Pimentel will rejoin the company on Feb. 15 and work with Silagy until his departure. 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. As their feud escalated, internal documents started to arrive in reporters email inboxes from unknown sources. A spokesperson for FPL said it stopped working with Canopy in late 2021. 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. COMMENTARY | Just a 14-minute drive from Florida Power & Light'sheadquarters in Juno Beach is the easternmost point in the state, where the sun's radiant light first cracks the night skyeach morning. Florida Power & Light says the cost of subsidizing its 24,000 net-metering customers was $30 million in 2020 (about $1,250 per customer). 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.. 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. 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. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox. 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. We'll get them back on Check the FPL Power Tracker for updates on any outages in your area or report one to us. It grew by 57 percent in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As for Silagy's departure, Ketchum said, "It's a little earlier than Eric would've wanted to do it.". "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.". Florida Power & Light customers who paid $101.70 last year for a typical monthly bill of 1,000 . FPL has acknowledged it received the idea but insists the company immediately rejected it. Matrix consultants had little regard for the professional press. 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. One of Matrixs oldest clients is Alabama Power, which employed Perkins personal consulting firm as early as 1999. Customers who are already using rooftop solar power before 2023 would be grandfathered in and keep their previous compensation rates for 10 years. 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. The complaint implicated Florida Power & Light in violations of election law due to alleged attempts to obscure the source of political donations. 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. FPLs business-as-usual political contributions have continued amid intense media focus on its role in ongoing dark money election scandals and related criminal trials, with state lawmakers and a member of Congress calling for further investigation into FPLs involvement. "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. Get the FPL Mobile App. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. "It's a 24-hour day job. Theyve got the lobbying power, and weve got the people power.. Bradley filed the bill in November. Join the New Times community and help support While the report contemplates the impact of fracking and transporting natural gas, it is not quantified. 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 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. 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. "I think it took a toll," Ketchum said Wednesday of the multiple crises. Rodrguez was ousted from office in the next election. Many of the documents have since been verified by additional reporting, public records or Perkins himself. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. Florida Power & Light is pushing for it as Floridas biggest utility it has 5.5 million customers, about 65 percent of the state. Higher electricity bills welcomed millions of Florida residents into the new year. The team decided an effort to repeal the ordinance would probably fail. 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 . Documents shared by an anonymous source show Silagy directing his team to make life hell for Florida senator Jos Javier Rodrguez. 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. Headquartered in Montgomery, Matrix has been described there as the closest thing Alabama politics has to a non-governmental secret agency. Do you need this bus to transport this many people, and do you need it to be this large? she asked hypothetically. However, those policies are coming under fire as utilities become increasingly concerned about how the growth of distributed solar energy affects their bottom line. You always have to keep in mind what matters most is the rate (of efficiency).. Its parent company, NextEra Energy, has commissioned two separate investigations - one internal, one by an outside law firm - following reporting by Florida newspapers, the non-profit news outlet Floodlight and NPR. FPL CEO Eric Silagy (left) speaks with Gov. Silagy said the email in which he told his team to make Rodrguezs life a living hell was a poor choice of words. 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. 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. Customer Support. Former FPL senior executive Armando Pimentel was named as Silagy's replacement. In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics, She was an ABC News producer. Duke has 2 million customers, followed by TECO with 800,000 . We are committed to being as clean as we can as fast as we can without sacrificing reliability or affordability, 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 . Florida Power & Light, whose work with dark-money political committees helped to secure Republican control of the state Senate in the 2020 elections, asked state Sen. Jennifer Bradley to sponsor its top-priority bill: legislation that would hobble rooftop solar by preventing homeowners and businesses from offsetting their costs by selling excess power back to the company, an arrangement known as net metering. Perkins called Matrixs work for the utility confidential. In all, the centerproduces enough electricity for 750,000 homes and businesses. Reporting, primarily by the Orlando Sentinel, showed spoiler candidates in three state Senate races in 2020 were propped up by at least a half-million dollars from dark-money groups in an effort to help damage the Democrats in those races and help Republicans control the chamber. 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. Watchdog exposing the attacks on renewable energy and countering misinformation by fossil fuel interests, DeSantis faces Democrat and Utility Critic, Crist. The plant ispart of a fleet of new-era power generators often cited by the state's largest utility as jewels in itstransition to modern, clean energy. 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. Customers at the time were paying some of the highest rates for electricity in the south-east. NeitherFPL executives nor the consultants identified in the secret records have been accused of wrongdoing in that investigation. That is your choice, but rest assured, we will hold you accountable if that continues to happen. 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. Legislators pass legislation, she said. 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. 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