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. Responding to dark money controversy, NextEra did internal investigation into FPL. Customers who are already using rooftop solar power before 2023 would be grandfathered in and keep their previous compensation rates for 10 years. The commission held a workshop, which drew 16,000 messages from solar advocates urging it to leave the net metering program alone. "We could even do it stealthily so we could inject content into all those publications and nobody has to know who's actually pulling the strings," he wrote. When the small south Florida citys mayor helped pass an ordinance in 2017 mandating rooftop solar panels on new construction, a network of 10 FPL-aligned operatives mobilized to ensure his ouster. In all, the centerproduces enough electricity for 750,000 homes and businesses. He said what he found was deeply disturbing. Three people were federally convicted for their role in the ploy. That is your choice, but rest assured, we will hold you accountable if that continues to happen. 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. President and CEO of Florida Power & Light Eric Silagy speaks to the media after FPL imploded its last Florida . The consultants pitched and supported tactics designed toembarrassindividualreporters who they believed had crossed their client's interests. 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. to documents submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission. There was no question the company would be the leading bidder almost by default. Get the FPL Mobile App. Its parent company had initiated an investigation of related media reports there. The company bought an independently owned coal-powered plant in Indiantown in 2016 with the intent to close it, which occurred last summer. 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. "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. "We're not making a connection," said John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy. Alissa Jean Schafer is a research and communications specialist at the Energy and Policy Institute. 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. 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. With these facilities, FPL replaced inefficient 20th-century coal plants and weaned itself off foreign imported oil. The plan ultimately failed, and Stoddard was re-elected. Still,plants with high emissions are going to draw attention in the overall effort to cut down ongreenhouse gas, experts say. Perkins and Pitts worked together for more than 25 years, expanding the firm into a national operation with dozens of clients in myriad industries. Butone thing the leaked Matrix records make clear isthat more secrets remain on the firm's hard drive. Its a tough, and expensive, goal to achieve, Patino-Echeverri said. Letsgetstarted. I am concerned that it will result in significant costs here, but I also dont want to destroy the rooftop solar industry in Florida.. The bill is just one front in a decade-long battle against the policy. Follow him onTwitter@NateMonroeTU. DeSantis is running against former Republican Governor and current Democratic nominee Charlie Crist, who has been a vocal critic of FPL throughout his political career. Along with a private investigator, the group delved into Stoddards past for episodes to weaponize against him, such as a South Miami commissioners claim on Facebook that Stoddard had forcibly kissed her. An Alabama governor the company worked for was convicted of federal felony corruption charges. Perkins called Matrixs work for the utility confidential. FPL | Contact Us We're here to help Please log in so we can help you faster. FPL CEO Eric Silagy (left) speaks with Gov. As their feud escalated, internal documents started to arrive in reporters email inboxes from unknown sources. 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. 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. A week later, state Rep. Lawrence McClure, R-Plant City, introduced an identical version in the House. In 2020,the plant generated 19.7 million megawatt hours of energy and had an emissions rate of 371.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour. 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. And in 2020, Matrix even harnessed the power of the press for itself, when its employees acquired control of The Capitolist, a Tallahassee-based political news site which it used for favorable coverage, leaked records show. Its also up to us to push them more. Inat least one case, they had this Times-Union columnist surveilled, according to the secret records. They proposed offering a job to Garrett Dennis, a member of the Jacksonville City Council who had been outspoken against selling JEA. 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. 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. The CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. NextEra officials say that investigation is close to completion. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. For years, Florida Power & Light has been one of the largest contributors to legislative Florida political campaigns. The company says the move was not prompted by recent scandals. Download the FPL Mobile App Now "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. Pairing solar energy centers with battery storage, including the worlds largest battery in Manatee County. So Florida Power & Light did something about it. Added Patino-Echeverri: The No. Over the course of DeSantis tenure, he used that veto power once to block an anti-rooftop solar bill written by FPL. 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. Landlords would be able to. View dataset here. We'll get them back on Check the FPL Power Tracker for updates on any outages in your area or report one to us. 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. A dark money group associated with Matrix LLC mailed attack ads against South Miami mayor Philip Stoddard to area residents. (Neither Alabama Power nor its corporate parent, Southern Company, have commented on those disclosures.). 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. 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. This particular power plant ranked in the top third,alongwithcoal-powered plants, in thelist of 100 power plants across the country that belched out the most carbon dioxide in 2020, according to thereport by Find Energy. It is a regulated monopoly which means that the. I think they are doing their part. NextEras CEO called net-zero emission targets disingenuous without plans to get to real zero, according to reports. 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. 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.". All of that work was a closely held secret until recently. small-scale solar capacity in the state. ", FPL lauds its reliability and maintains it has the lowest electricity rates in the country. The company anticipates the panels will be able to generate 11,657 megawatts. 1 factor to reduce greenhouse gases is the transition from coal to gas. Upon realizing the extent of Pittss shadow operations and abuses of power, we filed our lawsuit against Pitts and those few rogue employees.. In one case, at the suggestion of Silagy, FPL's CEO, Burgess included in a newsletter a photoshopped image of the Herald's Tallahassee bureau chief, Mary Ellen Klas, as a pauper begging for money. Rick Scott.. 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. FPL's financials remain strong. 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. 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.. We need to have the debate, he said. From the beginning, Matrix showed no aversion to unsavory political tactics. 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. Pitts, who left Matrix in December 2020 to start his own firm, Canopy Partners, did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. FPL did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. 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. Miami's independent source of 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 . As for Silagy's departure, Ketchum said, "It's a little earlier than Eric would've wanted to do it.". In 2018, Perkins Communications received at least $1.49m from Alabama Power, a leaked contract shows. Please provide us with the Personal Identification Number (PIN) that you were given for a co-browse session with our representative. 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. 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. Crist secured a deal to freeze FPL rates in 2005 as Attorney General, and he opposed FPLs $1.3 billion rate increase in 2009, which was then blocked by Crist appointees at the PSC. Here is why and how much. And a former regional administrator for the EPA who did business with Pitts pleaded guilty to violating state ethics law multiple times. This legislation allowed for Kelly to be replaced with a former utility lobbyist, Richard Gentry. NextEra Energy said its political committee did not make its contribution to Bradleys campaign with an expectation of favor.. Many of the documents have since been verified by additional reporting, public records or Perkins himself. 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. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants. 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. The beginning, Matrix showed no aversion to unsavory political tactics these facilities, florida power and light scandal lauds its and. Internal documents started to arrive in reporters email inboxes from unknown sources we help. 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