FPL has already passed the $5.1 million total amount it spent in the 2020 cycle. A Birmingham mayor who employed Matrix got 15 years for bribery, conspiracy and fraud. We'll get them back on Check the FPL Power Tracker for updates on any outages in your area or report one to us. There are emissions associated with the electricity thats used to frack that gas as well as the local pollution issues, she said. 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. FPL has a long history of spending to campaign against Crist, spending up to $1 million against Crists bid for governor in 2006 after contributing $225,000 to Crists opponent in the Republican primary the largest donation FPL had ever made at the time. Florida Power & Light customers who paid $101.70 last year for a typical monthly bill of 1,000 . Moving Florida toward a brighter energy future. 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. President and CEO of Florida Power & Light Eric Silagy speaks to the media after FPL imploded its last Florida . Silagy's departure follows more than a year's worth of news investigations into his and FPL's connections to a "ghost candidate" scandal that saw unserious political candidates run in state senate races to siphon votes away from certain politicians. Rooftop solar, while critical to fighting climate change, is a threat to the traditional utility business model. NextEras CEO called net-zero emission targets disingenuous without plans to get to real zero, according to reports. Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy announced his retirement on Wednesday. Also, after reports that an outside FPL consultant had tailed a Florida Times-Union journalist who reported critically on the utility, Silagy sat down with reporters to deny that FPL had ever directed anyone to monitor him. He is a former federal prosecutor with experience in public corruption cases.. The Governor also has veto power over legislation that Floridas GOP-majority legislature passes. She also was a corporate operative. 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. 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. 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. Pairing solar energy centers with battery storage, including the worlds largest battery in Manatee County. 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. What we dont think about is gas has to be brought up from the earth. I think they are doing their part. 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. The sites publisher, Brian Burgess, a former top spokesperson for past Florida governor Rick Scott, also suggested in emails that Matrix should lure prominent Florida journalists to a new site or buy local papers owned by media giant Gannett Company and then lay off most of the clown reporters to inject content into publications without anyone knowing who was pulling the strings. Perkins and Pitts sued each other, with Pitts claiming his former mentor had never followed through on handing over the company despite years of discussions. It grew by 57 percent in 2020, DeSantis new election crimes office: 52 positions and unprecedented authority. As you may know, Gera is NextEra Energys Vice President and Chief Litigation Officer. Im not afraid if the conclusion is its not the time to do this. From the beginning, Matrix showed no aversion to unsavory political tactics. But Dennis, in an interview last year, recalled receiving a job offer with remarkable similarities to the one outlined in the internal Matrix documents. That is a fairly energy-intensive process in and of itself. "JEA is broken," the group boasted on its website, where it posted Times-Union coverage of the utility's involvement in an over-budget, behind-schedule nuclear project in Georgia. Top executives at utility giant Florida Power & Light worked closely with the political consultants who orchestrated a scheme to promote spoiler candidates in three key state Senate elections last year, according to documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. 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. Please provide us with the Personal Identification Number (PIN) that you were given for a co-browse session with our representative. Methane is 25 times stronger at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, according to the EPA. There has to be a transition. Theyve got the lobbying power, and weve got the people power.. Rodrguez was ousted from office in the next election. The nuclear project was part of what the group deemed a "record of failure," rhetoric that borea remarkable similarity to the talking points later used by the mayor and privatization supporters to justify selling JEA. Media scrutiny of the company's political giving began shortly after the 2020 election, when a trio of spoiler candidates tipped close state senate races toward candidates considered friendly to Florida Power & Light. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse. 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. Namely,how "clean" can, or should, an energy system be to make inroads in tacklingclimate change as the urgency heightens? One industry consulting firm has influenced politics across Florida, Alabama and at least six other states. Discover Your Options Lights out? 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. FPL consultants secretly took command, control of Florida news website, reports say, Surveillance records at the heart of a tangled mess between FPL and a former consultant, none more enticing than the city's century-old municipal utility, JEA, dispatching one of the few incumbents who was publicly critical of the company, resulted in criminal charges against JEA's former CEO and CFO, to kill one of the utility's highest legislative priorities, uncharacteristically backed off a winter-hardeningproposal that critics alleged could have led to costly customer charges, had this Times-Union columnist surveilled, orchestrated a financial takeover of a small Tallahassee-based political news site with a conservativebent, planting seeds intended to underminepublic confidence in the Jacksonville agency, offering a job to Garrett Dennis, a member of the Jacksonville City Council who had been outspoken against selling JEA, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. In May 2018, FPL's sprawling. That is your choice, but rest assured, we will hold you accountable if that continues to happen. 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. FPLs consultants used similar spoiler candidate tactics in the 2020 election cycle in three senate races throughout the state. Customers who are already using rooftop solar power before 2023 would be grandfathered in and keep their previous compensation rates for 10 years. 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. That same year, a consultant told the Jacksonville City Council that taking JEA privatewould "likelyrepresent the largest and most complex" transaction of its kind in the United States. He added that the net metering law has not been updated in 13 years and now is time to discuss it. The consultants pitched and supported tactics designed toembarrassindividualreporters who they believed had crossed their client's interests. From a public perception, maybe there is value in highlighting where our emissions come from, Patino-Echeverri said. We are consistently one of the cleanest electric utilities in the country, FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said. 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 . 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. Florida Power & Light is pushing for it as Florida's biggest utility it has 5.5 million customers, about 65 percent of the state. One of those Democrats,Sen. Jos Javier Rodrguez, happened to be both a prominent member of his party and an incumbent FPL particularly despised. The commission held a workshop, which drew 16,000 messages from solar advocates urging it to leave the net metering program alone. 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. In May 2018, FPL's sprawling utility empire laid claim to both boundaries,reaching a pinnacle of power and influence rare even among the mega-corporations that call Florida home. Any report or suggestion that we had involvement in, financially supported or directed others to support any ghost candidates during the 2020 election cycle is patently false, and we have found absolutely no evidence of any legal wrongdoing by FPL or its employees, McGrath, the Florida Power & Light spokesperson said in response to questions for this story. McClures political committee, Conservative Florida, did not receive any utility money during this time but on Nov. 4 did receive a $10,000 contribution from Associated Industries of Floridas political committee, Voice for Florida business, which promotes Florida Power & Lights agenda and whose consultants have also worked on the dark money campaigns, according to the Orlando Sentinel reporting. Political editor Emily L. Mahoney will send you a rundown on local, state and national politics coverage every Thursday. A dark money group associated with Matrix LLC mailed attack ads against South Miami mayor Philip Stoddard to area residents. The complaint implicated Florida Power & Light in violations of election law due to alleged attempts to obscure the source of political donations. As such, it would seem the FPL plantsinclusion on the list is unfair. A spokesperson for FPL said it stopped working with Canopy in late 2021. COMMENTARY | Just a 14-minute drive from Florida Power & Light'sheadquarters in Juno Beach is the easternmost point in the state, where the sun's radiant light first cracks the night skyeach morning. FPL | Contact Us We're here to help Please log in so we can help you faster. The team decided an effort to repeal the ordinance would probably fail. FPL: Plant has "best available" and "most advanced" emission controls, Data shows FPL plant is highly efficient compared to others, Find Energy, experts laud FPL for use of natural gas, FPL touts its 'gas guzzler' to 'hybrid' modernization strategy, Analyst: Utilities 'doing their part,' urgency of the moment requires more, Solar advocates push for last-minute changes to net metering bills, FPL blows up its last coal-fired power plant; announces plans for its newest solar center, Your next Florida Power & Light electric bill is going way up. [] NextAmid Connections to Ongoing Election Scandals, NextEra Pours Millions into Floridas 2022 []. The email was forwarded on to Silagy,though there is no indication the company seriously entertained Burgess' idea. independent local journalism in Miami. Southern Company and Alabama Power run the state of Alabama, Dunn said. Duke has 2 million customers, followed by TECO with 800,000 and then many other smaller utilities. 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 analysts on Wednesday. And a former regional administrator for the EPA who did business with Pitts pleaded guilty to violating state ethics law multiple times. "It's a 24-hour day job. The fact that (West County Energy Center is) using natural gas is a plus, Matt Hope, chief operating officer of Find Energy, said inrecognizing that the report factors in a plants efficiency, but doesnt focus on it. Its a tough, and expensive, goal to achieve, Patino-Echeverri said. 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. small-scale solar capacity in the state. I feel rooftop solar is beneficial to the environment, and Floridians. January 25, 2023 Rooftop solar in Florida expanded slowly until 2018 when the Florida Public Service Commission allowed electricity customers to lease solar systems with little or no upfront costs. ", FPL lauds its reliability and maintains it has the lowest electricity rates in the country. Once we realize the large emitters are large emitters because theyre providing service of great magnitude, and we look at it and we see its so efficient, we have our answer, Patino-Echeverri said. Ive also.ccd Gera Peoples on this note. 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. So far, there have been two criminal investigations into the campaign against Rodrguez and another Democratic state senate candidate, leading to charges against five people, though authorities have not accused Matrix or FPL of wrongdoing. 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. Its also up to us to push them more. Butone thing the leaked Matrix records make clear isthat more secrets remain on the firm's hard drive. Note: This story has been updated to correctly reflect Pimentel's prior roles. Headquartered in Montgomery, Matrix has been described there as the closest thing Alabama politics has to a non-governmental secret agency. Upon realizing the extent of Pittss shadow operations and abuses of power, we filed our lawsuit against Pitts and those few rogue employees.. It ranks third among states for installed solar capacity, although much of that is large-scale, utility-owned solar. And then apparently, somewhere along the way, Jeff and Joe got sideways, Silagy said. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. Nate Monroe is a metro columnist whose work regularly appears every Thursday and Sunday. It was based on our discussion, and it was one that I could support as a starting point, she recalled. The effort to privatize Jacksonville's utility imploded in scandal and recrimination, prompting a two-year federal investigation that resulted in criminal charges against JEA's former CEO and CFO. 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