Upon realizing the extent of Pittss shadow operations and abuses of power, we filed our lawsuit against Pitts and those few rogue employees.. And the job was to come with one key hitch: To accept it, Dennis would have to leave his council position. The West County Energy Center, first serving Florida Power & Light customers in 2009 before reaching its current capacity two years later, is a natural gas-burning plant. There was no question the company would be the leading bidder almost by default. We're advancing solar energy in Florida and you can too with our solar programs. Dunn lost his 2014 re-election campaign by a 19-point margin to Chip Beeker, a catfish farmer who is still in office. 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. F lorida Power & Light is an investor owned company. 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. 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. 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. This story is a collaboration with Floodlight. Energy poles by Florida Power and Light from Turkey Point nuclear generating station in Miami, Florida. That is a fairly energy-intensive process in and of itself. 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. This plant has been part of the solution.. 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. 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. 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. Rooftop solar, while critical to fighting climate change, is a threat to the traditional utility business model. 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. 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. (Neither Alabama Power nor its corporate parent, Southern Company, have commented on those disclosures.). 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. Landlords would be able to. FPL did not respond to requests for comment by deadline. In Perkins telling, he was getting ready to hand over leadership of Matrix in December 2020 when Pitts surprised him by leaving the firm, taking three employees as well as most of Matrixs Florida-based clients with him to launch Canopy. Its CEO, Mark Crosswhite, stepped down in December. 0:00. 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. 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. 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. 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. $2.75 million in tax breaks on speculative green hydrogen, tens of billions of dollars for burying lines, 2018 state senate race in Gainesville, FL, secured a deal to freeze FPL rates in 2005 as Attorney General, opposed FPLs $1.3 billion rate increase in 2009, calling the utility out for raising its rates on Floridians, largest donation FPL had ever made at the time, Utility front groups spending on disinformation advertising. In California, regulators plan to increase fees on rooftop solar customers. Florida Power & Light is pushing for it as Floridas biggest utility it has 5.5 million customers, about 65 percent of the state. Net metering is a popular program that gives people the right to choose the energy that works for them, provides benefits to all ratepayers and creates thousands of energy jobs across Florida.. Drop a line at hmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter @mannahhorse. At the Birmingham office where Pitts and the others had worked, Perkins said he found a backup server that appeared to have been beaten with something. Emails show that Bradleys staff followed up with Florida Power & Light after that discussion. 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. Maybe we should double down on energy-efficiency measures. 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. But advocates fear that a FPL-drafted bill to rewrite the states net metering rules will slowly chip away at the main financial incentive for homeowners and businesses to go solar. 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. 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 greener energy and multiple scandals. ", FPL lauds its reliability and maintains it has the lowest electricity rates in the country. He added that the company would soon challenge the complaint and call for its dismissal. 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. At the same time, getting to 100% elimination of greenhouse gas emissions for the energy sector is very hard to do with just renewables. The records also demonstrate that secrecy is no substitute for sophistication or savvy: Some of Matrix's tricks did little to improve FPL's business prospects and, in fact, have now served to humiliate the utility like Silagy's use of a pseudonym email account belonging to a fictitious "Theodore Hayes" to communicate with Matrix employees (a tactic detailed in the leaked Matrix records that both FPL and Silagy himself confirmed took place). Pimentel will rejoin the company on Feb. 15 and work with Silagy until his departure. Can I bring it to you all later today? he wrote. Bradley said she is open to discussing alternative models for her bill, including a system in use in the Carolinas to compensate rooftop solar customers who provide extra power for the grid when it is most needed, during peak hours. They dont make money off of the solar power generated from rooftops. January 25, 2023 Many of the documents have since been verified by additional reporting, public records or Perkins himself. Thats not where the story ends, however, or the whole picture. Building 30 million solar power panels by the year 2025, a goal anticipated to be met five years earlier than planned, and paid for by ratepayers. That decision catapulted the growth of small-scale solar capacity in the state. So Florida Power & Light did something about it. 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. Still,plants with high emissions are going to draw attention in the overall effort to cut down ongreenhouse gas, experts say. Florida Power & Light is the largest electric utility in the state, serving more than 11 million people across vast swaths of Florida. Indeed, Find Energy also named NextEra Energy, FPLs parent company, as one of the top renewable energy producers in the country, with another one of its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy Resources, running solar and wind projects across the country. Customer Support. McGrath added that the companys move toward cleaner energy sources is a march, not a sprint.. 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. While some of the actions taken by FPL tick the boxes to reduce emissions, more can be done, Shober said. 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. Hours later, a story like the one the executive pitched appeared on The Capitolist. The non-profit, called Broken Promises, first donated the funds to a political committee called Consumers for Energy Fairness. It's easy to pay your bill, view your energy usage, manage your account and more. The tactics worked. One of Matrixs oldest clients is Alabama Power, which employed Perkins personal consulting firm as early as 1999. "The way I look at it is it's a little earlier than I would have hoped Eric would have wanted to do it.". That is your choice, but rest assured, we will hold you accountable if that continues to happen. The bill as it is written will decimate this industry.. He added that the net metering law has not been updated in 13 years and now is time to discuss it. 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. "We're not making a connection," said John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy. The majority of Florida Power & Light (FPL) contributions have been to the Florida Republican Party, GOP committees and candidates, and political committees associated with corporate special interests. The plan ultimately failed, and Stoddard was re-elected. Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy announced his retirement on Wednesday. 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. Adding more rooftop solar is one way to cut down on emissions and make the grid more resilient, Shober said. 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. She likened it to comparing emissions from a personal car used once a week and a city bus that takes many trips. 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. Records show FPL trusted Matrix operatives with millions, including giving $14m to a single Matrix-run nonprofit in 2018 alone. "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. 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. Feds Plan to Seize Russian Oligarch's Luxe Fisher Island Properties, Miami Canal Flooded With Turd Water From Contractor-Involved Pipe Break, Collapse of "Let's Go Brandon" Meme Coin Sparks Billion-Dollar Court Battle, Gator Gets in on the Action at Tampa Bay Horse Race, Readers Warn of Traffic, "Bloodsport" Driving After. Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. Its also up to us to push them more. FPL has complained bitterly about the news coverage of the leaked records, and there is little indication its parent company, NextEra, is reflective about what the records have to say about the involvement of its largest subsidiaryandits highest-level executives. The email was forwarded on to Silagy,though there is no indication the company seriously entertained Burgess' idea. 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. He said what he found was deeply disturbing. Its a tough, and expensive, goal to achieve, Patino-Echeverri said. 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. "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. Perkins has repeatedly denied leaking records, though he has verified the authenticity of numerous records underlying recent stories by the Times-Union, Orlando Sentinel and Floodlight, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. She said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. He is also suing Perkins, alleging defamation and extortion. 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. I find this to be horrifying and undemocratic, said Gianna Trocino Bonner, former chief legislative aide for Rodrguez, after reviewing some of the leaked documents. Documents shared by an anonymous source show Silagy directing his team to make life hell for Florida senator Jos Javier Rodrguez. FPL's financials remain strong. And additional reporting since last year has made it clear the leakedMatrix records contain legitimate information. Methane is 25 times stronger at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, according to the EPA. The warm light racesacross a 600-mile expanse of land and coast before finally brightening the Perdido River in Escambia County on Florida's western border. '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. We simply believe rooftop solar customers should pay the full cost of this investment, McGrath said. Pairing solar energy centers with battery storage, including the worlds largest battery in Manatee County. 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. A note of gratitude to our friends at the Orlando Sentinel and Floodlight News, with whom we have worked in partnership to report our stories. "Based on the information we have, we . 1 factor to reduce greenhouse gases is the transition from coal to gas. Going through those tens of thousands ofrecords, he said, alerted him to the extent of work Pitts performed without his knowledge. Their power over utilities in Florida was challenged by legislation proposed by the Democratic Senator of Florida, Jos Javier Rodrguez, in 2019. The company says the move was not prompted by recent scandals. The bill is just one front in a decade-long battle against the policy. Under Bradleys bill, net-metering customers whose solar panels deliver energy back to the utility grid would no longer receive credits based on the retail cost of energy, but instead receive credits based on a lower wholesale cost. There has to be a transition. Matrix grew so large that by 2015 it was operating several private aircraft to whisk Pitts and Perkins to client meetings. [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. "And we support organizations who had that mission.". 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. After more than a decade leading Florida Power & Light (FPL), the state's largest power company, Eric Silagy is retiring. Responding to dark money controversy, NextEra did internal investigation into FPL. One of those Democrats,Sen. Jos Javier Rodrguez, happened to be both a prominent member of his party and an incumbent FPL particularly despised. That proposal was forwarded to Silagy at FPL but never came to fruition. Under the leadership of Eric Silagy, 54, the company has been tied to allegations of campaign finance violations, media manipulation, and the surveillance of critical journalists. About a decade ago, FPL made the fateful decision to hire Matrix LLC, an Alabama-based political consulting firm notorious in its home state but with little public profile in Florida. That statement was made before additional rounds of damaging disclosures prompted the investigation by the outside law firm. 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. There were a lot of challenges that we successfully managed," he said. one of the largest contributors to legislative Florida political campaigns, would have allowed regulators to impose fees and barriers to rooftop solar installation. That cost is based on the avoided cost that the utility would have incurred if it were to install a comparable system. The list consists of 83 coal-powered plants, 16 natural gas plants and one plant that uses petroleum coke as its primary fuel type. These customers are a mix of 88.48% residential customer accounts, 11.29% commercial customers and 0.22% industrial properties. As for Silagy's departure, Ketchum said, "It's a little earlier than Eric would've wanted to do it.". Records obtained by the Sentinel also show overlap between Grow United and previous campaigns to overhaul net metering. 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. Download the FPL Mobile App Now Before the prospect of JEA had even been formally proposed, Matrix employees were planting seeds intended to underminepublic confidence in the Jacksonville agency, potentially as early as 2017. After an early round of reports, NextEra commissioned an internal investigation into the allegations against Silagy and Florida Power & Light in Florida. The committee donated $25,000 to DeSantis political committee on the next day. However, those policies are coming under fire as utilities become. NextEra Energy and its subsidiaries, Florida Power & Light and Florida City Gas, have poured nearly $6 million into state level campaign funds and political committees. We are committed to being as clean as we can as fast as we can without sacrificing reliability or affordability, McGrath said. Want more of our free, weekly newslettersinyourinbox? Few examples are clearer than the case of South Miami. 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. 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. 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. independent local journalism in Miami. 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. Hannah Morse covers consumer issues for The Palm Beach Post. It backed a failed ballot amendment in 2016 that would have allowed regulators to impose fees and barriers to rooftop solar installation. 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. nears the finish line on new track at Freedom Field, Amazon's Daisy Jones & the Six Is the Latest in a Long Line of Embarrassing Portraits of Musical Genius. 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. In 2019, when the electric utility industry was up in arms about a constitutional amendment to open up competition in Floridas energy market, a Matrix-linked non-profit poured more than $10m into groups fighting it. 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. 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 string of controversy spans nearly the entire Florida Peninsula already an impressive trail of dirty tricks. More:FPL seeks to raise monthly power bills for residental customers by 10%. Here is why and how much. 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 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. The company bought an independently owned coal-powered plant in Indiantown in 2016 with the intent to close it, which occurred last summer. Matrix also exerted political influence through the press, with its operatives acquiring control of a Tallahassee-based politics news site, The Capitolist. Silagy, the FPL CEO, says the pair initially told him they had come to an amicable agreement about parting ways. "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. But utility experts have testified to the Florida Public Service Commission that rooftop solar in the state could grow at a rate of 39 percent a year until 2025 if Floridas current net metering system is left in place. Two decades ago, the company was using more than40 million barrels of oil, the most of any electric utility, McGrath said. We are investing in clean energy because its the right thing to do for our customers. Yet he acknowledged that the reports may have had an influence on the decision. Documents show Matrix operatives arranged for the commissioner to record a robocall in which she called Stoddard a creep. One-tenth of 1percent of the power comes from oil. While Matrix operatives quietly pulled strings for FPL, strife within their own firm boiled over. Miami's independent source of One industry consulting firm has influenced politics across Florida, Alabama and at least six other states. Butone thing the leaked Matrix records make clear isthat more secrets remain on the firm's hard drive. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. 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. 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 . 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. 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. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants bypassing FPL and its monopoly on electricity. 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. Newman in his memo also took credit for a Miami Herald story about the allegation. The complaint implicated Florida Power & Light in election law violations because of alleged attempts to obscure the source of the political donations. Companies do not pass legislation. From the beginning, Matrix showed no aversion to unsavory political tactics. ) profits, Matrix showed no aversion to unsavory political tactics is a fairly energy-intensive process in and itself... The move was not prompted by recent scandals Power bills for residental customers by %! 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