The company, which has its main office in Spain, is hinting at job cuts, as Isla Binnie reports for Reuters. Sign up for our newsletter: Get Capitol Buzz, a special bonus edition of The Buzz with Emily L. Mahoney, each Saturday while the Legislature is meeting. Please support our work with a digital subscription. We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Prior to his resignation, Artiles fast-tracked pro-utility bills as former chairman of the Florida Senates Communications, Energy and Public Utilities Committee, including one that would have allowed NextEra to charge its Florida customers for exploratory fracking in Oklahoma, an attempted end-run around a Florida Supreme Court ruling against FPL on the matter. Definition & Eligibility, Norwegian Plans Pricing Move That Royal Caribbean, Carnival Might Follow. An abandoned shovel is to blame. The messy business of being 'green'. News images are from video content on CNNs YouTube Channel. At NextEras fourth-quarter earnings call with financial analysts, Julien Patrick Dumoulin-Smith of Bank of America Securities asked Robo if he could share around some of the headlines pertaining to FPL here? NextEra Energy is a total fraud, and veritably a criminal entity. Dan Gearino covers the midwestern United States, part of ICNs National Environment Reporting Network. The investigation around Artiles and the Senate District 37 race is ongoing. [], [] has not shied away from shady political dealings in the past. Learn More 2022 ESG Report TOP 20 in the world for innovation, according to Fortune The reports show that Florida Power & Light hired a political consulting firm that engaged in dirty tricks to harm or otherwise neutralize the companys perceived opponents, including elected officials and journalists. The papers also reported that a member of the Jacksonville City Council who didnt want to sell the citys utility company to FPL was offered a job that was arranged by consultants for FPL in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to resign from the commission. A team of ICN reporters led by Marianne Lavelle examined the bill and spoke with outside experts to get an idea of its implications. 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. I wonder if NextEras problems in Florida may eventually affect the perception of the company in other places. NextEra Energy (NE) is currently under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Derek Robins June 26, 2022 Business Enforcement for funneling money through a partisan political committee to a "ghost candidate" scheme that has already resulted in felony charges against five political operatives. McClure also worked closely with utility front group Energy Fairness, as reported by the Energy and Policy Institute. NextEra Energy CEO James Robo responded to a question from a Bank of America Securities analyst and said the company had FPL CEO Eric Silagy turn over emails and text messages and concluded. The club is suing, What makes Knaus Berry Farm such a landmark? NextEras executives and shareholders have reason to worry, but its too soon to know how much. He started by questioning my premise that NextEra has a good reputation while its subsidiary, FPL, has taken some serious hits. An internal NextEra investigation found no wrongdoing, executives on the company's latest earnings call said, adding that Silagy's departure was unrelated to any controversies. We take all allegations seriously, and weve found no evidence that either FPL or our employees had any involvement in, financially supported, or directed any third party to support ghost candidates during last years Florida election cycle, he said. Description. They asked if the PSCs review was enough. 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.. In some parts of our organization there are capacities way beyond their need and that needs to be rectified, CEO Jochen Eickholt said in a conference call with analysts. FPL this year announced a plan it calls Real Zero to completely eliminate carbon emissions from its operations by 2045. Florida Power & Light Co - FLPTL.PK - DELISTED, Dow and X-energy to build U.S. Gulf Coast nuclear demonstration plant, Oil slips as rising supplies balance Chinese demand hopes, Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Josie Kao, Exclusive: Biden administration to move on Midwest ethanol-blended gasoline rule this week -sources, Greta Thunberg detained by Norway police during pro-Sami protest, Western US cities vote to move ahead with novel nuclear power plant, Chevron CEO does not rule out consolidation among oil majors, How Elon Musk has missed his targets on delivering affordable cars, Dollar Tree sees weak 2023 profit as costs mount, shoppers curb spending, Tesla's new Mexico plant could create up to 6,000 jobs - foreign ministry official, Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals. Eskamani of Orlando said Baezs response left her unsatisfied. Political editor Emily L. Mahoney will send you a rundown on local, state and national politics coverage every Thursday. Has FPL ever given money to another nonprofit who worked with the consultants Lets Preserve the American Dream? Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Partners Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. 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. We can do so much more on student loan forgiveness. This is not the first cycle that a well-funded third party candidate has upset a campaign by a close margin, and its not the first where those candidates have had at least some connection to Artiles and Florida utilities. Entergy, which donated $10,000 to the Party and []. He grew up in Warren County, Iowa, just south of Des Moines, and lives in Columbus, Ohio. I also saw how opponents of renewable energy development rarely miss an opportunity to sow distrust in the developer, with talk of how wind or solar would be an eyesore and potentially harm property values. Republican state legislators Sen. Jennifer Bradley and Rep. Lawrence McClure have filed identical legislation in the Senate and House that would end the states current net metering policy, which determines the credit that FPL and other utilities must pay to solar customers for excess solar energy that they generate and sell back to the grid. Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License by Energy and Policy Institute. Letsgetstarted. The mailers featured similar language that appeared to target progressive voters, pulling from the Democratic candidate, as reported by the Miami Herald and Orlando Sentinel. The firm, which also includes consultants Matt Mitchell and Michael Sheehan, came under intense scrutiny for their role in Floridas redistricting and were required to turn in over 1,800 pages of records as part of a lawsuit filed by Fair District voting-rights groups in 2013. Sources report that the current NextEra investigation may be part of a wider probe into ethicalcomplaints against Simpson, the Senate President, including allegations that campaign moneywas spent to cover the fact that he fathered a child out of wedlock with a lobbyist for the Publixsupermarket chain. A lot is riding on NextEra in the race to clean energy. That's a tax rate of just 1.25 percent over that period, when the . The second group, Mothers for Moderation, a DC-based 501(c)(4) dark-money group with over $15 million in revenue, states that its mission is to advocate for policies that benefit women, according to its 2018 IRS filings. The second Defendant, Cottonwood Wind . Who will build the $6 billion road and bridge projects underway in Tampa Bay? Goston claimed he did not know or care where the money supporting his candidacy came from, according to the Gainesville Sun. Bradley has taken $52,500 from Florida investor-owned utilities, between her campaign account and her political committee. Watch the Florida Legislature live: The Florida Channel, a public affairs programming service funded by the Legislature, livestreams coverage at thefloridachannel.org. Heres the details, Miami Beach wants this nightclub to stop liquor sales at 2 a.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet. 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 . All three districts received slightly modified versions of the same mailer, which seemed to target liberal-leaning voters in an apparent effort to siphon those votes away from the Democratic candidate. 11/22/2021. FPLs relationship with two political nonprofit committees Grow United and Lets Preserve the American Dream has come under recent scrutiny as part of a criminal investigation by the Miami-Dade County state attorney into a ghost candidate scandal. At NextEras fourth-quarter earnings call with financial analysts, Julien Patrick Dumoulin-Smith of Bank of America Securities asked Robo if he could share around some of the headlines pertaining to FPL here? 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. Since then, theyve become skilled at creating and maintaining wind farms, and today their power reaches far beyond Florida. 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 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. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 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. Armando Pimentel, who held executive roles in finance at NextEra for more than a decade before retiring in 2019, is coming . Floridas largest utility has a lot of explaining to do after news organizations revealed some unseemly conduct. The history of scandals by FPL and parent company NextEra ushers in a wave of concern about what the future of clean energy and future sustainability programs could look like. Download. NEW YORK (Reuters) - The new head of Florida Power & Light (FP&L) has at least one important objective above and beyond running U.S. power giant NextEra's crown jewel utility, analysts say: stay . The settlement is the end result of a . He also was instrumental in the 2019 political campaign against the so-called energy choice petition drive, which was opposed by FPL and other utilities. Last month, I attended a public hearing for a NextEra solar proposal in central Ohio, and I saw how several backers of the project talked about the companys involvement as a good thing. We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Some critics of Florida Power & Light, like Alissa Jean Schafer of watchdog group Energy Policy Institute, have welcomed Pimentel's uneventful background. A look at the changing global population. When McClure first introduced the concept of changing Floridas net metering policy in 2019, he had already taken over $20,000 from investor-owned utilities. The non-profit committees were set up by political consultants working for FPL, who had consulted with Silagy, according to reporting by the Orlando Sentinel, the Miami Herald and the Florida Times-Union. Since 2020, Florida-based news organizations have reported about FP&Ls role in questionable political and campaign finance-related activity. Christopher Sabella elected as Hillsborough Countys next chief judge, Tampa Bay harbor pilots pay raise request stirs storm at Tampas port, Prominent Florida political consultants may face criminal charges in sham candidate case, Get Capitol Buzz, a special bonus edition of The Buzz with Emily L. Mahoney, each Saturday while the Legislature is meeting, Florida Senate sponsor agrees to weaken preemption bill. The other candidate later revealed that he had been bribed to run. NextEra Energy sets industry-leading Real Zero goal to eliminate carbon emissions from its operations, leverage low-cost renewables to drive energy affordability for customers. 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 documents also showed that Silagy coordinated with the political consultants to steer campaign contributions made through nonprofits in past elections. 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. 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