This reporting has raised significant questions around the potential of ratepayer funds being used to not only influence elections but to undermine democracy through fake candidate schemes, astroturfing, and attempted bribes wrote state Reps. Anna Eskamani, Carlos Guillermo Smith, Angie Nixon and Travaris McCurdy. Armando Pimentel, who held executive roles in finance at NextEra for more than a decade before retiring in 2019, is coming back in what investors hope will mark the end of FP&Ls era of political and campaign-finance scandals. Earlier this month, the reporting by the Orlando Sentinel, Florida Times-Union, and the Miami Herald prompted four Democratic lawmakers to ask state regulators to conduct an audit of FPL, the largest utility company in the nation and a monopoly regulated by the Florida Public Service Commission. Some critics of Florida Power & Light, like Alissa Jean Schafer of watchdog group Energy Policy Institute, have welcomed Pimentel's uneventful background. The company was implicated in aghost candidate scheme in Floridathat ousted a climate advocate from state office. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. NextEra Energy Resources, LLC is a clean energy leader and is one of the largest wholesale generators of electric power in the U.S., with approximately 23,900 megawatts of total net generating . $5,000 from investor-owned utilities went to the campaign account directly: $1,000 from NextEra, $2,000 from Duke, and $2,000 from TECO. You can keep up with her work on her site Environment.co. We got into this program and its not helping like its supposed to, said Quintin Nelms, who has faced a long wait for his rebate. Robo responded: Sure, Julian, I think you know, on some of the Florida political headlines I think what Id like to say on that is pretty simple., He said that when the company received the report and and those allegations that have been in the press, we conducted a very extensive and thorough investigation that included looking at company financial records and include looking at everyone who was named and its company emails. He said those involved all provided access to their personal emails and texts to us as part of that investigation., He concluded: The bottom line is we found no evidence of any issues at all, any illegality, or any wrongdoing on the part of FPL or any of its employees., Robo added that he felt very good about the investigation that we did, and I feel very good that there is, you know, no basis to any of these allegations. Perry has received $13,500 in direct political donations from Florida utilities, including $1,000 from NextEra, $2,500 from NextEra company Gulf Power, $4,500 from Duke, and $5,500 from TECO, according to campaign finance filings. Republican Ileana Garcia won the election by 32 votes. Date. That scheme included over half a million dollars spent on political mailers promoting the spoiler candidates. By Mary Ellen Klas Shares of NextEra sank late last month by nearly 9%, their biggest daily drop in more than two years, after the company abruptly announced Silagy would retire under the threat of a formal investigation by the Federal Election Commission into the companys political giving. If trust in NextEra dwindlesand seemingly it has, if stock recommendations are anything to judge bypeople might be less willing to consider the installation of a wind farm in their community. The flight took place just prior to Artiles push on legislation that would have allowed NextEra to charge its Florida customers for out-of-state exploratory fracking. The Florida Public Service Commission reaffirmed the states current net metering rule in 2019 after the utilities last effort to weaken it, calling it an effective way to promote solar in the net-metering workshop held at the request of McClure. The documents also showed that Silagy coordinated with the political consultants to steer campaign contributions made through nonprofits in past elections. Some critics of Florida Power & Light, like Alissa Jean Schafer of watchdog group Energy Policy Institute, have welcomed Pimentels uneventful background. Both South Florida mailers for Alex Rodriguez and Celso Alfonso and Central Florida mailers for Jestine Iannotti featured identical text, focused on fixing health care, fighting climate change, and speaking truth to power. Director, Pres & CEO of Sub of Nextera Energy Inc (30-Year Financial, Insider Trades) Eric E Silagy (insider trades) sold 14,131 shares of NEE on 04/07/2021 at an average price of $78 a share. They probably chose him to be a steady the ship-type figure, said Jack Dearing, an analyst withWashington-based Capstone LLC, which advises investors and companies on policy issues. The races for Senate District 9 and 39 followed the same pattern. When asked by a Bank of AmericaSecurities analyst on a recent earnings call, NextEra CEO James Robo explained that he orderedFPL CEO Eric Silagy to turn over emails and other written communication, primarily focused onFLs work with two political committees: Grow United and Lets Preserve the AmericanDream, both tied to Simpson. So, thats probably all that were going to say on that today.. With the Florida state senate hanging in the balance in the 2020 election, a network of dark-money groups engineered a brazen scheme to siphon votes from Democrats to third-party ghost candidates in three of Floridas legislative elections, all of which were won by Republicans, two by razor-thin margins. Jim Robo, the current chairman and CEO, will become executive chairman for a transition period, and it is anticipated that Mr. Ketchum will also be appointed to the company's board of directors effective . Earlier this month, the reporting by the Orlando Sentinel, Florida Times-Union, and the Miami Herald, prompted four Democratic lawmakers to ask state regulators to conduct an audit of FPL, the largest utility company in the nation and a monopoly regulated by the Florida Public Service Commission. Pimentel was CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, the company's unregulated arm focused on renewable power, for eight years before retiring in 2019. Florida Supreme Court ruling against FPL on the matter. If NextEra is to be the model of a sustainable energy giant, it must shed its brown assets. Rodrguez lost his Senate seat the following year, resulting in Republicans gaining control of the Florida Senate. FPL has also donated $20,000 to Perrys political committee, Building a Prosperous Florida, while TECO has donated $2,500. Before that, he covered politics and business in Iowa and in New Hampshire. As the biggest player in the game, investors, politicians, and civilians rely on NextEra to play a major role in encouraging and supporting clean energy legislation. Political editor Emily L. Mahoney will send you a rundown on local, state and national politics coverage every Thursday. I dont think youre going to see any headlines like that (with Pimentel). Pimentel was CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, the companys unregulated arm focused on renewable power, for eight years before retiring in 2019. Jane Marsh is an environmental and sustainability writer. Dan Gearinos habit-forming weekly take on how to understand the energy transformation reshaping our world. Community Solar Is About to Get a Surge in Federal Funding. Letsgetstarted. AIF has close financial ties to Floridas investor owned utilities, as EPI has documented. While it is not illegal to conspire to place a third-party candidate into an election, paying for that placement and failing to properly report the money involved is. It was also announced that Silagy, the president and CEO of FPL, will take on the added responsibility of chairman of FPL. Another political committee that supported Goston, the third-party spoiler candidate in 2018, has financial connections to a group that appears to have utility connections. The reporting also found that the same FPL consultants have been involved in setting up front groups to advance FPLs political agenda, and paid activists to promote FPLs interests. But it will be take more than a change of guard for the utility to shake off the scandals that took place under Silagy, said Schafer. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free. Heres the details, Miami Beach wants this nightclub to stop liquor sales at 2 a.m. The bill also creates a framework to add substantial fees to solar customers, charging them for an alleged cost-shift to non-solar customers. Recent revelations about Florida Power & Lights involvement in a dark money scheme to siphon votes away from Senate Democratic candidates prompted its parent company to conduct an internal investigation, NextEra announced at an earnings call on Tuesday. NextEras fourth-quarter earnings call with financial analysts, Robo announced he will be retiring from his position on March 1, PSC Executive Director Braulio Baez responded, Support my work with a digital subscription, Exclusive: Last grass lot on Miamis Brickell Avenue sells for $6 million. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License by Energy and Policy Institute. A lot will depend on how FPL conducts itself moving forward. I know theres been a lot of back and forth and perhaps theres a lot of context to provide there. Dumoulin-Smith is director of U.S. Power, Utilities and Alternative Energy Equity Research for Bank of American Securities. Veterans for Conservative Principles treasurer was Dave Ramba, whose firm Ramba Consulting Group has lobbied for FPL for years. A former NextEra colleague of Pimentel's, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Pimentel was a "straightforward, fact-based and driven" coworker with a calm temperament. The company was trading well above its peers before news that Silagy would leave his post this month and depart the company in mid-May. He said that federal rules prohibit the PSC from including political expenses in the rate base and the company did not include these expenses as part of their supporting documentation and concluded that rates are not based upon costs for such prohibited purposes., Baez also defended the PSCs use of sampling as a means of auditing FPLs expenses saying it is common in all disciplines that use large amounts of data.. NextEra Energy is a total fraud, and veritably a criminal entity. Can the PSC provide a complete list of 501(c)4 social welfare organizations that FPL has provided funding to over the past five years? Watchdog exposing the attacks on renewable energy and countering misinformation by fossil fuel interests. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. I reported this story with Tracy Wholf, coordinating climate producer for ABC News, and we also worked together on a special episode of ABCs podcast Start Here that delves into the nuanced concerns on both sides of the conflict. The proposed bill would allow landlords to sell cheap solar panels to their tenants. Clarification: This story was updated on January 27, 2022, to reflect that the Jacksonville job was arranged by consultants for FPL, not directly by the company. In response to the stories, FPL has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Matrix LLC has since sued several former employees, including its ex-CEO Jeff Pitts, accusing them of conspiring with FPL's parent company NextEra Energy Inc. to work on secret projects . About Nextera Energy As one of America's largest capital investors in infrastructure, with between $50 and $55 billion in new infrastructure investments planned through 2022, we're helping ensure that the next energy to power our dreams will be American energy. The club is suing, What makes Knaus Berry Farm such a landmark? Its hard to predict what the scandal will mean for clean energy in the future or if it will have any effect at all. Since then, the legislature replaced the previous leader of that office, J.R. Kelly, with a former utility lobbyist, Richard Gentry. An early adopter of renewable power generation, NextEra is the third-largest U.S. energy company by market capitalization behind Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Chevron (CVX.N). But the company is limited in what it can do to defend itself because of reams of evidence, in leaked emails and texts, showing that company executives were aware of at least some of what was happening. In 2018, state Sen. Keith Perry won re-election against Democrat Kayser Enneking by about 2,000 votes, due in large part to a third-party former Democrat candidate likely pulling votes away from Enneking. All . This decision flew somewhat under the radar, unlike the situation at Florida Power & Light. NextEra Energy owns Florida Power & Light Company, which is America's largest electric utility that sells more power than any other utility, providing clean, affordable, reliable electricity to approximately 5.8 million customer accounts, or more than 12 million . To the larger question of NextEras public image, Pomerantz answers with a question: What happens when the companys reputation as an unethical actor extends to their clean energy efforts? he asked. The retirement and subsequent. [], [] has not shied away from shady political dealings in the past. Canopy quickly filed its own lawsuit against Matrix. I wonder if NextEras problems in Florida may eventually affect the perception of the company in other places. The Senate District 37 scandal was one of three races in Florida in the 2020 cycle that followed a nearly identical pattern: A close race, an unknown third party candidate to siphon some of the votes, and campaign mailers attacking the Democratic candidate, all paid for by new, out-of-state political committees. FPL this year announced a plan it calls Real Zero to completely eliminate carbon emissions from its operations by 2045. FPLs response as well as the statements provided for the docket by the staff involved in the rate case audit, leave many questions and concerns for our constituents and Floridians at large, the legislators wrote. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. NextEra's renewable arm, NextEra Energy Resources, had about 5,000 employees by the end of 2019, not counting construction jobs for new projectsinformation the company doesn't disclose . 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