Since 2020, Florida-based news organizations have reported about FP&Ls role in questionable political and campaign finance-related activity. Banter reportedly followed Simpsons orders, using the FPL-originated funds to pay FrankArtiles, a lobbyist who was indicted in the scheme last year. 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. Pasco park restaurant plans must wait for study of nearby burial mound, Tampa race has 4 candidates, including 2 council veterans, seeking open seat, St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay Rays to discuss these 9 topics about Tropicana Field, Rays Tyler Glasnow sustains oblique injury during practice, Hillsborough must right-size its school system | Editorial. Court documents obtained by the Miami Herald, as part of the state attorneys investigation, have shown that as part of the ghost candidate scheme Lets Preserve the American Dream paid former state Sen. Frank Artiles $125,000 for research and paid Grow United $1.15 million. Alissa Jean Schafer is a research and communications specialist at the Energy and Policy Institute. The third-party candidate in that race, Charles Goston, earned about 4,300 votes as an independent, despite being a lifelong Democrat. Go to the kitchen tables of America. Artiles is facing several felony charges for allegedly recruiting and paying an auto-parts dealer who shared the same surname as the Democratic incumbent in the race for Senate District 37 to run as a no-party candidate and confuse voters and influence the outcome of the 2020 election, according to his arrest affidavit. "I don't expect much of a change, leaving aside all of the stuff going on with the outgoing CEO," Patterson said. 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. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 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. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License by 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 there was no evidence of illegality or wrongdoing on the part of FPL or any of its employees.. Entergy, which donated $10,000 to the Party [], [] has not shied away from shady political dealings in the past. If . Nowhere in its 2021 ESG report does NextEra even mention methane . Now, the Lands Are Being Offered to Solar Companies. FPL has for decades spent millions on lobbying and election influence at every level of politics in Florida, giving it and its parent company, NextEra Energy, immense influence over the states politicians. It was also announced that Silagy, the president and CEO of FPL, will take on the added responsibility of chairman of FPL. They then asked the PSC to supply answers to a series of questions about FPLs political spending that included: How was the $14 million FPL spent in 2018 on a nonprofit called Mothers for Moderation used and was any of it passed to other organizations at FPLs direction or with FPLs knowledge?. In one Orlando Sentinel article, Silagy was accused of working with a political consultant to harass a Democratic state senator who introduced legislation unfavorable to FP&L. History of Power: Dominion Energy's Fluid Transition. That's a tax rate of just 1.25 percent over that period, when the . An abandoned shovel is to blame. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. They asked if the PSCs review was enough. Artiles has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Pimentel has been a well-known but low-key power industry figure whose familiarity with NextEra suggests he will provide consistent leadership for with NextEras top subsidiary, said Glenrock Associates utility analyst Paul Patterson. 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. The raid and arrest came months after Artiles took credit for placing the previously unknown third party candidate, Alex Rodriguez, in the race for Senate District 37, according to a source who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, as reported by Miami Herald last December. Date. This decision flew somewhat under the radar, unlike the situation at Florida Power & Light. Learn More 2022 ESG Report TOP 20 in the world for innovation, according to Fortune Watchdog exposing the attacks on renewable energy and countering misinformation by fossil fuel interests, Artiles close relationship with NextEra Energy and Florida Power & Light included NASCAR perks, campaign contributions. The bill also creates a framework to add substantial fees to solar customers, charging them for an alleged cost-shift to non-solar customers. While FPL maintains they didnt know the full extent of what the firm was doing, piles of leaked emails and texts say otherwise. This story was originally published January 27, 2022, 6:00 AM. AIF has close financial ties to Floridas investor owned utilities, as EPI has documented. Are Floridians expected to simply believe that the standard rate case process results are comprehensive and fully accurate, especially given how much detail is left out of the public eye? they asked. Though this bill had massive potential to make clean energy more accessible for everyday people, FPL realized their profits would be cut if it were passed. He was previously chief financial officer of NextEra Energy, a partner at Deloitte & Touche and an accounting fellow at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. History of Power: Duke Energy's Century-Old Legacy. Despite climate action often being frustrated by Republican leaders in Congress and at the local level, states with Republican governors and a majority of Republican state legislators are leading the nation in solar and wind. Simpson, a longtime beneficiary of FPL political giving, may have spent NextEra-originatedfunds, with FPL knowledge, to pay off individuals with knowledge of his illegitimate child inwhat was reportedly known internally as Operation Ginger. The goal of these efforts appearto be to prevent the public from learning about the Senate Presidents indiscretions prior to hisascension to the top position in the state Legislature. Simpson, through the FRSCC, then paid $7.2 million of this money to longtime ally Pat Bainterand Gainesville, Florida-based Republican campaign firm Data Targeting, reportedly directingthem to use the funds to support three independent candidates who would run as purportedliberals to siphon votes away from the legitimate Democrat Party candidate. 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. NextEra Energy is a total fraud, and veritably a criminal entity. The consultant behind Gostons campaign was Patrick Jay Bainter, the owner of a Republican political consulting firm, Data Targeting. 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. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. Since 2020, Florida-based news organizations have reported about FP&L's role in questionable political and campaign finance-related activity. If you havent already subscribed, please consider buying a print or digital subscription. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. [] Click here to view original web page at http://www.energyandpolicy.org [], [] Its not clear yet whether law enforcement officials are investigating FPL or its executives for their involvement in the ghost candidate scheme, though the scandal has already resulted in criminal charges for some of its parties. JUNO BEACH, Fla. - FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE:FPL) today announced a settlement, subject to court approval, of derivative litigation filed by certain shareholders in the name of the company regarding change-of-control payments made in December 2000 in conjunction with the proposed Entergy merger that was approved by shareholders but not consummated.. Floridas largest utility has a lot of explaining to do after news organizations revealed some unseemly conduct. A day later, Public Service Commission chairperson Andrew Fay responded with an unequivocal rejection of their request, saying that the commission has a long-standing prohibition on the inclusion of lobbying and other expenses, which have been determined to bring no benefit to ratepayers, among the expenses to be recovered through rates charged to the public for service., Fay added that when FPL filed its rate request, the appropriate auditing function was conducted during the commissions consideration of the most recent FPL rate case, and the audit produced no evidence that FPL used, or was intending to use, ratepayer funds for the private benefit of the companys lobbying, campaigning or marketing affairs.. 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. In one case, one of those three committees got $115,000 from an Associated Industries-controlled group and immediately paid $104,909 to Alvarado Strategies, the Sentinel reported. Siemens Gamesa, a Leading Maker of Wind Turbines, Is Struggling: Wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa lowered its financial outlook for 2022 and said it expects to lose money this year and next as it deals with high costs of raw materials and tough competition. Crews said last month in a call with analysts that he is confident in the companys long-term plan to continue increasing development of wind, solar and batteries. Its frustrating to see the Public Service Commission express no interest or concern in Floridas largest investor-owned utility company engaging in questionable smear campaigns and potentially illegal election activity while they increase rates, she said Wednesday. By Energy and Policy Institute you havent already subscribed, please consider buying a print or digital subscription period! 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