While some of the actions taken by FPL tick the boxes to reduce emissions, more can be done, Shober said. He was previously the chief financial officer for NextEra Energy and FPL and led NextEra Energy Resources, the parent company's renewable resources arm, for eight years. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. 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. Perkins claims he only became aware of this work after he encountered what appeared to be a damaged hard drive in Pitts' former office and hired an IT team to extract the remains. Soon, Dunn faced attacks in the rightwing press and online, while Matrix-affiliated groups some of which received millions from a non-profit run by a contractor for Alabama Power filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings. We're making smart, long-term investments to stabilize energy costs, lower carbon emissions, and make Florida energy independent. While Matrix operatives quietly pulled strings for FPL, strife within their own firm boiled over. 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. 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. Last June, Florida Power & Light spokesperson David Reuter wrote that the initial review had exonerated the company: "This detailed report found no evidence of illegality or wrongdoing on the part of FPL or any of its employees." And Burgess himself seemed to recognize it was an unlikely proposal, lamenting that "they are such douchebag newspaper people they added the poison pill to prevent ahostil [sic] takeover, even if it costs them hundreds of millions in stock value" (it's not clear in his email what the alleged"poison pill" is supposed to have been). During his decade-long tenure as FPL chief, Silagy oversaw billions of dollars worth of power plant conversions from coal and oil to natural gas electric generation. That effort culminated with a Matrix employee signing an option agreement to purchase a controlling stake in The Capitolist in September 2019, the records show. So it's particularly jarring to have seen the facility land on a list of pollutingelectric plants that included plenty of old-school coal power plants. 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. 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 May 2018, FPL's sprawling. Pimentel will rejoin the company on Feb. 15 and work with Silagy until his departure. The company says the move was not prompted by recent scandals. Matrix was never accused of wrongdoing. Quick Links Start, Stop, Move Find My Account Number Pay Online Support Categories Billing & Payments My Account Start, Stop, Move Programs Business Customer Save Money & Energy Power Related Concerns Using FPL.com General Support Virtual Chat Most Common Links According to FPL, the plant also has the best available and most advanced emission-control equipment.. Documents show Matrix operatives arranged for the commissioner to record a robocall in which she called Stoddard a creep. Later, in 2019, when JEA executives were preparing to announce their intention to put the agency up for sale, Matrix employees drew up another radical idea. Rooftop solar, while critical to fighting climate change, is a threat to the traditional utility business model. Its the right thing to do for our state.. That candidate later admitted he was bribed to run. to documents submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission. Yet he acknowledged that the reports may have had an influence on the decision. Matrix consultants had little regard for the professional press. FPL did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. He said what he found was deeply disturbing. Ive also.ccd Gera Peoples on this note. for Floodlight and Annie Martin for Orlando Sentinel, he CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. Want more of our free, weekly newslettersinyourinbox? Bradley, who received Florida Power & Lights draft bill, is a first-term senator who is close to Senate leadership and chairs the Community Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Congressional Reapportionment. Rob Bradley, an influential politician who was head of the Senate budget committee. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Light's (FPL) profits. independent local journalism in Miami. A Birmingham mayor who employed Matrix got 15 years for bribery, conspiracy and fraud. The solar industry companies that make, sell, install, lease and maintain rooftop solar equipment is fighting back fiercely, suggesting that the bill will devastate its business. 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. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse. 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. Ricardo Rossello, governor of Puerto Rico, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, as power was being restored to a neighborhood in February 2018, five months after Hurricane Irma struck the area. 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 has denied the allegations. 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. FPL has already passed the $5.1 million total amount it spent in the 2020 cycle. Switching from oil or coal to natural gas is a very important step, but thats not enough, she said, adding that carbon capture, utilization and storage technology must be considerationsto further reduce emissions. We are consistently one of the cleanest electric utilities in the country, FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said. 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. 3:12. DeSantis received $25,000 from a dark money non-profit funded by FPL in the 2018 election cycle, according to reporting from the Miami Herald. From the beginning, Matrix showed no aversion to unsavory political tactics. Within minutes, one of them forwarded the directive to the CEO of Matrix, LLC, a powerful but little-known political consulting firm that has operated behind the scenes in at least eight states. The proposed bill would allow landlords to sell cheap solar panels to their tenants. FPLs campaign contributions appear to be on pace with the utilitys political giving of over $8.1 million in the 2018 gubernatorial cycle. 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. Here is why and how much, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. 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. The Governor also has veto power over legislation that Floridas GOP-majority legislature passes. An Alabama governor the company worked for was convicted of federal felony corruption charges. 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. Still, there could be some benefit for consumers to be cognizant of a plants overall emissions, if its not the only factor being considered, she said. Its also up to us to push them more. The bill also allows utilities to charge rooftop solar customers more, by adding in facility charges, grid access fees and minimum monthly payments. 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. While the West County Energy Center ranked 29th on this list for emitting more than 7.3 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide in 2020, equivalent to emissions from nearly 1.6 million passenger cars, FPL is also correct when it says the facilityis among the most efficient power plants in the country. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy announced his retirement on Wednesday. The ongoing clash between Matrixs founder Joe Perkins, 72, and former CEO Jeff Pitts, 51, is exposing the firms decades of extensive influence peddling on behalf of utility clients. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy Retires in Wake of Matrix Consultant Scandal Alex DeLuca January 25, 2023 11:52AM FPL CEO Eric Silagy (left) speaks with Gov. 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. Early in the evening of Nov. 26, 2019, the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, a political consultant working for utility giant Florida Power & Light sent a pair of confidential documents to an email . Newman in his memo also took credit for a Miami Herald story about the allegation. 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. From a public perception, maybe there is value in highlighting where our emissions come from, Patino-Echeverri said. Three people were federally convicted for their role in the ploy. 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. 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. Silagy, CEO since 2014, will depart the company in April. Pitts in turn has accused Perkins of defamation and of leaking confidential records to the media. 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. [Public records from the Florida Senate], Hillsborough school board talks of delay as key vote nears on boundary plan, Closed New Tampa golf course stirs another round of bickering, Pasco park restaurant plans must wait for study of nearby burial mound, Heres the story behind Parkesdale Markets famous Plant City strawberry shortcakes, McCarthy gives Carlson access to 1/6 footage, raising alarms, Toni Says: Taking Medicare advice from your friends can be costly, Florida schools still struggle with late buses, Florida official unsure if Vertol will still handle migrant relocation program, Murder trial of former FSU receiver Travis Rudolph set to begin Friday, Energetic Dave Canales excited about new Bucs offense, calling plays and QB Kyle Trask. 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. ABC News cut ties with the producer immediately following that report. hide caption. Another factor is promoting energy efficiency at the consumer level, Shober said. After more than a decade leading Florida Power & Light (FPL), the state's largest power company, Eric Silagy is retiring. Alabama Power still hasnt had a rate case. 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. As you may know, Gera is NextEra Energys Vice President and Chief Litigation Officer. 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. Artiles has been connected to Florida utilities, including NextEra and its subsidiary Florida Power and Light (FPL), for years. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik reported this story with Mario Ariza of Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action. 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.. 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 charity was a front established by a state representative. 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. Two days later, Florida Division of Elections records show, Florida Power & Lights parent company, NextEra Energy, gave $10,000 to Bradleys political committee, Women Building the Future. It grew by 57 percent in 2020, DeSantis new election crimes office: 52 positions and unprecedented authority. Artiles pleaded not guilty. Responding to dark money controversy, NextEra did internal investigation into FPL. Indeed, the company's future looked bright. Ron DeSantis, approved FPLs rate hike, raising Floridians monthly bills by over $1.5 billion in the next few years with annual increases through 2025, while increasing FPLs profits. Still,plants with high emissions are going to draw attention in the overall effort to cut down ongreenhouse gas, experts say. That proposal was forwarded to Silagy at FPL but never came to fruition. Too, FPL has not set a goal to reduce its emissions to zero because we believe in setting measurable and achievable goals, McGrath said. (Neither Alabama Power nor its corporate parent, Southern Company, have commented on those disclosures.). Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images 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. 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 said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. 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. In the remarkably successful years of its ambitious expansionism, secret records show FPL may have also been sowing the seeds of its more uncertain present. In all, the centerproduces enough electricity for 750,000 homes and businesses. Higher electricity bills welcomed millions of Florida residents into the new year. 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 . "Based on the information we have, we . A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. Companies do not pass legislation. "I think it took a toll," Ketchum said Wednesday of the multiple crises. Theyve got the lobbying power, and weve got the people power.. Matrix employees spent heavily on political advertisements for a candidate with the same last name as Rodrguez, who split the vote. 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. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Utility Front Group Advertisement Tracker, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, Gas utilities push RNG and hydrogen to expand fossil fuel infrastructure, AGA uses millions of dollars from utility customers to promote a fossil fuel agenda, Internal documents detail how gas utilities greenwash RNG and hydrogen, Front groups and trade associations funded by gas utilities fight electrification policies, List of deceptive RNG and hydrogen projects, FirstEnergy CEO Steven Strah emailed about under the radar House Bill 6 provision that cost Ohio ratepayers millions of dollars. 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. 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. Consultants who control Grow United billed FPL for over $3 million before the entity started moving funds around for the election scheme. Florida Power & Light, whose work with dark-money political committees helped to secure Republican control of the state Senate in the 2020 elections, asked state Sen. Jennifer Bradley to sponsor its top-priority bill: legislation that would hobble rooftop solar by preventing homeowners and businesses from offsetting their costs by selling excess power back to the company, an arrangement known as net metering. Promote the @&;$&!!! Electricity companies like Florida Power & Light make money off of the things they build: mainly large power plants and the power lines that bring that energy to customers. Silagy said the email in which he told his team to make Rodrguezs life a living hell was a poor choice of words. The ghostcandidate controversy set off a wide-ranging criminal investigation by prosecutors in Miami, whosecured a guilty pleafrom the independent candidate in District 37 andfiled felony charges against Frank Artiles, a former Republican lawmaker accused of bribing the candidate to run. Silagy, who has been with the company for 20 years, has led FPL since 2011, having risen through the ranks by serving as chief development officer and senior vice president of regulatory and state governmental affairs. influencing local mayoral and county commission elections, a Miami Herald story about the allegation, graphic showing acquisition flow of The Capitolist, Graphic showing number of stops taken by Matrix private planes. The issue extends to several states. 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. 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. 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 proposed offering a job to Garrett Dennis, a member of the Jacksonville City Council who had been outspoken against selling JEA. To work around the independent, traditional media, former Matrix employees took a more direct route to influence the public narrative about Florida Power & Light. 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. Moving Florida toward a brighter energy future. Bradley filed the bill in November. Once he left, Pitts said Perkins smeared him to clients in an attempt to extort millions. However, those policies are coming under fire as utilities become increasingly concerned about how the growth of distributed solar energy affects their bottom line. I looked at the language. In seeking ways to reduce carbon dioxide pollution particularly to address federal emissions goals that aim to stem the effects of climate change its natural to look at the high-emitting plants to find opportunities for efficiencies, said Dalia Patino-Echeverri, an associate professor at Duke Universitys Nicholas School of the Environment, who studies public policy design for energy systems. I think they are doing their part. Earlier this year, current PSC members, appointed by Gov. McGrath added that the companys move toward cleaner energy sources is a march, not a sprint.. Customer Support. 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. Asked by Wall Street analysts during an earnings call on Wednesday whether Silagy's retirement was in any way prompted by those reports, the parent company's chief executive asserted that was not the case. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. In other words, FPL's gas-fired plant produced almost 20% more power but with a third of the emissions as the coal-powered plant. Theres no time and its urgent, she said. View MapReport Outage About FPL Company News Careers Environment Community Donate to Care To Share Rates and Your Bill In California, regulators plan to increase fees on rooftop solar customers. The company bought an independently owned coal-powered plant in Indiantown in 2016 with the intent to close it, which occurred last summer. These customers are a mix of 88.48% residential customer accounts, 11.29% commercial customers and 0.22% industrial properties. Added Patino-Echeverri: The No. If this bill passes as it is, it has the potential to send Florida back to 2013, as if the advances of the last 10 years didnt happen, Vandenbroeck said. The mayor, Lenny Curry, was ideologically predisposed to privatize a large government agency like JEA, and both the official and political arms of his office were surrounded by friends of FPL. The bill as it is written will decimate this industry.. All rights reserved. Upon realizing the extent of Pittss shadow operations and abuses of power, we filed our lawsuit against Pitts and those few rogue employees.. The complaint implicated Florida Power & Light in violations of election law due to alleged attempts to obscure the source of political donations. With these facilities, FPL replaced inefficient 20th-century coal plants and weaned itself off foreign imported oil. 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