company bought an independently owned coal-powered plant in Indiantown in 2016 with the intent to close it, which occurred last summer. Perkins has repeatedly denied leaking records, though he has verified the authenticity of numerous records underlying recent stories by the Times-Union, Orlando Sentinel and Floodlight, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Ten days later, Heffley wrote Holley again. The largest city served by the supplier is Jacksonville, but the company also provides electricity to 243 cities in Florida. The majority of Florida Power & Light (FPL) contributions have been to the Florida Republican Party, GOP committees and candidates, and political committees associated with corporate special interests. We understand this may mean youll continue your campaign to smear FPL or our employees, FPL spokesperson David Reuter told us in the last communication between the company and our reporting team. For example, in documents obtained by reporters, Silagy had emailed two of his vice presidents to make a state senator's "life a living hell" after proposing a pro-solar bill. As their feud escalated, internal documents started to arrive in reporters email inboxes from unknown sources. The tactics worked. FPL deployed lobbyists to the capital, while Matrix hired private investigators to dig for dirt and had operatives funnel dark money and order attack ads. That is a fairly energy-intensive process in and of itself. However, those policies are coming under fire as utilities become. While the report contemplates the impact of fracking and transporting natural gas, it is not quantified. In all, the centerproduces enough electricity for 750,000 homes and businesses. It's easy to pay your bill, view your energy usage, manage your account and more. I think we see in the trend overall nationally is were not moving fast enough toward these cleaner sources as we clearly need to, she said. The state senator went on to lose re-election by six votes. About a decade ago, FPL made the fateful decision to hire Matrix LLC, an Alabama-based political consulting firm notorious in its home state but with little public profile in Florida. Florida Power & Light says the cost of subsidizing its 24,000 net-metering customers was $30 million in 2020 (about $1,250 per customer). He added thatcarbon dioxide is emitted from burning natural gas, which isa fossil fuel, andis being created whether theyre scrubbing or storing it.. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. Pitts at the time forwarded a draft of the script to two FPL executives. The proposed bill would allow landlords to sell cheap solar panels to their tenants. Newman in his memo also took credit for a Miami Herald story about the allegation. Months after he was elected, Beeker voted in favor of an energy price hike for consumers. Emails show that Bradleys staff followed up with Florida Power & Light after that discussion. The bill also allows utilities to charge rooftop solar customers more, by adding in facility charges, grid access fees and minimum monthly payments. FPL has long despised Klas' hard-hitting coverage of the company. The team decided an effort to repeal the ordinance would probably fail. That is your choice, but rest assured, we will hold you accountable if that continues to happen. One industry consulting firm has influenced politics across Florida, Alabama and at least six other states. Florida Power & Light is pushing for it as Floridas biggest utility it has 5.5 million customers, about 65 percent of the state. And the job was to come with one key hitch: To accept it, Dennis would have to leave his council position. F lorida Power & Light is an investor owned company. Hundreds of pages of internal documents which are only coming to light now because Matrixs founders are locked in an epic feud detail the firms secret work to help power companies like FPL protect their profits and fight the transition to cleaner forms of energy. Drop a line athmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter@mannahhorse. Today, FPL said, two-thirds of its power comes from natural gas, followed by nearly 20% nuclear, 4% solar and almost 3% coal, which comes from a plant NextEra partially owns out of state. During an investigation by this newspaper, as well as the Sentinel and Floodlight, FPL became at least vaguely threatening about our decision to continue reporting. Legislators pass legislation, she said. The West County Energy Centeruses three combined-cycle generating units thatburnnatural gas in a turbine much like a jet engine and in turn usesthat exhaust to make a second power source of steam. Yet great amounts of power come at a price. Added Patino-Echeverri: The No. Maggie Shober, research director with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, agreed that the report shows just one of many ways to look at emissions. Here is why and how much. The company's owner, Joe Perkins, and its former CEO, Jeff Pitts, parted ways in early 2021, becoming bitter enemies locked in legal battles in courtrooms in Alabama and Jacksonville. That statement was made before additional rounds of damaging disclosures prompted the investigation by the outside law firm. Thats a trend nationwide, as power company profits are threatened by the rise of distributed renewable energy a technology which scientists say is essential to limiting the pollution that causes the climate crisis. Moving Florida toward a brighter energy future. Do you need this bus to transport this many people, and do you need it to be this large? she asked hypothetically. They are supposed to be closely regulated, but their profits and unchecked political spending makes them some of the most powerful entities in a state. ", "We've heard (FPL parent company NextEra's) management assurances about internal investigations," the analyst,Angie Storozynski, wrote, but "any legal, political or regulatory inquiry into FPLs conduct would be highly damaging to the stock.". The governors office also comes with a bully pulpit and executive order authority, both of which DeSantis has used frequently, pushing his anti-woke platform on everything from school curriculum to state pensions, unilaterally suspending elected officials, and creating his own election police agency. But DeSantis election police agency has remained silent on FPLs connection to election scandals, criminal trials, and ongoing investigations, instead focusing on the arrest of 20 individuals who may have registered to vote while ineligible, despite allegedly being told that they were eligible to vote, and the states issuance of voter IDs. There has to be a transition. The company is making renewable energy investments, including: Patino-Echeverri said the utility industry as a whole is making strides to make its plants more efficient. At the start of the Monday earnings call, Ketchum, the NextEra chief executive, directly addressed the media reports and federal election complaint. Letsgetstarted. Florida Power & Light, one of the largest utilities in the country, abruptly announced the retirement of its chief executive after a tenure marked by strong financial returns, moves toward. The issue extends to several states. NextEra Energy and its subsidiaries, Florida Power & Light and Florida City Gas, have poured nearly $6 million into state level campaign funds and political committees. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. The media reports were cited in an October 2022 Federal Election Commission complaint against several of the "dark money" non-profit organizations that received corporate funds. Artiles pleaded not guilty. The Senate District 37 scandal was one of three races in Florida in the 2020 cycle that followed a nearly identical pattern: A close race, an unknown third party candidate to siphon some of the votes, and campaign . Meanwhile, Matrix-led non-profits funded a blizzard of ads against Stoddard, accusing him of using public money for vendettas and placing him alongside infamous sex offenders Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein. Florida Power & Light spokesperson Chris McGrath said the company doesnt oppose net metering but wants to see the current law revised. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. Justin Vandenbroeck, the president of the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association who also owns an Orlando-based solar installation company, said the solar industry consists mostly of independently-owned small businesses. The company anticipates the panels will be able to generate 11,657 megawatts. The companies that are doing the right thing still have those kinds of plants in their portfolio, specifically coal, but theyre working toward other alternatives, Hope said. We need to have the debate, he said. Only about 90,000 Florida customers, about 1 percent of the states more than 8.5 million customers, sell excess energy back to the electrical grid, but the arrangement has driven significant rooftop solar expansion in Florida. The Matrix saga illustrates the political obstacles policymakers and experts face as they attempt to cut climate pollution from the power sector, one of the biggest greenhouse gas contributors in the US. All rights reserved. The email was forwarded on to Silagy,though there is no indication the company seriously entertained Burgess' idea. 3:12. Building 30 million solar power panels by the year 2025, a goal anticipated to be met five years earlier than planned, and paid for by ratepayers. I am concerned that it will result in significant costs here, but I also dont want to destroy the rooftop solar industry in Florida.. Reporting, primarily by the Orlando Sentinel, showed spoiler candidates in three state Senate races in 2020 were propped up by at least a half-million dollars from dark-money groups in an effort to help damage the Democrats in those races and help Republicans control the chamber. Namely,how "clean" can, or should, an energy system be to make inroads in tacklingclimate change as the urgency heightens? Documents shared by an anonymous source show Silagy directing his team to make life hell for Florida senator Jos Javier Rodrguez. While the transition to natural gas has reduced emissions that would otherwise come from oil or gas, and installing utility-scale solar is an important step, getting to zero emissions takes a lot more than that, she said. Florida Power & Light, one of the largest utilities in the country, abruptly announced the retirement of its chief executive after a tenure marked by strong financial returns, moves toward greener energy and multiple scandals. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy was directly involved in steering funds to dark-money groups led by the consultants who controlled Grow United, the organization used to promote the ghost candidates, according to documents obtained by the Sentinel. They work off intimidating. Under Floridas current arrangement, homes and businesses that generate less than 2 megawatts of solar power can sell the excess back to their utility in exchange for a bill credit of 11 cents per kWh. After an early round of reports, NextEra commissioned an internal investigation into the allegations against Silagy and Florida Power & Light in Florida. But Dennis, in an interview last year, recalled receiving a job offer with remarkable similarities to the one outlined in the internal Matrix documents. Over the course of DeSantis tenure, he used that veto power once to block an anti-rooftop solar bill written by FPL. FPL consultants also used Broken Promises to boost a spoiler candidate in a 2018 state senate race in Gainesville, FL, according to previous reporting from Miami Herald. He is a former federal prosecutor with experience in public corruption cases.. In 2020, FPL would help Florida Republicans keep control of the state Senate by contributing to several close races, in the process dispatching one of the few incumbents who was publicly critical of the company. If were trying to look all in, theres a whole lot to consider upstream from just the burning of the fuel., FPLs McGrath said the Find Energyreport also doesnt tell the companys whole modernization story.. TALLAHASSEE Rooftop solar power generation in Florida is still a nascent industry, but Florida Power & Light, the nations largest power company, is pushing to hamstring it by writing and hand-delivering legislation the company asked state lawmakers to introduce, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald and Floodlight. I feel rooftop solar is beneficial to the environment, and Floridians. Florida Power & Light denied any wrongdoing related to political campaigns. Just in December, the Public Service Commission approved a request from FPL to recover costs from customers due to a 10% increase in natural gas prices. While Matrix operatives quietly pulled strings for FPL, strife within their own firm boiled over. Companies do not pass legislation. The complaint implicated Florida Power & Light in violations of election law due to alleged attempts to obscure the source of political donations. McGrath added that the companys move toward cleaner energy sources is a march, not a sprint.. In California, regulators plan to increase fees on rooftop solar customers. The sex worker later testified the allegations were untrue, and that she had been paid by a Birmingham businessman to make them. small-scale solar capacity in the state. Miami's independent source of That growth has the utilities, and legislators, worried. Bradley said the bill language emerged after a meeting she had with Holley and other members of the utility industry. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Light's (FPL) profits. He added that the net metering law has not been updated in 13 years and now is time to discuss it. Net metering is a popular program that gives people the right to choose the energy that works for them, provides benefits to all ratepayers and creates thousands of energy jobs across Florida.. They proposed offering a job to Garrett Dennis, a member of the Jacksonville City Council who had been outspoken against selling JEA. She said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. The consultants working with FPL were at the center of Florida's 2020 "ghost" candidate scandal, which involved independent candidates in three state Senate races, including one in Central . Florida Power & Light customers who paid $101.70 last year for a typical monthly bill of 1,000 . The company conducted an internal investigation and "found no evidence of any issues at all, any illegality or any wrongdoing on the part of FPL or any of its employees. I want you to make his life a living hell seriously, FPLs CEO Eric Silagy wrote in a 2019 email to two of his vice-presidents about state Senator Jos Javier Rodrguez, who proposed the legislation. FPLs business-as-usual political contributions have continued amid intense media focus on its role in ongoing dark money election scandals and related criminal trials, with state lawmakers and a member of Congress calling for further investigation into FPLs involvement. FPL has complained bitterly about the news coverage of the leaked records, and there is little indication its parent company, NextEra, is reflective about what the records have to say about the involvement of its largest subsidiaryandits highest-level executives. One-tenth of 1percent of the power comes from oil. More: Solar advocates push for last-minute changes to net metering bills, Solar center: FPL blows up its last coal-fired power plant; announces plans for its newest solar center, Electric bill goes up: Your next Florida Power & Light electric bill is going way up. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy announced his retirement on Wednesday. The utility also launched a series of solar power investments, including the development of batter storage. More:FPL seeks to raise monthly power bills for residental customers by 10%. We simply believe rooftop solar customers should pay the full cost of this investment, McGrath said. We're making smart, long-term investments to stabilize energy costs, lower carbon emissions, and make Florida energy independent. Forgive me for being unserious at a time when companies like Florida Power & Light (FPL)the nation's largest utilitykeep racking up scandals, but it's kind of hard to keep track of the. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida One person affiliated with Grow United is Abbie MacIver, who formerly worked for Energy Fairness, a group that encourages policymakers to consider the cost of energy choices, as well as their benefits. 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