We are consistently one of the cleanest electric utilities in the country, FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said. 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. Consultants who control Grow United billed FPL for over $3 million before the entity started moving funds around for the election scheme. The last year of Silagy's leadership was marked by high natural gas prices; the global supply chain crisis; two disastrous hurricanes; and a barrage of damning media reports. This story is a collaboration with Floodlight. 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. FPL CEO Eric Silagy (left) speaks with Gov. Rob Bradley, an influential politician who was head of the Senate budget committee. The company says the move was not prompted by recent scandals. For many years and without my knowledge or approval, Pitts abused his power and position to benefit himself and his cronies, Perkins said in a statement. Inat least one case, they had this Times-Union columnist surveilled, according to the secret records. The sex worker later testified the allegations were untrue, and that she had been paid by a Birmingham businessman to make them. Please provide us with the Personal Identification Number (PIN) that you were given for a co-browse session with our representative. Matrix was never accused of wrongdoing. With these facilities, FPL replaced inefficient 20th-century coal plants and weaned itself off foreign imported oil. Matrix employees spent heavily on political advertisements for a candidate with the same last name as Rodrguez, who split the vote. 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. Pitts, who left Matrix in December 2020 to start his own firm, Canopy Partners, did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. But FPL was fixated on JEA; buying it would lock Florida's entire East Coast into FPL's service territory, another bold expansion of FPL's power. 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. Otherwise, DeSantis has been largely friendly to NextEra and FPLs legislative priorities, granting the utility $2.75 million in tax breaks on speculative green hydrogen, signing legislation that gave FPL permission to charge customers tens of billions of dollars for burying lines, signing legislation preventing gas bans that would have aided Florida City Gas, and also signing legislation that forced the resignation of utility critic JR Kelly from his leadership of the Office of Public Counsel, which represents ratepayers in rate cases. Too, FPL has not set a goal to reduce its emissions to zero because we believe in setting measurable and achievable goals, McGrath said. 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. The string of controversy spans nearly the entire Florida Peninsula already an impressive trail of dirty tricks. See How. This plant has been part of the solution.. Can I bring it to you all later today? he wrote. An Alabama governor the company worked for was convicted of federal felony corruption charges. 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. What we dont think about is gas has to be brought up from the earth. 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. 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. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants bypassing FPL and its monopoly on electricity. Matrix also exerted political influence through the press, with its operatives acquiring control of a Tallahassee-based politics news site, The Capitolist. 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. We may need some portion of our energy to still come from fossil fuels, because there are industrial processes that are hard to electrify, she said. FPL has long despised Klas' hard-hitting coverage of the company. Silagy said the email in which he told his team to make Rodrguezs life a living hell was a poor choice of words. The complaint implicated Florida Power & Light in election law violations because of alleged attempts to obscure the source of the political donations. 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. That is your choice, but rest assured, we will hold you accountable if that continues to happen. One-tenth of 1percent of the power comes from oil. In 2018, Perkins Communications received at least $1.49m from Alabama Power, a leaked contract shows. 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. Companies do not pass legislation. So far, there have been two criminal investigations into the campaign against Rodrguez and another Democratic state senate candidate, leading to charges against five people, though authorities have not accused Matrix or FPL of wrongdoing. for Floodlight and Annie Martin for Orlando Sentinel, he CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. 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. Pairing solar energy centers with battery storage, including the worlds largest battery in Manatee County. 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. But wherever the pair went, indictments often followed. That is a fairly energy-intensive process in and of itself. Florida Power & Light has a monopoly on power in Florida. 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. What people may not realize is that public opinion is very much in our favor, said Bryan Jacob of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Want more of our free, weekly newslettersinyourinbox? 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. 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. Big power companies operate as monopolies with captive customers in much of the south-east US. The committee donated $25,000 to DeSantis political committee on the next day. Maggie Shober, research director with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, agreed that the report shows just one of many ways to look at emissions. 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. And the job was to come with one key hitch: To accept it, Dennis would have to leave his council position. Upon realizing the extent of Pittss shadow operations and abuses of power, we filed our lawsuit against Pitts and those few rogue employees.. Its unfortunate that our process allows for something like this to exist without accountability.. In one instance, leaked emails revealed Silagy even successfully suggested specific news coverage to one publication. Months after he was elected, Beeker voted in favor of an energy price hike for consumers. The firm later recovered more than a million files, according to Perkins, who said they reveal years of hidden, shadow work in Florida. Former FPL senior executive Armando Pimentel was named as Silagy's replacement. 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 . Ten days later, Heffley wrote Holley again. After an early round of reports, NextEra commissioned an internal investigation into the allegations against Silagy and Florida Power & Light in Florida. Maybe we should double down on energy-efficiency measures. Alabama Power still hasnt had a rate case. 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. 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. 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. That proposal was forwarded to Silagy at FPL but never came to fruition. 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. FPLs consultants used similar spoiler candidate tactics in the 2020 election cycle in three senate races throughout the state. Still,plants with high emissions are going to draw attention in the overall effort to cut down ongreenhouse gas, experts say. The consultants pitched and supported tactics designed toembarrassindividualreporters who they believed had crossed their client's interests. 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. He added thatcarbon dioxide is emitted from burning natural gas, which isa fossil fuel, andis being created whether theyre scrubbing or storing it.. 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. The negative is the immense amount of megawatts, but its a need for the community. 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. FPL's financials remain strong. She also was a corporate operative. Perkins and Pitts worked together for more than 25 years, expanding the firm into a national operation with dozens of clients in myriad industries. The companies that are doing the right thing still have those kinds of plants in their portfolio, specifically coal, but theyre working toward other alternatives, Hope said. The company anticipates the panels will be able to generate 11,657 megawatts. Bradley is married to former state Sen. 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. And then apparently, somewhere along the way, Jeff and Joe got sideways, Silagy said. 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. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Lights (FPL) profits. The bill also allows utilities to charge rooftop solar customers more, by adding in facility charges, grid access fees and minimum monthly payments. We simply believe rooftop solar customers should pay the full cost of this investment, McGrath said. 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 . She said the support she got from other teams was 'overwhelming. In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics, She was an ABC News producer. Records obtained by Floodlight and the Orlando Sentinel show that Matrix consulted for FPL, as well as another Florida company, Gulf Power, and Alabama Power. local news and culture, Alex DeLuca That gave Matrix consultants and FPL executives input on Capitolist stories. 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 . "It is a decision that is not easy, but I feel good about moving forward and doing it when the company is in its strongest financial and operational position that it's ever been in with a very strong leadership team.". 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. FPL has already passed the $5.1 million total amount it spent in the 2020 cycle. He added that the company would soon challenge the complaint and call for its dismissal. "I think it took a toll," Ketchum said Wednesday of the multiple crises. And an additional kudos to the Miami Herald for its own story on the latest batch of leaked Matrix records, which can be read here. 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 analysts on Wednesday. FPL bristled at the inclusion of its power plantson the list bythe website Find Energy, which aggregates and analyzes finalized government data on electricity companies. The tactics worked. Pitts in turn has accused Perkins of defamation and of leaking confidential records to the media. 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.. Its parent company had initiated an investigation of related media reports there. 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 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. Three people were federally convicted for their role in the ploy. One industry consulting firm has influenced politics across Florida, Alabama and at least six other states. I think they are doing their part. 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. 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