** Amid Connections to Ongoing Election Scandals, NextEra Pours Millions into Florida’s 2022 Election Cycle ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By Alissa Jean Schafer on Sep 08, 2022 08:53 am
With two months until voters elect the next Florida Governor, NextEra Energy and its subsidiaries, Florida Power & Light and Florida City Gas, have poured nearly $6 million into state level campaign funds and political committees. The majority of Florida Power & Light (FPL) contributions have been to the Florida Republican Party, GOP committees and candidates, and political committees associated with corporate special interests. The utility company also contributes to many Democrats and to the Florida Democratic Party. FPL’s campaign contributions appear to be on pace with the utility’s political giving of over $8.1 million in the 2018 gubernatorial cycle. FPL has already passed the $5.1 million total amount it spent in the 2020 cycle.

FPL’s 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 ([link removed]) lawmakers ([link removed]) and a member of Congress ([link removed]) calling for further investigation into FPL’s involvement.Investigative reporters ([link removed]) have directly connected senior FPL executives, including CEO Eric Silagy, to consultants involved in the dark money campaign schemes. To date, no FPL employees have been charged with any crimes.

Reported contribution totals over $100k as of September 7, 2022, from the Florida Division of Elections Campaign Finance Database. View dataset here ([link removed]) .

The Governor appoints members to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), the regulatory body responsible for overseeing utilities and determining their profitability, making influence over the Governor’s office critical to NextEra’s shareholders. Earlier this year, current PSC members, appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, approved FPL’s rate hike, raising Floridian’s monthly bills by over $1.5 billion in the next few years with annual increases through 2025 ([link removed]) , while increasing FPL’s profits. DeSantis appointees also allowed FPL to pocket over $1 billion in corporate tax savings instead of passing those savings on to customers. In his Seeking Rents newsletter, publisher Jason Garcia called this decision ([link removed]) : “one of the most controversial decisions made in recent years by the PSC, a five-member panel comprised of four DeSantis appointees and one remaining holdover
from former Gov. Rick Scott.”

The Governor also has veto power over legislation that Florida’s GOP-majority legislature passes. Over the course of DeSantis’ tenure, he used that veto power ([link removed]) onceto block ([link removed]) an anti-rooftop solar bill written by FPL ([link removed]) . Otherwise, DeSantis has been largely friendly to NextEra and FPL’s legislative priorities, granting the utility $2.75 million in tax breaks on speculative “green hydrogen, ([link removed]) ” signing legislation that gave FPL permission to charge customers tens of billions of dollars for burying lines ([link removed]) ,
signing legislation preventing gas bans ([link removed]) that would have aided Florida City Gas, and also signing legislation that forced ([link removed]) the resignation of utility critic ([link removed]) JR Kelly from his leadership of the Office of Public Counsel, which represents ratepayers in rate cases. This legislation allowed for Kelly to be replaced with a former utility lobbyist, Richard Gentry ([link removed]) .

The governor’s office also comes with a bully pulpit and executive order authority, both of which DeSantis has used frequently, pushing his “anti-woke” platform on everything from school curriculum ([link removed]) to state pensions ([link removed]) , unilaterally suspending elected officials ([link removed]) , and creating his own “election police agency.” ([link removed]) But DeSantis’ election police agency has remained silent on FPL’s connection to election scandals, criminal trials, and ongoing investigations, instead focusing on the arrest of 20 individuals who may have registered to vote while ineligible, despite allegedly being told that
they were eligible to vote, and the state’s issuance of voter ID’s. ([link removed])

DeSantis received $25,000 from a dark money non-profit funded by FPL in the 2018 election cycle, according to reporting from the Miami Herald ([link removed]) . The non-profit, called “Broken Promises,” first donated the funds to a political committee called Consumers for Energy Fairness. The committee donated $25,000 to DeSantis’ political committee on the next day.

FPL consultants also used Broken Promises to boost a spoiler candidate in a 2018 state senate race in Gainesville, FL ([link removed]) , according to previous reporting from Miami Herald. FPL’s consultants used similar spoiler candidate tactics in the 2020 election cycle in three senate races throughout the state ([link removed]) . In all races, the Republican won the election.

DeSantis is running against former Republican Governor and current Democratic nominee Charlie Crist, who has been a vocal critic of FPL throughout his political career. Crist secured a deal to freeze FPL rates in 2005 as Attorney General ([link removed]) , and he opposed FPL’s $1.3 billion rate increase in 2009 ([link removed]) , which was then blocked by Crist appointees at the PSC. Crist has also criticized FPL on the campaign trail, calling the utility out for raising its rates on Floridians ([link removed])
and criticizing FPL for attempting to block clean energy withanti-solar legislation ([link removed]) .

While the utility has contributed over $105,000 to the Florida Democratic Party, neither Crist nor his political committee has reported any political contributions from NextEra or the company’s subsidiaries during this or previous cycles. FPL has a long history of spending to campaign against Crist, spending up to $1 million against Crist’s bid for governor in 2006 after contributing $225,000 to Crist’s opponent in the Republican primary – the largest donation FPL had ever made at the time ([link removed]) .

Header Image Credit: YouTube, 10 Tampa Bay

The post Amid Connections to Ongoing Election Scandals, NextEra Pours Millions into Florida’s 2022 Election Cycle ([link removed]) appeared first on Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) .
Read in browser » ([link removed])
[link removed] [link removed]




** Recent Articles:
------------------------------------------------------------
** FirstEnergy CEO Steven Strah emailed about “under the radar” House Bill 6 provision that cost Ohio ratepayers millions of dollars ([link removed])
** Utilities sent $2.4 million to anti-abortion state officials who sponsored and signed trigger laws ([link removed])
** Tom Fanning Southern Company Matrix Scandal: What don’t we know? ([link removed])
** Utilities that support Inflation Reduction Act are members of trade groups attacking it ([link removed])
** Utility executive contributions surge in Minnesota state senate race ([link removed]

============================================================
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
Copyright © 2022 Energy and Policy Institute, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website via our Contact Us page.

Our mailing address is:
Energy and Policy Institute
P.O. Box 170399
San Francisco, CA 94117
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]