McClure conceded the bill is not baked.. Matrixs influence was felt on matters small and large, from Stoddards city of less than 12,000 to statewide fights over the Florida constitution. 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. "The way I look at it is it's a little earlier than I would have hoped Eric would have wanted to do it.". 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. 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. 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. Today, FPL said, two-thirds of its power comes from natural gas, followed by nearly 20% nuclear, 4% solar and almost 3% coal, which comes from a plant NextEra partially owns out of state. 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 is pushing for it as Floridas biggest utility it has 5.5 million customers, about 65 percent of the state. He added that the net metering law has not been updated in 13 years and now is time to discuss it. 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. Records from the Florida Senate show that Florida Power & Light drafted the bill, and lobbyist John Holley delivered it to Bradley, R-Fleming Island, and Florida Power & Lights parent company followed up with a $10,000 contribution to her political committee. The commission held a workshop, which drew 16,000 messages from solar advocates urging it to leave the net metering program alone. 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. A dark money group associated with Matrix LLC mailed attack ads against South Miami mayor Philip Stoddard to area residents. Matrix employees had a Jacksonville journalist spied on after he wrote critically about FPL. Bradley filed the bill in November. She likened it to comparing emissions from a personal car used once a week and a city bus that takes many trips. The West County Energy Centeruses three combined-cycle generating units thatburnnatural gas in a turbine much like a jet engine and in turn usesthat exhaust to make a second power source of steam. The string of controversy spans nearly the entire Florida Peninsula already an impressive trail of dirty tricks. Theres no time and its urgent, she said. NextEra officials say that investigation is close to completion. 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. The state senator went on to lose re-election by six votes. 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. I just want to reach out and see if I could get an electronic copy of the net metering bill so I can put it into drafting.. 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. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida To date, no FPL employees have been charged with any crimes. In Florida, FPL and Matrix demonstrated how a utility and its consultants can work in tandem to resist clean energy reforms. 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. [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. I looked at the language. independent local journalism in Miami. In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics, She was an ABC News producer. Butone thing the leaked Matrix records make clear isthat more secrets remain on the firm's hard drive. Yet great amounts of power come at a price. ", FPL lauds its reliability and maintains it has the lowest electricity rates in the country. 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). Bradley is married to former state Sen. 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. 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. An organization that acts like a mafia should be treated like one, Stoddard said.In a statement, Newman acknowledged managing the campaign against Stoddard and hiring a private investigator to look into the former mayors personal life. 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. The fliers warned residents not to let the Environmental Protection Agency test their soil for the presence of contaminants left by a coal plant. It was based on our discussion, and it was one that I could support as a starting point, she recalled. Any report or suggestion that we had involvement in, financially supported or directed others to support any ghost candidates during the 2020 election cycle is patently false, and we have found absolutely no evidence of any legal wrongdoing by FPL or its employees, McGrath, the Florida Power & Light spokesperson said in response to questions for this story. As you may know, Gera is NextEra Energys Vice President and Chief Litigation Officer. 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. 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. The negative is the immense amount of megawatts, but its a need for the community. 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. Follow him onTwitter@NateMonroeTU. One of Matrixs oldest clients is Alabama Power, which employed Perkins personal consulting firm as early as 1999. 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. Three people were federally convicted for their role in the ploy. 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. Its CEO, Mark Crosswhite, stepped down in December. 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. Pitts in turn has accused Perkins of defamation and of leaking confidential records to the media. Southern Company and Alabama Power run the state of Alabama, Dunn said. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. Newman in his memo also took credit for a Miami Herald story about the allegation. 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 proposed legislation could seriously curtail that growth. A state board recently rebuffed a request from several Democratic lawmakers for an audit of Florida Power & Light's finances, which the representatives sought following reports linking the. The bill is just one front in a decade-long battle against the policy. Florida Power & Light is pushing for it as Florida's biggest utility it has 5.5 million customers, about 65 percent of the state. They proposed offering a job to Garrett Dennis, a member of the Jacksonville City Council who had been outspoken against selling JEA. For years, Florida Power & Light has been one of the largest contributors to legislative Florida political campaigns. Earlier this year, current PSC members, appointed by Gov. Out of this, the FPL executive told Burgess, according to the Herald. While Matrix operatives quietly pulled strings for FPL, strife within their own firm boiled over. It is a regulated monopoly which means that the. Learn More About FPL News Company Careers Environment Community Donate to Care To Share Rates and Your Bill About Energy Energy My Way Ensuring Reliability Clean Energy Solar Electric Vehicles Power Disturbances Safety Partner Resources Supplier Home and Login PIC Login Florida Power & Light has also invested millions into groups with untraceable, anonymous donors that launched attacks on state and local politicians. We are committed to being as clean as we can as fast as we can without sacrificing reliability or affordability, McGrath said. We took a 1960s-gas guzzling Cadillac and we replaced it with a Ford Focus hybrid, McGrath said. What we dont think about is gas has to be brought up from the earth. FPLs campaign contributions appear to be on pace with the utilitys political giving of over $8.1 million in the 2018 gubernatorial cycle. 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. 0:00. The effort to privatize Jacksonville's utility imploded in scandal and recrimination, prompting a two-year federal investigation that resulted in criminal charges against JEA's former CEO and CFO. So they opted instead for Mayor Stoddards electoral defeat and changing the makeup of the board, according to a 2018 memo from Dan Newman, a Matrix contractor who was similarly involved in the campaign against Rodrguez. 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 . One person affiliated with Grow United is Abbie MacIver, who formerly worked for Energy Fairness, a group that encourages policymakers to consider the cost of energy choices, as well as their benefits. Last year, McClure sent a letter to state regulators at the Florida Public Service Commission citing the result and urging it to update its net-metering rule. He said what he found was deeply disturbing. Money from the company also covertly secured favorable media coverage, investigations by the Orlando Sentinel, the Miami Herald, the Guardian, NPR, and Floodlight found. "We're not making a connection" between the reports and Silagy's retirement, NextEra CEO John Ketchum said on the earnings call. That is your choice, but rest assured, we will hold you accountable if that continues to happen. ABC News cut ties with the producer immediately following that report. Documents show Matrix operatives arranged for the commissioner to record a robocall in which she called Stoddard a creep. Alabama Power still hasnt had a rate case. 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). The utility also launched a series of solar power investments, including the development of batter storage. Many of the documents have since been verified by additional reporting, public records or Perkins himself. "Based on the information we have, we . 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 non-profit, called Broken Promises, first donated the funds to a political committee called Consumers for Energy Fairness. He is also suing Perkins, alleging defamation and extortion. If were trying to look all in, theres a whole lot to consider upstream from just the burning of the fuel., FPLs McGrath said the Find Energyreport also doesnt tell the companys whole modernization story.. 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. The committee donated $25,000 to DeSantis political committee on the next day. Perkins and Pitts worked together for more than 25 years, expanding the firm into a national operation with dozens of clients in myriad industries. Theyve got the lobbying power, and weve got the people power.. ', 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. Inat least one case, they had this Times-Union columnist surveilled, according to the secret records. 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. All of that work was a closely held secret until recently. In California, regulators plan to increase fees on rooftop solar customers. We are consistently one of the cleanest electric utilities in the country, FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said. Im not afraid if the conclusion is its not the time to do this. 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. Thats not where the story ends, however, or the whole picture. He is a former federal prosecutor with experience in public corruption cases.. Drop a line athmorse@pbpost.com, call 561-820-4833 or follow her on Twitter@mannahhorse. 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. View MapReport Outage About FPL Company News Careers Environment Community Donate to Care To Share Rates and Your Bill Such a turn in the political tidecould be particularly dire for a regulated company like FPL, whose literal fortunes rise and fall on the decisions made by the Public Service Commission appointees of the governor who must sign off on any number of high-stakes operational and financial issues for Florida's private utilities, starting with electric rates. Political editor Emily L. Mahoney will send you a rundown on local, state and national politics coverage every Thursday. Only about 90,000 Florida customers, about 1 percent of the states more than 8.5 million customers, sell excess energy back to the electrical grid, but the arrangement has driven significant rooftop solar expansion in Florida. 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 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. Rooftop solar, while critical to fighting climate change, is a threat to the traditional utility business model. 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. 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