NextEra Energy, the parent company of Florida Power & Light and Gulf Power, offered $11 billion in a failed attempt to purchase Jacksonville-based JEA that would have netted former JEA executives millions of dollars in bonuses. 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. Pimentel replaces outgoing FP&L CEO Eric Silagy, who joined NextEra roughly two decades ago, worked as a top lobbyist for the company and has been at the center of some of its publicity problems. Bainter and Data Targeting have been the focus of suspected misdeeds over the years. McClure also worked closely with utility front group Energy Fairness, as reported by the Energy and Policy Institute. Artiles checkered past culminated with his resignation from office in 2017 after facing pressure over multiple scandals, including alcohol-fueled racial slurs directed at black members of the Florida Legislature. 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). 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 the. Some critics of Florida Power & Light, like Alissa Jean Schafer of watchdog group Energy Policy Institute, have welcomed Pimentel's uneventful background. Sources explain that inthe scheme, Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Republican endorsed by both PresidentDonald Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis, received FL contributions through the FloridaRepublican Senatorial Campaign Committee (FRSCC). This decision flew somewhat under the radar, unlike the situation at Florida Power & Light. NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript. On Monday, PSC Executive Director Braulio Baez responded that its not the PSCs job to answer those questions and suggested that the questionable expenses come from shareholder funds, not ratepayers. Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet. 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. Mexican developer wants to build condos on the land starting at $3 million apiece. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. 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 company's political giving. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. An internal NextEra investigation found no wrongdoing, executives on the companys latest earnings call said, adding that Silagys departure was unrelated to any controversies. Sources contacted were unsure the degree to which Governor DeSantis was aware of the FPLpayments and the alleged illegitimate child. If NextEra is to be the model of a sustainable energy giant, it must shed its brown assets. He helped build NextEra Energy Resources and seemed to choose his retirement as opposed to being forced out, the former colleague said. 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. His political committee, Veterans for Conservative Principles, received nearly $13,000 from NextEra and $5,000 from Duke. We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Republican Ileana Garcia won the election by 32 votes. You can reach her at meklas@miamiherald.com and on Twitter @MaryEllenKlas. Resistance to Renewable Energy Is Growing in Americas Farm Country: The need to build vast amounts of solar power is colliding with local concerns about how the projects will affect the look and feel of home. NextEra was a traditional utility company when it was started in 1925. A dark money non-profit called Grow United is at the center of the scandal, with records showing direct communication with and invoices to FPL. According to reporting from the Orlando Sentinel, a broad criminal investigation is underway in Miami, with felony charges against former Senator Frank Artiles, and the spoiler candidate in District 37 has pled guilty. Where did the $4 million paid by FPL to consultants working with Grow United, the nonprofit organization that funded the ghost candidate advertising, originate from and what was it spent on? In all races, the Republican won the []. The retirement and subsequent. The third-party candidate in that race, Charles Goston, earned about 4,300 votes as an independent, despite being a lifelong Democrat. Were working hard to bring you the latest news from the states legislative session. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. 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. 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? Pimentel was CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, the company's unregulated arm focused on renewable power, for eight years before retiring in 2019. 7,400 gallons of wastewater spilled into Johns Pass. A lot will depend on how FPL conducts itself moving forward. "We have welcomed Armando Pimentel back to our company and have confidence that he will use his deep industry and company experience to further strengthen the FPL organization, NextEra Energy spokesperson David Reuter said. Unlike other companies that actively work toward creating clean energy, NextEra stumbled into the renewable energy industry somewhat unintentionally. Armando Pimentel, who held executive roles in finance at NextEra for more than a decade before retiring in 2019, is coming . 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. By Mary Ellen Klas Artiles has long-standing close connections with FPL, as previously reported by Energy and Policy Institute in 2020 and 2021. We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. ESI Energy LLC, Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Nextera Energy Resources LLC, Is Sentenced After Pleading Guilty to Killing and Wounding Eagles in Its Wind Energy Operations, in Violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act | USAO-EDCA | Department of Justice Share Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of California 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. A look at the changing global population. Campaign created by chips Armstrong Stop rewarding, and PUNISH those masquerading as renewable energy providers, like NextEra Energy Resources, formerly Florida Power & Light, and make them accountable for cleaning up their environmental carnage. Attack on Rooftop Solar 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. I dont expect much of a change, leaving aside all of the stuff going on with the outgoing CEO, Patterson said. I believe that NextEra is a respectable developer, said Jeremy Welch, testifying at the hearing on behalf of a union that supports the project. NextEra Energy is the largest generator of renewable energy in the United States and possibly the world. 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. 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. 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. NextEra, TECO, and AIF did not respond to a request for comment. 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. The investigation around Artiles and the Senate District 37 race is ongoing. 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. Their power over utilities in Florida was challenged by legislation proposed by the Democratic Senator of Florida, Jos Javier Rodrguez, in 2019. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License by Energy and Policy Institute. That's a tax rate of just 1.25 percent over that period, when the . FPL is a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a clean energy company widely recognized for its efforts in sustainability, corporate responsibility, ethics and . Broken Promises is one of only two groups that has contributed money to a Florida political committee called Consumers for Energy Fairness. 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. In the 2020 cycle alone, the Florida Republican Senate Campaign Committee (FRSCC) reported over $7 million dollars in expenditures to Data Targeting, for services including research, polling, advertising, campaign staff, and line items only reported as consulting. Nearly $183,000 of FRSCCs spending with Data Targeting was earmarked for the Senate District 37 race, the same race that led to Artiles arrest. You want to measure economic success? Its video library also archives coverage for later viewing. Public Lands in the US Have Long Been Disposed to Fossil Fuel Companies. 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. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. 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. 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. To help figure this out, I reached out to David Pomerantz, who makes a living investigating utility companies as executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, a nonprofit watchdog organization. Its hard to predict what the scandal will mean for clean energy in the future or if it will have any effect at all. racial slurs directed at black members of the Florida Legislature. 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.. 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