In the Northeast corner of the state, a young, first-termRepublican mayor in Jacksonville was eager to solicit proposals to privatize city services none more enticing than the city's century-old municipal utility, JEA, one of the largest public electric, water and sewer utilities in the United States and a prize FPL had long sought. Alabama Power still hasnt had a rate case. ", "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.". Florida Power & Light has a monopoly on power in Florida. They work off intimidating. As for Silagy's departure, Ketchum said, "It's a little earlier than Eric would've wanted to do it.". Its parent company, NextEra Energy, has commissioned two separate investigations - one internal, one by an outside law firm - following reporting by Florida newspapers, the non-profit news outlet Floodlight and NPR. And for that reason money spent in the present is almost always justified by the potential future: An election cycle might cost an investor-owned utility millions to meaningfully influence, but failing to do so could cost billions later. Ricardo Rossello,. The regulated monopoly is generally seen as a safe, stable investment, but there is some sign the recent public scrutiny could mushroom into a larger problem for FPL. The consultants pitched and supported tactics designed toembarrassindividualreporters who they believed had crossed their client's interests. 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. The company provided The Palm Beach Post with 2019 data on emissions and energy production at power plants, including its own, which was in line with the source of the 2020 data used by Find Energy. She also was a corporate operative. Perkins and Pitts worked together for more than 25 years, expanding the firm into a national operation with dozens of clients in myriad industries. She likened it to comparing emissions from a personal car used once a week and a city bus that takes many trips. "When you think about all the challenges that he had to overcome, with the hurricanes and high natural gas prices and inflation and supply chain and, you know, the media allegations and all those things, I think it took a toll on Eric that year," Ketchum said during a question-and-answer session on the call. Currently, 5,779,202 consumers receive their electricity from the company. A dark money group associated with Matrix LLC mailed attack ads against South Miami mayor Philip Stoddard to area residents. It is a regulated monopoly which means that the. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy announced his retirement on Wednesday. Burgess said he never pitched nor solicited feedback from FPL executives on any story or business venture, and FPL spokesperson Chris McGrath said acquiring a news organization would not have made sense as a business deal for FPL. Florida Power & Light president and CEO Eric Silagy will retire this spring, the Juno Beach-based utility's parent company NextEra Energy announced ahead of an earnings call with Wall Street. But utility experts have testified to the Florida Public Service Commission that rooftop solar in the state could grow at a rate of 39 percent a year until 2025 if Floridas current net metering system is left in place. Feds Plan to Seize Russian Oligarch's Luxe Fisher Island Properties, Miami Canal Flooded With Turd Water From Contractor-Involved Pipe Break, Collapse of "Let's Go Brandon" Meme Coin Sparks Billion-Dollar Court Battle, Gator Gets in on the Action at Tampa Bay Horse Race, Readers Warn of Traffic, "Bloodsport" Driving After. A state board recently rebuffed a request from several Democratic lawmakers for an audit of Florida Power & Light's finances, which the representatives sought following reports linking the. Ive also.ccd Gera Peoples on this note. All rights reserved. local news and culture, Alex DeLuca The money was allegedly funneled through a network of tax-exempt nonprofits that obscured its origin. 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. The bill as it is written will decimate this industry.. Its parent company had initiated an investigation of related media reports there. That gave Matrix consultants and FPL executives input on Capitolist stories. View MapReport Outage About FPL Company News Careers Environment Community Donate to Care To Share Rates and Your Bill FPL has also said an internal investigation ordered by its board of directors cleared the company's employees of any wrongdoing; it has also refused to provide copies of that investigation. Heffley suggested that he could send it via email today or we will be at the Capitol next week., Holley declined to provide an electronic version and offered to drop it off in person the following week. Before the prospect of JEA had even been formally proposed, Matrix employees were planting seeds intended to underminepublic confidence in the Jacksonville agency, potentially as early as 2017. In all, the centerproduces enough electricity for 750,000 homes and businesses. 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. "Based on the information we have, we . Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and electricity production accounts for 25% of the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States in 2019. The West County Energy Center, first serving Florida Power & Light customers in 2009 before reaching its current capacity two years later, is a natural gas-burning plant. It ranks third among states for installed solar capacity, although much of that is large-scale, utility-owned solar. 0:00. Pimentel will rejoin the company on Feb. 15 and work with Silagy until his departure. 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. The warm light races across a 600-mile expanse of land and coast before finally brightening the Perdido River in Escambia County on Florida's western border. In each of those cases, Matrix was working against politicians or policies fighting to curb the climate crisis by encouraging renewable power. Going through those tens of thousands ofrecords, he said, alerted him to the extent of work Pitts performed without his knowledge. Matrix employees had a Jacksonville journalist spied on after he wrote critically about FPL. Higher electricity bills welcomed millions of Florida residents into the new year. At the start of the Monday earnings call, Ketchum, the NextEra chief executive, directly addressed the media reports and federal election complaint. Under the leadership of Eric Silagy, 54, the company has been tied to allegations of campaign finance violations, media manipulation, and the surveillance of critical journalists. She said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. ABC News cut ties with the producer immediately following that report. That decision catapulted the growth of small-scale solar capacity in the state. "It's a 24-hour day job. Florida Power & Light customers who paid $101.70 last year for a typical monthly bill of 1,000 . For years, Florida Power & Light has been one of the largest contributors to legislative Florida political campaigns. Its also up to us to push them more. Landlords would be able to. The email was forwarded on to Silagy,though there is no indication the company seriously entertained Burgess' idea. 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. This story is a collaboration with Floodlight. One-tenth of 1percent of the power comes from oil. 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. Get the FPL Mobile App. One of Matrixs oldest clients is Alabama Power, which employed Perkins personal consulting firm as early as 1999. FPL has been ensnaredin public scandal over aggressive political tactics that Florida newspapers have laid bare since late last year. The warm light races across a 600-mile expanse of land and coast before finally brightening the Perdido River in Escambia County on Florida's western border. independent local journalism in Miami. 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. While Matrix operatives quietly pulled strings for FPL, strife within their own firm boiled over. 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. NeitherFPL executives nor the consultants identified in the secret records have been accused of wrongdoing in that investigation. invested millions into groups with untraceable, anonymous donors that launched attacks on state and local politicians. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. Very early on in this bills ride, I think it has a real chance to settle out in a way that most parties are not upset, he said. Florida Power & Light argues that arrangement is unfair to customers who dont generate their own power but continue to pay for the costs of maintaining the grid that rooftop solar customers also use. 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. These customers are a mix of 88.48% residential customer accounts, 11.29% commercial customers and 0.22% industrial properties. Reporting by the Orlando Sentinel and the Miami Herald tied Silagy to a group of political consultants who had spent millions of dollars to secretly further the power company's political goals. Please provide us with the Personal Identification Number (PIN) that you were given for a co-browse session with our representative. for Floodlight and Annie Martin for Orlando Sentinel, he CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. FPL has acknowledged it received the idea but insists the company immediately rejected it. While the report contemplates the impact of fracking and transporting natural gas, it is not quantified. The proposed bill would allow landlords to sell cheap solar panels to their tenants. Im hopeful this is a conversation starter but, at the same time, its really hard to have a conversation when you have a gun to your head. "The way I look at it is it's a little earlier than I would have hoped Eric would have wanted to do it.". FPL argued that it is more cost-effective to build a power plant than to invest in energy-efficiency programs because building codes and energy-efficiency standards in consumer products have improved. Another factor is promoting energy efficiency at the consumer level, Shober said. FPL's former consultants orchestrated a financial takeover of a small Tallahassee-based political news site with a conservativebent that allowed the utility's highest executives to weigh in with editorial decisions, the internal Matrix records show. What we dont think about is gas has to be brought up from the earth. Terry Dunn wanted to examine why Alabama Power charged some of the highest rates in the country. I am concerned that it will result in significant costs here, but I also dont want to destroy the rooftop solar industry in Florida.. FPL has echoed Pitts' allegations and called into question the veracity of some of the leaked records, although it has repeatedly refused to provide evidence the documents have been altered in any way. Yet he acknowledged that the reports may have had an influence on the decision. But advocates fear that a FPL-drafted bill to rewrite the states net metering rules will slowly chip away at the main financial incentive for homeowners and businesses to go solar. DeSantis, who is attempting to build a populist profile ahead of a presidential run in 2024,has turned on FPL, having used his veto pen earlier this year to kill one of the utility's highest legislative priorities a controversial bill that would have limited the growth of the residential rooftop solar industryin Florida. Its unfortunate that our process allows for something like this to exist without accountability.. Matrixs principal, Perkins, says he discovered only after Pitts left the firm that he and other now-former employees had been conducting shadow activities and operations dating back to 2016. Florida Power & Light denied any wrongdoing related to political campaigns. 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 . 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. NextEra Energy said its political committee did not make its contribution to Bradleys campaign with an expectation of favor.. 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. You need this large power plant.. To date, no FPL employees have been charged with any crimes. They proposed offering a job to Garrett Dennis, a member of the Jacksonville City Council who had been outspoken against selling JEA. At the Birmingham office where Pitts and the others had worked, Perkins said he found a backup server that appeared to have been beaten with something. Political editor Emily L. Mahoney will send you a rundown on local, state and national politics coverage every Thursday. Just as well, such a reliance on natural gas leaves consumers susceptible to the volatility of gas prices. Moving Florida toward a brighter energy future. We need to have the debate, he said. And FPL is taking other public-relations hits that make the once-unstoppable company suddenly look more exposed:Earlier this month, for example,FPL uncharacteristically backed off a winter-hardeningproposal that critics alleged could have led to costly customer charges. As a result of the current system, my constituents are being forced to subsidize the decisions of neighbors in other counties who are in a position to be able to put these expensive systems on their homes, Bradley said. nears the finish line on new track at Freedom Field, Amazon's Daisy Jones & the Six Is the Latest in a Long Line of Embarrassing Portraits of Musical Genius. According to reporting by the Orlando Sentinel, Florida Power & Light executives have been tied to a series of dark-money nonprofits, one of which figures prominently in the Miami-Dade state attorneys investigation into a scandal involving a ghost Senate candidate. From a public perception, maybe there is value in highlighting where our emissions come from, Patino-Echeverri said. FPL has long despised Klas' hard-hitting coverage of the company. Customers at the time were paying some of the highest rates for electricity in the south-east. FPL emerged from that episode empty handed, a particularly punishing outcome in the world of investor-owned utilities, which are locked in a rat race to grow bigger or die. Do you need this bus to transport this many people, and do you need it to be this large? she asked hypothetically. Inat least one case, they had this Times-Union columnist surveilled, according to the secret records. Leaked records in the possession of that consulting firm show that Matrix employees worked behind the scenes in cities across Florida for years to advance FPL's interests, sometimes going to extreme lengths to manipulate the political process in the utility's favor. Added Patino-Echeverri: The No. Florida is one of 47 states that allow households and businesses that produce power to sell it back to the grid at a set rate. Headquartered in Montgomery, Matrix has been described there as the closest thing Alabama politics has to a non-governmental secret agency. Promote the @&;$&!!! A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. "We're not making a connection," said John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy. Its a tough, and expensive, goal to achieve, Patino-Echeverri said. Florida Power & Light has also invested millions into groups with untraceable, anonymous donors that launched attacks on state and local politicians. There were a lot of challenges that we successfully managed," he said. In his Seeking Rents newsletter, publisher Jason Garcia called this decision: one of the most controversial decisions made in recent years by the PSC, a five-member panel comprised of four DeSantis appointees and one remaining holdover from former Gov. The negative is the immense amount of megawatts, but its a need for the community. 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. Here is why and how much. Energy poles by Florida Power and Light from Turkey Point nuclear generating station in Miami, Florida. Halfway through 2022, however, FPL'sfortunes have markedly soured: The company that just a few years ago looked like it held Florida'sshimmering coasts in the palm of its hand now faces a futuredarkened by scandal, embarrassmentand uncertainty. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants. Florida Power & Light says the cost of subsidizing its 24,000 net-metering customers was $30 million in 2020 (about $1,250 per customer). Matrix employees spent heavily on political advertisements for a candidate with the same last name as Rodrguez, who split the vote. While the utility has contributed over $105,000 to the Florida Democratic Party, neither Crist nor his political committee has reported any political contributions from NextEra or the companys subsidiaries during this or previous cycles. FPL has repeatedly denied any involvement in the "ghost candidate" controversy stemming from the 2020 election cycle, but Matrix records show the company's consultants were deeply involved. In a 2020 email, Burgess wrote a former Matrix employee with an idea they could "cobble together however many millions of dollars it would take to buy ALL the Florida newspapers from Gannett and then we could let most of the clown reporters go, save a fortune, eliminate print, and syndicate content across the entire state.". Source: Orlando Sentinel Florida Power & Light execs worked closely with consultants behind 'ghost' candidate scheme, records reveal | Special Report By JASON GARCIA and ANNIE MARTIN ORLANDO SENTINEL | DEC 02, 2021 AT 9:46 AM Top executives at utility giant Florida Power & Light worked closely with the political consultants who orchestrated a scheme to promote spoiler candidates in three . But Florida Power & Light is arguing rooftop solar could cost Florida utilities about $700 million between 2019 and 2025, according to documents submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission. It grew by 57 percent in 2020, DeSantis new election crimes office: 52 positions and unprecedented authority. Commissioners said it was the highest response rate they had received on any issue and concluded that no immediate changes to net metering needed to be made. Emails show that Bradleys staff followed up with Florida Power & Light after that discussion. 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. That is a fairly energy-intensive process in and of itself. The job was to be with a shell nonprofit created by Matrix employees that supported marijuana decriminalization and, on its face, had no connection to FPL. 'Off-the-books political strategy':FPL consultants secretly took command, control of Florida news website, reports say, Nate Monroe:Surveillance records at the heart of a tangled mess between FPL and a former consultant. And the job was to come with one key hitch: To accept it, Dennis would have to leave his council position. Their power over utilities in Florida was challenged by legislation proposed by the Democratic Senator of Florida, Jos Javier Rodrguez, in 2019. With Gulf Power in hand, FPL would serve more than 12 million customers more than half the population of the third largest state in the country. Following up right after Ketchum's comments, Silagy said that his predecessors had held their roles for about a decade each, and that gearing up for another multi-year rate case with state regulators would mean he would have to stay until 2026. 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 . 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.. Dunn lost his 2014 re-election campaign by a 19-point margin to Chip Beeker, a catfish farmer who is still in office. The company anticipates the panels will be able to generate 11,657 megawatts. Crist has also criticized FPL on the campaign trail, calling the utility out for raising its rates on Floridians and criticizing FPL for attempting to block clean energy with anti-solar legislation. In Florida, Matrixs work touched almost every level of politics, from influencing local mayoral and county commission elections to combating attempts to reshape the state constitution. On Oct. 8, Bradleys legislative aide Katie Heffley emailed Holley with the subject line: Net Metering Bill., Good afternoon, Hope youre doing well, she said. NextEras CEO called net-zero emission targets disingenuous without plans to get to real zero, according to reports. The last year of Silagy's leadership was marked by high natural gas prices; the global supply chain crisis; two disastrous hurricanes; and a barrage of damning media reports. An Alabama governor the company worked for was convicted of federal felony corruption charges. Newman in his memo also took credit for a Miami Herald story about the allegation. small-scale solar capacity in the state. Rooftop solar, while critical to fighting climate change, is a threat to the traditional utility business model. hide caption. We're making smart, long-term investments to stabilize energy costs, lower carbon emissions, and make Florida energy independent. The Governor appoints members to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), the regulatory body responsible for overseeing utilities and determining their profitability, making influence over the Governors office critical to NextEras shareholders. We simply believe rooftop solar customers should pay the full cost of this investment, McGrath said. Hours later, a story like the one the executive pitched appeared on The Capitolist. Rick Scott.. It grew by 57 percent in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 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. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse. The Governor also has veto power over legislation that Floridas GOP-majority legislature passes. FPL | Contact Us We're here to help Please log in so we can help you faster. (Neither Alabama Power nor its corporate parent, Southern Company, have commented on those disclosures.). F lorida Power & Light is an investor owned company. That month, FPL announced a planned purchase ofGulf Power, expanding its reach for the first time into the Florida Panhandle, and in the process snatching away a lucrative asset from regional rival Southern Company, which had owned Gulf since 1925. A short-lived organization called "Fix JEA Now" registered a web domain in 2017 and began making dramatic claims about the city-owned utility. The solar industry disagrees, pointing to research that shows rooftop solar penetration is low enough in most states that the effects of distributed solar on retail electricity prices will likely remain negligible for the foreseeable future.. For many years and without my knowledge or approval, Pitts abused his power and position to benefit himself and his cronies, Perkins said in a statement. That statement was made before additional rounds of damaging disclosures prompted the investigation by the outside law firm. A spokesperson for FPL said it stopped working with Canopy in late 2021. Theyve got the lobbying power, and weve got the people power.. Florida Power and Light is launching a webpage dedicated to attacking the Miami Herald specifically Tallahassee bureau chief Mary Ellen Klas for its "biased" reporting on proposed . Cut into Florida Power & Light after that discussion rejoin the company for. 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