Four other FPL natural gas plants also made the list, but are still ranked among the most efficient in terms of emissions per megawatt hour of energy produced. Companies do not pass legislation. 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. FPL CEO Eric Silagy (left) speaks with Gov. Political editor Emily L. Mahoney will send you a rundown on local, state and national politics coverage every Thursday. From a public perception, maybe there is value in highlighting where our emissions come from, Patino-Echeverri said. 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 . In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics, She was an ABC News producer. Even some environmental advocates say the change is fair and necessary because of the fast rate of rooftop solar development in that state. Duke has 2 million customers, followed by TECO with 800,000 . As for Silagy's departure, Ketchum said, "It's a little earlier than Eric would've wanted to do it.". "I want you to make his life a living hell seriously," Silagy wrote in a 2019 email to two of his vice-presidents about one of the Democratic state senators whose 2020 electoral contest was complicated by a spoiler candidate. This is a tired tactic that utilities have used to maintain their monopoly grip on electricity markets, said Will Giese, southeast regional director for the Solar Energy Industries Association. 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. Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. The proposed bill would allow landlords to sell cheap solar panels to their tenants. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. In 2018, Perkins Communications received at least $1.49m from Alabama Power, a leaked contract shows. 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. NPR and Floodlight also reported in December that people working at Florida Power & Light's political consulting firm had paid a veteran ABC News freelance producer to try to trip up politicians who took stances opposed to the energy utility's economic interests. Added Patino-Echeverri: The No. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik reported this story with Mario Ariza of Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action. He is also suing Perkins, alleging defamation and extortion. It ranks third among states for installed solar capacity, although much of that is large-scale, utility-owned solar. This legislation allowed for Kelly to be replaced with a former utility lobbyist, Richard Gentry. Those dark-money groups were controlled by former Matrix employees, the records show. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. January 25, 2023 A week later, state Rep. Lawrence McClure, R-Plant City, introduced an identical version in the House. I looked at the language. This story is a collaboration with Floodlight. A spokesperson for FPL said it stopped working with Canopy in late 2021. Matrix also exerted political influence through the press, with its operatives acquiring control of a Tallahassee-based politics news site, The Capitolist. 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 . Three people were federally convicted for their role in the ploy. 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. Matrix grew so large that by 2015 it was operating several private aircraft to whisk Pitts and Perkins to client meetings. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy announced his retirement on Wednesday. Few examples are clearer than the case of South Miami. We simply believe rooftop solar customers should pay the full cost of this investment, McGrath said. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. The string of controversy spans nearly the entire Florida Peninsula already an impressive trail of dirty tricks. Landlords would be able to. There are emissions associated with the electricity thats used to frack that gas as well as the local pollution issues, she said. The financial entanglement between FPL and The Capitolist dated back to 2018, records leaked to the Miami Herald show, when an FPL vice president suggested the website publish a critical piece on DeSantis' Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum. Ketchum also reiterated that when he was named to the NextEra CEO role after Jim Robo stepped down, Silagy had committed to Ketchum that he would lead FPL for at least one more year. Its parent company had initiated an investigation of related media reports there. To work around the independent, traditional media, former Matrix employees took a more direct route to influence the public narrative about Florida Power & Light. 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. Thats a trend nationwide, as power company profits are threatened by the rise of distributed renewable energy a technology which scientists say is essential to limiting the pollution that causes the climate crisis. Going through those tens of thousands ofrecords, he said, alerted him to the extent of work Pitts performed without his knowledge. 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. 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. Reported contribution totals over $100k as of September 7, 2022, from the Florida Division of Elections Campaign Finance Database. During an investigation by this newspaper, as well as the Sentinel and Floodlight, FPL became at least vaguely threatening about our decision to continue reporting. Just as well, such a reliance on natural gas leaves consumers susceptible to the volatility of gas prices. But wherever the pair went, indictments often followed. But Dennis, in an interview last year, recalled receiving a job offer with remarkable similarities to the one outlined in the internal Matrix documents. Money from the company also covertly secured favorable media coverage, investigations by the Orlando Sentinel, the Miami Herald, the Guardian, NPR, and Floodlight found. DeSantis appointees also allowed FPL to pocket over $1 billion in corporate tax savings instead of passing those savings on to customers. 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. Headquartered in Montgomery, Matrix has been described there as the closest thing Alabama politics has to a non-governmental secret agency. Howard Crystal, an attorney for the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, said that US utilities are allowed monopoly power because they are supposed to expand the public interest. 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. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida After more than a decade leading Florida Power & Light (FPL), the state's largest power company, Eric Silagy is retiring. 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. 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. Matrix employees spent heavily on political advertisements for a candidate with the same last name as Rodrguez, who split the vote. Watchdog exposing the attacks on renewable energy and countering misinformation by fossil fuel interests, DeSantis faces Democrat and Utility Critic, Crist. [But] now we have this incredible corruption and a reversal of that because they are using their advantage to hang on to power and undermine democracy, he said. The Matrix saga illustrates the political obstacles policymakers and experts face as they attempt to cut climate pollution from the power sector, one of the biggest greenhouse gas contributors in the US. However, those policies are coming under fire as utilities become increasingly concerned about how the growth of distributed solar energy affects their bottom line. 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. Newman in his memo also took credit for a Miami Herald story about the allegation. In each of those cases, Matrix was working against politicians or policies fighting to curb the climate crisis by encouraging renewable power. "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. What we dont think about is gas has to be brought up from the earth. Energy poles by Florida Power and Light from Turkey Point nuclear generating station in Miami, Florida. You need this large power plant.. 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. Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. The charity was a front established by a state representative. 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. 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. Florida Power & Light is the largest electric utility in the state, serving more than 11 million people across vast swaths of Florida. The largest city served by the supplier is Jacksonville, but the company also provides electricity to 243 cities in Florida. 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. Katie Chiles Ottenweller, Southeast director for Vote Solar, an Atlanta-based advocacy organization, is optimistic but wary given Florida Power & Lights clout in the Florida Legislature and its role in drafting the bill. We need to have the debate, he said. More recently, the company hired an outside law firm to look more broadly at the company's actions. 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. 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.. 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. Documents show Matrix operatives arranged for the commissioner to record a robocall in which she called Stoddard a creep. "Based on the information we have, we . ABC News cut ties with the producer immediately following that report. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. 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. 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. 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. Those who provoked the utilitys ire suffered a harsh response. It is a regulated monopoly which means that the. The state senator went on to lose re-election by six votes. 0:00. Pairing solar energy centers with battery storage, including the worlds largest battery in Manatee County. 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. That gave Matrix consultants and FPL executives input on Capitolist stories. At least its not coal., The intent of the report was to highlight coal and the negative of coal and offer information that may be pertinent to those who live near the plants, Hope said. 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. He added that the company would soon challenge the complaint and call for its dismissal. 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.. He noted that there is never a "perfect time" to leave. Nate Monroe is a metro columnist whose work regularly appears every Thursday and Sunday. 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. Indeed, the company's future looked bright. The proposed legislation could seriously curtail that growth. While some of the actions taken by FPL tick the boxes to reduce emissions, more can be done, Shober said. FPLs consultants used similar spoiler candidate tactics in the 2020 election cycle in three senate races throughout the state. You gotta bow down and kiss the ring.. After an early round of reports, NextEra commissioned an internal investigation into the allegations against Silagy and Florida Power & Light in Florida. 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. 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. Yet he acknowledged that the reports may have had an influence on the decision. To date, no FPL employees have been charged with any crimes. The Find Energy report relied on data that is submitted by power companies to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. They dont make money off of the solar power generated from rooftops. Customer Support. He is a former federal prosecutor with experience in public corruption cases.. Rodrguez was ousted from office in the next election. He added that the net metering law has not been updated in 13 years and now is time to discuss it. Out of this, the FPL executive told Burgess, according to the Herald. 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. to documents submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission. 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." The negative is the immense amount of megawatts, but its a need for the community. The firm later recovered more than a million files, according to Perkins, who said they reveal years of hidden, shadow work in Florida. them with making Rodrguez's life "a living hell.". With these facilities, FPL replaced inefficient 20th-century coal plants and weaned itself off foreign imported oil. 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. 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. It grew by 57 percent in 2020, DeSantis new election crimes office: 52 positions and unprecedented authority. 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. Customers who are already using rooftop solar power before 2023 would be grandfathered in and keep their previous compensation rates for 10 years. The funds supported a total of five spoiler candidates in state senate and county commission races in 2018 and 2020, as well as efforts to foil a ballot initiative that would have deregulated Florida's energy market. Silagy said the email in which he told his team to make Rodrguezs life a living hell was a poor choice of words. She also was a corporate operative. In 2013, Terry Dunn, a Republican electricity regulator at Alabamas Public Service Commission made moves to hold formal hearings on how customers energy bills were calculated something that hadnt happened in three decades. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse. Bradley filed the bill in November. 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. 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.". Under the scheme, a candidate with no political background was on the ballot as a no-party option in an effort to confuse voters and dilute support for the Democrat in the race, helping Republicans maintain their majority in the state Senate. Its also up to us to push them more. 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. [] NextAmid Connections to Ongoing Election Scandals, NextEra Pours Millions into Floridas 2022 []. McGrath added that the companys move toward cleaner energy sources is a march, not a sprint.. There are reasons to prefer alternatives that are not fossil-fuel intensive. Documents shared by an anonymous source show Silagy directing his team to make life hell for Florida senator Jos Javier Rodrguez. In May 2018, FPL's sprawling. The CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. Still,plants with high emissions are going to draw attention in the overall effort to cut down ongreenhouse gas, experts say. NeitherFPL executives nor the consultants identified in the secret records have been accused of wrongdoing in that investigation. Maybe we should double down on energy-efficiency measures. FPLs CEO Silagy in a recent interview denied knowing about or participating in the scheme against Rodrguez but said that Matrix had done good work for his company. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants. Florida Power & Light customers who paid $101.70 last year for a typical monthly bill of 1,000 . As you may know, Gera is NextEra Energys Vice President and Chief Litigation Officer. They proposed offering a job to Garrett Dennis, a member of the Jacksonville City Council who had been outspoken against selling JEA. 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. Butone thing the leaked Matrix records make clear isthat more secrets remain on the firm's hard drive. A short-lived organization called "Fix JEA Now" registered a web domain in 2017 and began making dramatic claims about the city-owned utility. 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. Skeptics of that plan notably included the Office of Public Counsel, thewatchdog group that represents consumers before the Public Service Commission butwas thought to have been more friendly to utility interests after the installation of a longtime industry lobbyist in 2021. The company says the move was not prompted by recent scandals. "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. 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 already passed the $5.1 million total amount it spent in the 2020 cycle. These email records were provided to the Times/Herald and Floodlight by the Energy & Policy Institute, a watchdog organization that works to counter misinformation about renewable energy. Ive also.ccd Gera Peoples on this note. Its CEO, Mark Crosswhite, stepped down in December. "I think it took a toll," Ketchum said Wednesday of the multiple crises. (Neither Alabama Power nor its corporate parent, Southern Company, have commented on those disclosures.). 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. Rooftop solar, while critical to fighting climate change, is a threat to the traditional utility business model. Pimentel will rejoin the company on Feb. 15 and work with Silagy until his departure. The utility also launched a series of solar power investments, including the development of batter storage. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Light's (FPL) profits. 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. 3:12. In comparison, the top carbon-emitting plant on the list is a coal-powered one in Missouri that produced 16.5 million megawatt hours of energy but emitted almost 1,009 kilograms of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour less energy, but more emissions. 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. Former FPL senior executive Armando Pimentel was named as Silagy's replacement. Pitts, who left Matrix in December 2020 to start his own firm, Canopy Partners, did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. Miami's independent source of '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. Duke has 2 million customers, followed by TECO with 800,000 and then many other smaller utilities. ', Death toll keeps rising in Greece's deadliest train crash, Westown Association announces Milwaukee Night Market dates, Embrace the everyday in UNIQLO's viral wide pants, FlyDubai announces record profit as Gulf air travel booms, Southeast's S.P.A.C.E. Site, the Capitolist ranks third among states for installed florida power and light scandal capacity, although much of that is by! Be done, Shober said news cut ties with the same last name as Rodrguez, who split vote! 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