Miami Herald • 23rd February 2022

Rooftop solar fight pivots to phased reduction of net metering’s financial incentives

Florida homeowners and businesses would be given 18 months to install rooftop solar before financial incentives are reduced. But utilities get new benefits: the chance to charge everyone if they lose money.

Miami Herald • 22nd February 2022

FPL supports customers paying subsidies but not when it comes to rooftop solar

The argument — that some customers subsidize other customers — is at the heart of the utility industry’s push to change the “net metering” financial terms that have helped expand the solar power industry. Opponents argue that there is no data to justify the claim but also point to another reason to oppose the net metering legislation in Florida: the utility industry’s own contradictions over subsidies.

Miami Herald • 15th February 2022

Should gas stations or utilities control electric vehicle charging?

Should the state’s investor-owned utilities — FPL, Duke and Tampa Electric — own the charging stations or should gas stations and charging manufacturers be allowed to compete? The question is at the heart of what is emerging as an electric vehicle charging war in the Florida Legislature.

Miami Herald • 3rd February 2022

Consultants named in ghost candidate probe ran gambling petition

The political consultants who created the funding structure for the 2020 ghost candidate scandal are now in the midst of another election controversy over possibly thousands of faked signatures submitted by the campaign that is trying to bring a casino to Jacksonville. Tallahassee-based political consultants Abigail MacIver, Dan Newman and Jeff Pitts, who run Canopy Partners, formed a subsidiary called Game Day Strategies with the goal of getting enough signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the 2022 November ballot.

Miami Herald • 6th January 2022

FPL makes unusual public attack on Miami Herald after solar power coverage

Florida Power & Light has launched an unusual public attack on the Miami Herald and its senior Tallahassee reporter over coverage of the utility company’s lobbying on solar power policy — criticism the paper’s top editor called “unfair.”

the Guardian • 20th December 2021

Revealed: the Florida power company pushing legislation to slow rooftop solar

The biggest power company in the US is pushing policy changes that would hamstring rooftop solar power in Florida, delivering legislation for a state lawmaker to introduce, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald and Floodlight.

Miami Herald • 6th January 2022

Documents show FPL wrote bill to slow rooftop solar’s growth by hampering net metering

Rooftop solar power generation in Florida is still a nascent industry, but Florida Power & Light, the nation’s largest power company, is pushing to hamstring it — by writing and delivering legislation the company asked state lawmakers to introduce, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald and Floodlight.

Miami Herald • 23rd September 2021

FPL admits its rate increase will cost residential customers more than big businesses

Florida Power & Light witnesses admitted to state regulators this week that its proposed $1.53 billion increase in rates over the next four years will cost residential customers disproportionately more than the rate increase imposed on the state’s largest commercial and industrial businesses.

Miami Herald • 22nd July 2021

New group with secretive funding challenges FPL’s four-year, $2 billion rate increase

As Florida Power & Light prepares to ask state regulators for the largest rate increase in state history — expecting its customers to pay at least $6.2 billion more over four years — a mysterious adversary has emerged.

Miami Herald • 22nd July 2021

As opposition mounts to FPL’s rate increase, regulators delay decision

Amid opposition to a proposed settlement agreement that would impose the largest rate increase in state history on Florida Power & Light’s residential customers, state utility regulators on Wednesday decided to spend two months getting feedback on the legal and practical impact of the proposal before approving it.

Miami Herald • 26th January 2018

Insider reveals deceptive strategy behind Florida’s solar amendment

Utility insider is caught on tape admitting the industry attempted to deceive voters into supporting restrictions on the expansion of solar by falsely portraying a constitutional amendment as a pro-solar plan. After our story, support plummeted and the amendment failed.

Miami Herald • 29th August 2019

State Supreme Court to decide fate of plan to open electricity market to competition

The colossal fight to open electricity generation to competition in Florida — which is being led by a Gainesville-based natural gas marketing company — made its way before the new-look Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday and it became clear the constitutional amendment drive is no David v. Goliath battle. It looked more like David versus the world.

Miami Herald • 31st July 2019

‘Dump’ of thousands of petitions has election supervisors scrambling, others suspicious

As a new law took effect July 7, declaring that petition signatures are invalid if they are not certified within 30 days, Citizen Voters unloaded hundreds of thousands of petitions to elections offices. They’re calling it the “big dump” — and some are asking if it was an intentional ploy to sabotage liberal-leaning amendments.

Miami Herald • 23rd August 2019

This secretive group is trying to create barriers to amending Florida’s Constitution

A secretive organization with the goal of thwarting amendments approved by voters after the 2020 election cycle has spent more than $800,000 on paid petition gatherers in the last four months, using funds from undisclosed sources and raising the specter of another high stakes fight over the future of energy regulation in Florida. The organization calls itself Keep Our Constitution Clean and says its purpose is to keep the state’s premier legal document uncluttered by special interest measures.

Miami Herald • 27th January 2018

Florida’s new utility regulator: Uber driver, donkey farmer, legislator

After Gov. Rick Scott appointed a former legislator with no utility experience to the board that regulates Florida utilities, we took a look at how he used his campaign account.

Miami Herald • 26th January 2018

Hooters ‘calendar girl’ and Playboy ‘Miss Social’ were Artiles’ paid consultants

We took a look at the expenditures of a state senator's political committee and found he had hired a former Hooters “calendar girl” and a Playboy model with no political experience as campaign consultants. After our questioning, the senator, already under Senate investigation, resigned.

Miami Herald • 30th August 2018

A few days without power put city on edge, and governor, mayor at odds

Andrew Gillum, Tallahassee mayor who was just nominated to be the Democratic candidate for governor, faced off against Republican Gov. Rick Scott in the aftermath of the hurricane in 2016. Expect echoes of this fight to resurface.

miamiherald • 27th January 2018

Special interests flood Florida legislative campaigns with $28 million in 6 months

Another legislative perennial: who is giving to whom to influence the agenda for the annual legislative session.

Miami Herald • 29th September 2017

Florida’s new utility regulator routinely listed meals as 'fundraisers' as industry paid

The former state legislator and Uber driver Gov. Rick Scott named to regulate the state’s utilities used his clout to block efforts to put a measure on the 2014 ballot to make it easier for businesses to install solar panels — the same month he partied with a Duke Energy lobbyist — and routinely used his political committee to finance daily meals and expenses.

Miami Herald • 6th January 2009

FPL accused of not sharing its tax break

The Florida Public Service Commission said Tuesday it is looking into anonymous allegations that Florida Power & Light’s parent company took an estimated $1 billion in tax credits — and didn’t pass the savings on to customers.