Florida Power & Light is pushing for it as Floridas biggest utility it has 5.5 million customers, about 65 percent of the state. Documents show Matrix operatives arranged for the commissioner to record a robocall in which she called Stoddard a creep. He added thatcarbon dioxide is emitted from burning natural gas, which isa fossil fuel, andis being created whether theyre scrubbing or storing it.. Their power over utilities in Florida was challenged by legislation proposed by the Democratic Senator of Florida, Jos Javier Rodrguez, in 2019. A dark money non-profit called "Grow United" is at the center of the scandal, with records showing direct communication with and invoices to FPL. Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images I just wanted to check in and see if you had any follow up information or language in regards to the net metering bill you discussed with Senator Bradley., Holley replied eight minutes later: I do. Documents shared by an anonymous source show Silagy directing his team to make life hell for Florida senator Jos Javier Rodrguez. Matrix affiliated groups have also worked to advance power companies interests in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and in front of the Environmental Protection Agency, public records show. Pairing solar energy centers with battery storage, including the worlds largest battery in Manatee County. 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 . The bill is just one front in a decade-long battle against the policy. He says he told them that he was disappointed, but there was enough work for both of them, based on the good work they had done. The proposed legislation could seriously curtail that growth. Run by a former Rick Scott spokesman, Brian Burgess, The Capitolist often focused criticism not on powerful industry players or politicians but on individual journalists at publications like the Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and Times-Union that had crossed the interests of one of the state's large corporations, like FPL. They dont make money off of the solar power generated from rooftops. "We're not making a connection," said John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy. The utility also launched a series of solar power investments, including the development of batter storage. The email was forwarded on to Silagy,though there is no indication the company seriously entertained Burgess' idea. 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. 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 . Ricardo Rossello,. Just as well, such a reliance on natural gas leaves consumers susceptible to the volatility of gas prices. NPR and Floodlight reported the same consulting firm did work in Alabama for that state's dominant energy utility, Alabama Power, and funneled money to news sites there that reported negatively on the utility's critics and regulators. 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. In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics, She was an ABC News producer. 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 . This plant has been part of the solution.. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants bypassing FPL and its monopoly on electricity. On the outskirts of Wellington, just before 20-Mile Bend, stands a behemoth of a power plant on a site as big as 166 football fields. 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. Investigative reporters have directly connected senior FPL executives, including CEO Eric Silagy, to consultants involved in the dark money campaign schemes. The tactics worked. Our programs are designed to make paying your bill simple and manageable. Otherwise, DeSantis has been largely friendly to NextEra and FPLs legislative priorities, granting the utility $2.75 million in tax breaks on speculative green hydrogen, signing legislation that gave FPL permission to charge customers tens of billions of dollars for burying lines, signing legislation preventing gas bans that would have aided Florida City Gas, and also signing legislation that forced the resignation of utility critic JR Kelly from his leadership of the Office of Public Counsel, which represents ratepayers in rate cases. 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. Still,plants with high emissions are going to draw attention in the overall effort to cut down ongreenhouse gas, experts say. We are committed to being as clean as we can as fast as we can without sacrificing reliability or affordability, McGrath said. to documents submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission. She also was a corporate operative. He argued that customers with rooftop solar are being subsidized by other customers who continue to buy electricity and pay to maintain the power grid. That candidate later admitted he was bribed to run. Such a turn in the political tidecould be particularly dire for a regulated company like FPL, whose literal fortunes rise and fall on the decisions made by the Public Service Commission appointees of the governor who must sign off on any number of high-stakes operational and financial issues for Florida's private utilities, starting with electric rates. NextEra officials say that investigation is close to completion. DeSantis appointees also allowed FPL to pocket over $1 billion in corporate tax savings instead of passing those savings on to customers. 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. The plan ultimately failed, and Stoddard was re-elected. "Based on information in our possession, we believe that FPL would not be found liable for any of the Florida Campaign finance law violations as alleged in the media articles," Ketchum said. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FPL CEO Eric Silagy to retire; Armando Pimentel rejoins company, FPL seeks to raise monthly power bills for residental customers by 10%, FPL CEO Eric Silagy to retire; Armando Pimentel rejoins company, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot ousted; Vallas, Johnson in runoff, King asks Duke and Duchess of Sussex to move out of Frogmore so Prince Andrew can move in, Biden Mocks Marjorie Taylor Greene With 1 Simple Hand Gesture, A Nebraska high-school cheerleader competed on her own after the rest of her squad quit. 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. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. Florida Power & Light has pushed back against efforts to bring solar panels to the Sunshine State, while runoff from the sugar industry is a major source of water pollution in Florida.. So Florida Power & Light did something about it. There were a lot of challenges that we successfully managed," he said. "I think it took a toll," Ketchum said Wednesday of the multiple crises. Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Thats not where the story ends, however, or the whole picture. ABC News cut ties with the producer immediately following that report. She likened it to comparing emissions from a personal car used once a week and a city bus that takes many trips. One-tenth of 1percent of the power comes from oil. Once he left, Pitts said Perkins smeared him to clients in an attempt to extort millions. 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. NextEras CEO called net-zero emission targets disingenuous without plans to get to real zero, according to reports. "We contributeto organizations where we're aligned on what the ultimate goal is, and from the standpoint of having the Senate at the time, who was being led by (Senate President) Wilton Simpson, continue to be able to be led by Wilton Simpson,I was a fan of that," FPL CEO Eric Silagy, recently told me and several other journalists with the Times-Union, Orlando Sentinel and Floodlight in a wide-ranging interview in Jacksonville. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Promote the @&;$&!!! Namely,how "clean" can, or should, an energy system be to make inroads in tacklingclimate change as the urgency heightens? Drop a line athmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter@mannahhorse. We'll get them back on Check the FPL Power Tracker for updates on any outages in your area or report one to us. Few examples are clearer than the case of South Miami. 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. FPL is currently modernizing its plant in Dania Beach, expecting the new gas plant to come online this year, but doesnt anticipate building a new natural gas-powered plant in its 10-year outlook. FPL has been ensnaredin public scandal over aggressive political tactics that Florida newspapers have laid bare since late last year. The records show that entities controlled by the former Matrix employees, and associated in an internal ledger with FPL, financially backed an intermediary who had arrived in Jacksonville to help set up Fix JEA Now. That proposal was forwarded to Silagy at FPL but never came to fruition. 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. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. TALLAHASSEE Recent revelations about Florida Power & Light's involvement in a dark money scheme to siphon votes away from Senate Democratic candidates prompted its parent company to conduct. Overall, McGrath said the modernization improvements have made their plants 30% more efficient, saved customers more than $11 billion in fuel and kept 165 million tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted in the atmosphere. Landlords would be able to. But Shober saida missed opportunity is not factoring in methane emissions associated with the leaking of natural gas, from the production of the fuel to its use. them with making Rodrguez's life "a living hell.". . One of those Democrats,Sen. Jos Javier Rodrguez, happened to be both a prominent member of his party and an incumbent FPL particularly despised. In 1998, the firm distributed copies of a video in which a sex worker falsely alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a candidate for lieutenant governor. Jeff Weiner for the Orlando Sentinel contributed reporting, A moral imperative: how southern ministers are trying to change minds about the climate crisis, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Yet great amounts of power come at a price. Alabama Power still hasnt had a rate case. Burning natural gas results in about half of the carbon dioxide emissions of burning coal, which also releases harmful metals and gases into the environment. There are reasons to prefer alternatives that are not fossil-fuel intensive. As their feud escalated, internal documents started to arrive in reporters email inboxes from unknown sources. NeitherFPL executives nor the consultants identified in the secret records have been accused of wrongdoing in that investigation. The Florida Panhandle is in revolt over bills that some FPL customers claim are double or triple what they were paying under Southern Company's stewardship of Gulf Power. independent local journalism in Miami. And an additional kudos to the Miami Herald for its own story on the latest batch of leaked Matrix records, which can be read here. The complaint implicated Florida Power & Light in election law violations because of alleged attempts to obscure the source of the political donations. 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. Matrix was never accused of wrongdoing. 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. 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. Flight data shows Matrixs planes made more than 130 flights to five states in 2020 alone, frequently crisscrossing the south-eastern US but also traveling as far west as New Mexico. As such, it would seem the FPL plantsinclusion on the list is unfair. But wherever the pair went, indictments often followed. Download the FPL Mobile App Now F lorida Power & Light is an investor owned company. At the start of Monday's earnings call, Ketchum, the chief executive officer of NextEra, addressed media reports and the federal election grievance head-on. An FPL spokesman, nonetheless, took issue with the Find Energy reportciting concerns over a general legal disclaimer on the website and the use of a misleading statistic of overall emissions rather than the emissions rate. 11:52AM. He added that the company would soon challenge the complaint and call for its dismissal. [] NextAmid Connections to Ongoing Election Scandals, NextEra Pours Millions into Floridas 2022 []. The consultants pitched and supported tactics designed toembarrassindividualreporters who they believed had crossed their client's interests. We are consistently one of the cleanest electric utilities in the country, FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said. Artiles pleaded not guilty. Silagy is to be replaced by Armando Pimentel, a former senior executive at NextEra Energy.
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