Glimmers of light on Florida Power and Light ... by gimleteye

In Monday's Herald Business Section, "Court records reveal trouble at Turkey Point", readers are provided a rare sighting of details surrounding the resignation of Turkey Point's former senior licensed operator, David Hoffman, amidst a plant shutdown and disputed restart based on safety concerns. It is timely, given that the Public Service Commission is soon to decide whether to grant a rate increase to FPL that will put the burden of $20 billion in new nuclear reactors on ratepayers.

On 4 Jan, three FPL employees filed a report with the PSC alleging that FPL Group ripped off the rate-payers for about $1billion.

(HIT ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)
Here's how it worked, according to one source:

1. FPL Group consolidates yearly reporting for subsidiaries FPL Co. and Next-Era under the single FPL Group tax report.
2. Next-Era pays a low tax rate because of its wind generation portfolio. FPL Group applied this low rate to the whole report.
3. FPL Co. charged rate-payers for the normal corporate tax rate on FPL Co. income.
4. FPL Group pocketed the ~10% difference, which employees allege added up to about $1 billion.

FPL employees had earlier described this practice to the PSC, but were ignored. See pages TR 576 through TR 585 of this filing:

FPL whistleblowers are bringing it up again now with mostly new PSC members. Rate payers, that would be you and me, should be irate.

A reader alerted Eyeonmiami to another brief moment of light another reference to FPL's corporate culture and who benefits. It is a story from the last decade, but still you have to wonder where the money goes:


"Some Directors may have immaculate pedigrees, know their social graces, graduate from well-known institutions of higher learning, become members of the most prestigious/elite organizations, gain riches beyond belief, but are total blind to conflicts of interest and lack common sense. "In April 2001, directors of utility FPL Group Inc. faced a sticky problem. A few months earlier, they'd awarded top executives $62 million in bonuses linked to a merger.... Now the deal had fallen apart and shareholders were clamoring to get the money back. ... After three years and millions in legal bills, executives returned $9 million, based largely on a technicality. Insurers paid another $12.5 million. The FPL saga is an object lesson in why companies rarely recoup money paid to executives for results they didn't actually achieve. Although the concept seems simple, at least from an ethical point of view, so-called 'clawbacks' of executive pay are in practice disruptive, divisive and difficult to pull off. In addition to a murky legal environment, the process is complicated by compensation contracts and insurance provisions. Most boards don't try recovering the money. Those that do often get mired in years of litigation. ... FPL's clawback tale began in December 2000 when shareholders approved the company's $8 billion merger with Entergy Corp. The approval triggered payment of $92 million in cash bonuses to nearly 700 managers. Like many companies, Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL, the parent of Florida Power & Light Co., had a 'change of control' provision in its compensation plan, designed to retain top talent during a merger or acquisition. FPL's provision was unusually liberal. It took effect even if FPL shareholders ended up owning a significant majority of the merged company. FPL also required the payments to be made when shareholders approved a deal, rather than waiting for it to be completed. Two-thirds of the money went to FPL's top eight officers. The chairman and CEO at the time, James L. Broadhead, received the biggest chunk -- $22.6 million. ... In April 2001, the two companies called off the deal. Former FPL director Marshall Criser says it was only after the deal collapsed that he realized the merger bonuses had already been paid. Mr. Criser, a lawyer, says he expected the board to ask Mr. Broadhead and others to return the money. ... Some directors upset about the payments felt they had no grounds to demand repayment, says Willard Dover, a lawyer and former FPL director. Mr. Dover says some directors also feared hurting relations with Mr. Broadhead and other officers, given the close ties between the executives and the board. Mr. Dover himself used to hunt with an FPL executive. At least three independent directors were friends of Mr. Broadhead.... Mr. Broadhead and FPL's general counsel, who also received the bonus, asserted publicly and to directors that the payments were justified by language in the compensation plans. ... In May 2001, they (FPL directors) formed a committee to review the payments. Directors relied heavily on advice from the company's management. To staff the committee, Mr. Broadhead recommended Mr. Dover and two other directors, and the board agreed. The committee also hired a law firm recommended by FPL's general counsel. After eight months of work, the committee replaced the law firm, citing an appearance of a conflict of interest. In court documents, the directors said they were unaware that the firm, Steel Hector & Davis, had earlier had the job of reviewing and approving the controversial compensation plan. After 16 months of study, the board decided in September 2002 not to pursue repayment of the bonuses. ... Meanwhile, the judge hearing the shareholder suits ruled against the company in a key preliminary ruling. In January 2004, Florida District Judge Alan Gold ... noted that the board's committee had been hand-picked by Mr. Broadhead, and that two of the three members had initially approved the awards as part of the compensation committee. The judge also questioned the independence of FPL's first set of lawyers. The ruling prompted FPL's board and executives to settle the shareholder suit in late 2004. Mr. Broadhead and other executives agreed to repay $22.25 million of their $62 million. Of that, the executives paid $9.75 million according to court documents; insurers covered the rest. ... [T]he long drama prompted changes. In a series of amendments starting in 2001, FPL's board revised the change-of-control provision to take effect only after a merger is completed. It cut potential bonuses in half and made it harder to trigger such a payment." (WSJ, 11/20/06, "Check, Please ---Companies Discover It's Hard To Reclaim Pay From Executives --- Even in Case of Malfeasance, 'Clawbacks' Are Divisive And the Rules Murky ---The Merger That Never Was") If this is an "object lesson," Shareholders are in deep trouble."

What about ratepayers?

2016 Elections: How FPL Turkey Point became a flash point ... by gimleteye

These days FPL can't get out of its own way. The problems at its Turkey Point nuclear reactors have been building for decades. Two nuclear reactors are creating one of the industry's major headaches in the United States, leaking polluted water into nearby drinking water aquifers and into state waters and Biscayne National Park.

At the same time, FPL has run roughshod over municipalities in South Florida, through the planning process towards two new nuclear reactors at the same facility in Homestead.

FPL's unilateral power and authority over state politics has been on bright display for years at the Public Service Commission and, last year, through the blanket approval for siting the new reactors last year, by Gov. Rick Scott and Ag. Secretary Adam Putnam.

But with Fair Districts, the tectonic plates in Florida politics shifted at roughly the same time the FPL Turkey Point reactors finally surfaced as a major problem for South Florida.

Where politicians like state senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla once felt comfortable representing FPL as a lobbyist and as a state lawmaker at the same time, that is no longer the case.

Sen. President Joe Negron and Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla
at recent FPL Turkey Point field hearing in Homestead FL

At a recent, rare state senate field hearing in Homestead, GOP legislators were unanimously in favor -- articulated by Senator Anitere Flores -- "not looking back" to mistakes of the past, but "looking forward". The issue is so important that Joe Negron, senate president, came to Homestead to give support to two local state senators (Flores and Diaz de la Portilla) who are in jeopardy if voters remember to "look back" at all the South Florida politicians who have fallen all over themselves in support of FPL Turkey Point.

For its part, according to this morning's Miami Herald (see below), FPL has decided to delay planning for the new nuclear reactors, but still wants ratepayers to spend hundreds of millions in addition to what ratepayers have already paid for planning reactors that may never be permitted. To that, add the rate increase FPL is promoting to the Public Service Commission, now.

We are thankful for FPL for delivery reliable and affordable energy -- as its advertisements constantly emphasize when the company is facing public relations obstacles -- but its heavy-handed tactics are winning few friends.

Flash point, indeed.

Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla's firm lobbies for FPL in South Miami, which is at odds with...FPL
MIAMI HERALD, May 10, 2012

When South Miami commissioners were readying to take a vote opposing Florida Power & Light's proposed base-rate increase, Mayor Philip Stoddard got an unexpected phone call -- from his state senator.

Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a lawyer and lobbyist, called on behalf of his firm's client: FPL.

"He did ask me to delay it, and I think they wanted me to delay it again," said Stoddard, who pushed back the resolution for unrelated scheduling reasons. "I wouldn't delay it a second time."

It's not the first time that Diaz de la Portilla or any other lawmaker lobbies a city in his or her district. Nothing prohibits them from doing so.

Florida Power and Light, Gov. Rick Scott and Ag Secretary Adam Putnam receive rare rebuke from a Florida court ... by gimleteye

FPL delivers our electricity reliably and affordably: that's what the recent stream of TV and radio ads profess. As a long-time customer, I've noticed the appearance of this message coincide with some governmental or legal action that sends jitters through the company, depending on what it is the top brass want to accomplish or fear being denied.

In fact, not much has ever been denied FPL, a major player in the state campaign finance universe. Eye On Miami noted, with glum resignation, how in 2014 FPL persuaded Gov. Rick Scott and the cabinet, led by the man who would be Florida's next governor -- Ag Secretary Adam Putnam -- to rubber stamp FPL's siting plan for two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point. This, despite the protests and factual evidence provided by objectors who were completely ignored in a perfunctory cabinet meeting. To watch it on live broadcast at the time was amazing: a decision putting $30 billion of obligation for the new reactors on the backs of ratepayers was made in an instant.

Last week, a Florida law judge struck back hard against FPL for massively polluting the area around two 1970's era nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, for which the corporation sought and obtained permission to extract additional power a few years ago to the dismay of activists who had pointed out FPL operation of the plant had violated numerous binding legal agreements with the state of Florida.

Eye On Miami is the definitive source for critical views of FPL. Readers, type "Turkey Point" in the search bar if interested and read a very long history of commentaries, or, just click here. Here is just one, from Dec. 3, 2009, responding to a FPL troll had objected to an earlier posts.

10 Questions for FPL Dave: shame on, who? by gimleteye

My post on the "off-normal" event at FPL's Turkey Point nuclear facility provoked a detailed FPL response, ending: "shame on you". The shame comment will be addressed in due course. But first, thanks to several commenters after the FPL anonymous response. It is noteworthy when FPL technical and spin doctors, knowing that they face growing public resistance to new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, use a blog -- Eyeonmiami-- to offer technical rebuttals when the company is notorious in withholding details of its planned nuclear expansion. In public meetings scheduled by county government, to review safety violations at the existing reactors and its plans for new reactors, FPL did not even send representatives. Audiences addressed their questions from a microphone to an empty table on a podium. The anonymity of a blog is an easier place for the multi-billion dollar corporation to express itself: through a poster named "Dave" (Dave, is he the brother of "Bob", the better known half of FPL television marketing efforts?)

Well, Dave, here are a few other points to answer since you appear to have the inside line to corporate communications and tactical response to the blogsphere. A partial list: 1) why hasn't FPL disclosed its list of compensation for high paid executives, as requested by the Public Service Commission; 2) Why did FPL lobbyists engage in private Blackberry communication with PSC staffers, against clear PSC rules and ordinary ethical consideration; 3) Why does FPL want us to pay a drastic rate increase and why does FPL oppose meaningful--not just token--energy efficiency standards to guide future infrastructure investment, 4) Why, in its planning for two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, has FPL embraced a divide and conquer strategy-- withholding information from Miami-Dade and state permitting agencies until the force of that information, on water supply and rock mining for example, would not be able to stop the new nuke permitting process, 5) why did FPL fail to undertake testing as required in its agreement with the state of Florida to measure movement of super saline water from cooling canals at its existing Turkey Point nuclear units and why will it take so long to complete science on those failed promises, 6) why did FPL object to using tritium as a tracer for movement of water underground when the only conceivable source of tritium is its nuclear facility at Turkey Point; 7) why has FPL stood by while wetlands around Turkey Point turned into a nuclear apocalyptic vision out of Mad Max; 8) why did the top manager of Turkey Point resign suddenly on the basis of safety concerns at the nuclear reactors that you, Dave, assure blog readers is safe; 9) why did FPL employees and lobbyists bundle campaign contributions to South Miami mayor Horace Feliu in advance of his stating the city's support for new overhead power transmission lines despite the fact that the city commission had authorized no such support?

I'm sure there's a 10th question I've missed, that some of our readers can offer up to Dave.

Lastly, I'd like to address FPL Dave's "shame on me" that concluded his explanation of why the FPL report of an "off normal" event at the reactor site was not off normal. Like many of our readers, Dave, the fact that we are not nuclear engineers does not preclude us from opining on the matter of nuclear power. You are a multi-billion dollar corporation. We are citizens whose interests are presumably represented by government agencies. I'm not sure that is always the case. FPL appears settled on using this permitting period for new nuclear, to test out new tactics for battling the public. I meant, "informing the public". That includes disclosing technical information according to its will and supporting whatever tactics it can legally employ to suppress other information that may appear in public too late to matter in the context of predetermined outcomes that may be or are in the process of being embraced by elected officials with their hands out.

Gov. Rick Scott was re-elected, with strong financial contributions by the state's electric utilities, in November 2014. Two days before Christmas, Scott's Department of Environmental Protection signed off on the greatly relaxed administrative order with FPL, that lead to the administrative court decision last week finding against the state. We wrote, "All the ways you are paying for nuclear power in Florida":

On December 23rd (2014), the Florida Department of Environmental Protection signed -- far from the prying view of any media -- a highly controversial Administrative Order regarding FPL's Turkey Point Power Plant and the failing cooling canal system that has contaminated through a wide plume of hyper saline water the aquifer surrounding the plant, spreading toward Homestead to the west and Biscayne National Park to the east.

The thorny issue of FPL's bad faith over decades, spurning the intent of legal agreements with the state of Florida to assure that the cooling canal system would work or else, threatens to interrupt the long process that could lead to two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point that would make the facility the largest nuclear power plant in the nation in the area of Florida most vulnerable to sea level rise within the service lifetime of the reactors. (We have extensively blogged on FPL; our archive under "Turkey Point" or "FPL" is filled with more information.)

For months, environmental organizations have been fretting over an anticipated response by the Scott administration to an early draft (we blogged about it) circulated earlier this year. Environmentalists were shocked that FPL was laying the groundwork to avoid any punitive damages for repeated violations of its agreement with the state of Florida through the principal authority -- as opposed to bureaucratic -- for analyzing water pollution. That science capacity is administered through the authority of the governing board of Rick Scott appointees: the South Florida Water Management District.

Although I haven't had time to get feedback from scientists and experts, my review of the attached Administrative Order is that basically FPL is getting what it wants for Christmas at Turkey Point. The Order sets out the path for the District, over a number of years, to wash its hands of the mess at Turkey Point and to empower the politically charged Florida Department of Environmental Protection to deal with the costly issues the same way that Santa's helpers in the North Pole work all year to load Santa's sleigh that one special night of the year.

The devil is in the details, and there are lots of lawyers who know perfectly well how to make the details bend to political will. This, Floridians, is what you voted for in November.

And so, two years later, a Florida court did apparently agree. It is going to be very, very interesting to see what happens next at Turkey Point. Another EOM post from the past lamented how FPL, and its parent company, NextEra Energy, had received for eight years in a row, the honorary title of "World's Most Ethical Company". Who is ethical, now?

FPL wants a raise, why? For lying about Turkey Point Nuclear and ruining South Biscayne Bay? Lying to regulators? Killing solar choice? ... by gimleteye

The following notice is from Sierra Club, an environmental group made of regular citizens who believe that change is possible to protect taxpayers' interest and a better future.

Sierra Club is urging citizens to attend Miami's sole opportunity to speak out in opposition to the 24 percent rate increase sought by South Florida's monopolistic electric utility, FPL.

The group's critics, like the Florida Farm Bureau, call Sierra Club advocates; "environmental extremists".

What is extremist about standing up for solar choice? For clean water? How are Club activists "extremist" for asking and trying for years to obtain disclosure and enforcement by the state of violations by FPL at Turkey Point nuclear facility?

The real extremists are top shareholders and highly paid executives of FPL who use expensive, glossy and poll-tested marketing campaigns to persuade ratepayers they deserve a raise.

That form of extremism is the predictable consequence of monopolies and special interests who control the levers of power in Florida.

And by the way, don't forget who appointed members of the Public Service Commission that rubber stamps what FPL wants: Gov. Rick Scott and his cronies including Ag. Secretary Adam Putnam. Political leaders you voted for just gave FPL the right to pollute South Biscayne Bay and a national park for 10 additional years which means, effectively, FPL will never be held accountable unless groups like Sierra Club sue FPL and the state in federal court.

Ask not what environmental groups like Sierra Club can do for you, ask what you can do for Sierra Club in battleground states like Florida.

Speak out against proposed 24% FPL rate hike

Think FPL deserves a raise?

Please plan to attend one of the FPL rate hike hearings in our community this upcoming Monday (and Wednesday) at the place and times below. It will be a unique opportunity to directly address the Florida Public Service Commission on FPL's proposed 24% rate hike - which includes more profit for FPL.

Do you think FPL deserves a raise? There are talking points below

The meetings will take place

Miami: Monday, June 27th 6:00 PM Miami Dade County Auditorium 2901 West Flagler St.;

Miami Gardens: Wednesday, June 29th 9:30 AM Florida Memorial University 15800 NW 42nd Ave.

Talking Points

- FPL proposes to raise its customers' rates by 24%. The "average" customer bill (1,000 kWh per month) will increase by about $14 per month - if you use more than the "average," your monthly bill will increase by even more.

- As part of its increase, FPL is requesting to be allowed to make more profit. It now is now allowed to earn 10.5% on its investments - it wants that increased to 11.5%. Each percentage point increase is another $165 million profit for FPL.

- FPL made a profit last year (2015) of $1.65 Billion. Now they are asking for more profit at a time when many S. Florida customers are struggling to pay their current monthly bills.

- In 2014, the company gutted conservation programs which help consumers reduce their energy use and save money on power bills. They argued that helping customers save energy was too expensive and now their energy efficiency programs are virtually nonexistent.

- FPL has known since the 1970s that the 168 miles of cooling canals for the Turkey Point nuclear reactors were leaking waste into ground water on the banks of Biscayne Bay and did nothing. Now they say the cleanup will cost $50 million this year alone. Customers will foot the bill for FPL's mistake - this is not included in the rate hike will be an additional cost on customers.

- FPL continues to charge customers for 2 additional proposed nuclear reactors at Turkey Point plant that the company has not even committed to actually build. Customers have paid $282 million so far & FPL is asking for another $22 million - this is not included in the rate hike will be an additional cost on customers.

- FPL recently joined forces with Koch Brothers-funded groups to derail a popular citizen initiative - vying for the 2016 ballot - that would have provided more customer choice for solar power in the Sunshine State. FPL was a leader of the shadowy organization that launched its own competing solar initiative. They successfully derailed the effort by cynically confusing voters and forcing a price war for paid signature gatherers with the citizen initiative to thwart the popular solar choice amendment. Bottom line: FPL spent many millions of dollars of profit - that they make off customers like you - to beat back an effort that would have given you solar choice.

Yes, if you hit on graphic you can read it!

Putting FPL on the spot: ... a letter you won't read every day ... by gimleteye

Ever wonder why solar power is not economically viable in Florida, the Sunshine State? Citizen Larry Nelson embarked on a quest to determine the answer through the process available to citizens through the Florida Public Service Commission that "regulates" utilities in Florida. It is a long letter but well worth the read:

December 13, 2012

Honorable Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda

1001 The Capitol

402 South Monroe Street

Tallahassee, FL  32399-1300

Honorable Representative Mike Fasano

412 House Office Building

402 South Monroe Street

Tallahassee, FL  32399-1300

Honorable Representative Dwight Dudley

1401 The Capitol

402 South Monroe Street

Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300

Honorable Representative Daphne Campbell

1101 The Capitol

402 South Monroe Street

Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300

                                                                Re: Florida Public Service Commission

Dear Honorable Representatives:

My name is Larry Nelson and I am one of the private citizens who intervened in the current FPL rate case, Florida Public Service Commission ("FPSC") docket #120015.  My intervention was granted by order of the FPSC on July 12, 2012 and I subsequently spoke as a party at four of the ten public service hearings, specifically those held in Miami, Miami Gardens, Plantation and Pembroke Pines on August 7 & 8, 2012. I drove from Sarasota to the FPSC in Tallahassee twice, and I participated in the Pre-Hearing Conference on August 14, 2012.  I withdrew from the case on August 20, 2012, after it became clear to me that the FPSC system was hopelessly biased in favor of FPL. In all, I spent about $1300, mostly for travel expenses to the public service hearings and to Tallahassee, and I have no direct or indirect economic or other interest of any kind related to this matter except that I am an FPL customer who has rooftop photovoltaic solar panels.

The reason for my intervention was my interest in clean renewable energy, specifically the treatment of electricity generated from rooftop photovoltaic solar panels, and more generally with the Florida legislative mandate in the Florida Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act to encourage clean renewable energy.

With the renewed consideration of climate change in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, I am writing to you to request your consideration of those aspects of the existing FPSC system which serve to discourage energy production from rooftop photovoltaic solar panels.

I would also like to bring to your attention some of the absolutely shocking ways I witnessed in which the FPSC system operates to the advantage of FPL and to the disadvantage of citizens of the State of Florida.

I have two 10kw rooftop solar photovoltaic systems, one on my residence and a second on a duplex I rent as a vacation rental property. I bought these in 2011 and subsequently discovered that the excess electricity that may be generated above our own use would receive seemingly illogical and unfair treatment. This would seem to be contrary to the legislative mandate to encourage this type of energy. Since the FPSC is mandated by Florida Statutes 366.82(10) to consider utility company treatment of alternative energy in rate cases, I intervened in the FPL rate case to attempt to address the unfair and suppressive treatment of clean rooftop photovoltaic solar energy.

There are three ways that solar power produced by rooftop photovoltaic panels are treated unfairly in my opinion:

Florida Power & Light: Indispensible or Reprehensible or both? ... by gimleteye

FPL has created an ungodly mess in Homestead at Turkey Point. It is a mess, though, that local officials in Homestead, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners are loathe to acknowledge. In fact, most elected officials in South Florida -- South Miami Philip Stoddard and Pincecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner stand out as exceptions -- fold over in the face of FPL's hot embrace.

Homestead is not the only place in the state of Florida where FPL has left its ginormous footprint. FPL wields great influence in the state capitol, where the legislature, Cabinet, and Rick Scott-appointed Public Service Commission rubber stamp its profit model. What FPL wants, FPL gets.

At the ballot box, a different story. There Florida voters sometimes object to what FPL wants.

Mostly, voters and ratepayers are dimly aware how FPL pulls its levers in Tallahassee. A few ways FPL is particularly objectionable: its refusal to support distributed solar energy at the consumer and business level, its support for the 60% supermajority requirement to amend the Florida constitution (that turned out to be a whopper of a mistake for FPL's own interests), and its commandeering of the Rick Scott and Adam Putnam Cabinet-level decisions forcing approval of state-licensing for two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point in defiance of sea level rise and climate change science.

Ratepayers are paying big-time for FPL's errors.

The most alarming of these is taking place in our backyard: the pollution of south Biscayne Bay -- a national park -- by two existing nuclear reactors at Turkey Point and the massive underground saltwater plume spreading westward toward farmland and drinking water wells serving millions of residents and visitors.

FPL violated its agreements with the state, for many years, and suppressed the science and data showing its cooling canal system had failed long before the issue attracted the attention of the media. For predictable reasons over recent decades, the mainstream media has tended to give FPL and its spokespersons the benefit of the doubt.

Now the corporation wants ratepayers to fund the cleanup of a broken cooling canal system. That's just wrong, especially since independent reviews claim that the cleanup proposed by FPL won't work.

If FPL were a good corporate citizen, it would have quickly agreed to build conventional cooling towers and replace the damaged industrial polluting facility. That could be the eventual outcome, but in the meantime, consumers are paying big-time for the smooth assurances of its spokespersons.


Expert: FPL knew about Turkey Point problems years ago, fix won’t work by Susan Salisbury, Friday Sept. 1 2017

Florida Power & Light Co. should have revealed years ago that extremely salty water from the cooling canals at its Turkey Point plant was intruding into the Biscayne Aquifer because reports indicated there was a problem, an expert witness has stated in sworn testimony.

Sorab Panday, principal engineer at GSI Environmental, Herndon, VA., also said that a $200 million 10-year clean-up project already in progress will not retract a massive underground saltwater plume that extends 5 miles west of the power plant.

FPL ORDERED TO FIX TURKEY POINT’S SALTY PLUME

The assertion was made in documents related to the cleanup of the nuclear power plant in southern Miami-Dade County. Juno Beach-based FPL is asking the Florida Public Service Commission to allow it to charge ratepayers for the initial costs of the cleanup that began in 2016. The issue is scheduled to be heard Oct. 25 in Tallahassee.

Florida Public Counsel J.R. Kelly, who represents all ratepayers in the case, said Wednesday, “They knew of or should have known that these problems were arising and taken action years ago, and not wait until now to come up with a fix that in Dr. Panday’s expert opinion, he doesn’t believe is going to solve the problem.

“Our position is that ratepayers should not have to pay any of these costs,” Kelly said.

The plant on the shores of Biscayne Bay about 25 miles south of downtown Miami has a 2-mile by 5-mile unlined cooling canal system. For more than 40 years the system has circulated billions of gallons of water daily to cool the plant’s two nuclear reactors, known as units 3 and 4. On average about 600,000 pounds of salt a day seeps from the canals into the groundwater.

FPL: Less natural gas would hurt consumers, increase coal use

The Biscayne Aquifer is the sole source of drinking water for about 3 million people, and that supply is threatened by the saltwater intrusion, some experts say. FPL officials have stated that the saltwater is not impacting drinking water. The Biscayne Aquifer serves as the source for Palm Beach County Water Utilities customers in the eastern part of the county.

Panday said in pre-filed testimony that his review of the available studies and data showed that FPL should have known about the salinity intrusion from the canals by at least 1992. Groundwater monitoring reports from engineering firm Dames and Moore in 1990 and 1992 documented that contaminated hypersaline water — water that is saltier than seawater — had traveled from the canals to the Biscayne Aquifer outside of FPL’s property.

Reports from 2003 to 2010 also contained salinity data that indicated the need to consider taking corrective action, Panday said. However, FPL and its contractors downplayed and ignored the data’s significance, he said.

FPL’s Mike Sole, vice president of environmental services, said in pre-filed testimony that after expanded groundwater monitoring began in 2009, it was later determined that corrective actions were required to address the hypersaline water’s impact.

Sole said that FPL has not violated any of the environmental permit requirements associated with the system and has worked for years with federal, state and local agencies to monitor any impacts and address issues as they were identified.

FPL is now in the mitigation and remediation phase and the canals’ salinity is already being improved, Sole said. The system is permitted as an industrial wastewater facility.

Prior to the cooling canals’ construction, saltwater had already intruded into the Biscayne Aquifer several miles inland, Sole testified.

“It was understood by the scientific community that saltwater intrusion in the area around the Turkey Point plant was due to many factors such as freshwater withdrawals by local communities, drought, drainage and flood-control structures, and other human activities,” Sole said.

Sole said it was also “well understood” that water in the unlined cooling canals would exchange with the saline groundwater below and that the canals’ salinity could increase.

Kelly, the public counsel, responded to Sole’s assertion that FPL has always done what it was asked to do, by saying, “I don’t know that anybody asked you to create a huge saltwater plume intrusion that could threaten the drinking water in the aquifer. I don’t think their position is reasonable.”

“If they had done something about it back in the ’90s or the early 2000s, quite possibly we would not be where we are today,” Kelly said.

FPL asserted in responses in the case that it wasn’t until 2013 that it became apparent that something needed to be done about the increasing salt concentrations in the Biscayne Aquifer and the plume’s westward movement.

In September 2016, under a consent order from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, FPL began a project to inject 15 million gallons a day of hypersaline polluted groundwater from beneath the cooling canals into the boulder zone. The boulder zone is 3,200 feet below the surface. The water is removed through wells drilled into the aquifer.

FPL is also freshening the cooling canals by adding up to 14 million gallons a day of less salty water from the deeper Floridan Aquifer.

FPL projects the plume will be retracted to the plant site’s boundary in 10 years. DEP, the South Florida Water Management District and others signed off on the plan.

However, Panday said that his evaluation indicates that pumping wells will not be effective in retracting the plume, and that it would take 31 million gallons of water a day to freshen the canals to an acceptable salinity level.

FPL spokesman Peter Robbins said, “We are actively working at the site, and have a long-term plan we are implementing. We want to have the best plan possible. If folks criticizing the plan have ways to make it better, we are all for that.”

Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point Nuclear Plant

Home to Florida’s first two reactors

The reactors are cooled by an unlined 168-mile earthen canal system.

The extremely salty water from the canals has spread to the Biscayne Aquifer.

FPL has begun a 10-year plan to

•Remediate an underground plume of salt water

•Reduce salinity levels in the canals

FPL wants customers to pay the $200 million cost.

Third District Court rules against FPL and Gov. Rick Scott/ Adam Putnam on siting new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point ... by gimleteye

Troubles at FPL's Turkey Point nuclear facility have been an enduring topic at Eye On Miami. This morning's news -- that the Third District Court of Appeals overturned Gov. Scott and the Cabinet's siting decision on two new nuclear reactors -- has the state's airwaves buzzing. We urge readers to go back over our archive to understand what is at stake. This is the second major court decision that has gone against FPL's polluting Turkey Point in recent months.

Unfortunately for FPL and its parent company NextEra Energy, the only aspect of its environmental problems at Turkey Point it can't cure with massive campaign contributions are court decisions. Yesterday's returned a predictably mumbled response from FPL. (Side note: the City of Miami gets a BIG shout-out for fighting FPL's horrendous plan to put hi-voltage power cables overhead, down US 1, and rotten tomatoes for the City of Coral Gables, whose attorneys cut a side deal with FPL -- inexplicably -- during the controversy leading up to the Gov. and Cabinet approving the now-discredited FPL plan.)

Our problems with Turkey Point aren't going away. First, there is the massive problem with the cooling canals, failed, at two existing nuclear reactors to which regulators and politicians, including the Miami-Dade County Commission, turned a blind eye for thirty three years. Wealthy rock mining executive Steve Torcise published, today, "State Regulators Must Hold FPL Accountable".

The company submitted information to the South Florida Water Management District in 1983 showing that a plume of hypersaline water had advanced nearly 1,000 feet beyond the cooling canal system — a condition they agreed to prevent in 1972. FPL and the state have failed at every opportunity to stop this contamination from advancing farther west. In 2008, FPL did nothing when we presented them with their own information documenting how the contamination stemmed from its cooling canal system. In 2009, instead of taking action, FPL convinced regulators it would monitor the situation, even though the plume had already grown substantially since 1983. While publicly denying the cooling canal system was causing any problems in 2010, FPL prepared an internal document outlining an extensive series of more than 30-plus possible corrective actions to stop the saltwater intrusion. But they never implemented any of these corrective measures.

It's a good read, and good to keep in mind how many tens of millions of dollars the rock miner is likely to receive in a taking claim against FPL.

Ratepayers ought to be so well organized. It should be well within the rights of law for FPL customers to claw back the early cost recovery fees they have been paying for the two new nuclear reactors which many believe will never be built, despite the fact that the Public Service Commission (Rick Scott appointees like Jimmy Patronis) keep shedding opportunities for the politicians to rake in cash. FPL and other electric utilities have been among Gov. Scott's biggest campaign contributors.

So what's next for FPL Turkey Point? The District Court remanded the siting case back to the Governor and Cabinet, all of whom -- especially Ag. Secretary Adam Putnam whose leadership from the dais blessed the now discredited, illegal plan -- deserve condemnation by voters. We tried highlighting these issues for voters prior to Scott's reelection in 2014. That, obviously didn't work so well.

Florida Third District Court rules against Florida Power and Light

There seem to me a couple of issues. FPL could resubmit a plan for the new power cables required by the planned reactors by burying the cables down US 1. Ratepayers across the state would ultimately shoulder the cost. Then there is the issue of power cables FPL wanted to string up in Everglades National Park. That's not going to fly. Period.

FPL's long term problem is the massive risk to South Florida from sea level rise, also noted by the Third District Court. Think about it: FPL's nuclear reactors are built high enough to withstand even ten feet of sea level rise in the future, but roadways throughout South Dade will be underwater -- stranding the reactors.

My wife and I have proposed a shareholder resolution, incorporated within materials for NextEra Energy's annual meeting in Oklahoma City on May 19th. (NextEra is the parent company of FPL. FPL is its (by far) largest business unit.) Our resolution asks the company to report on sea level rise impacts to markets, infrastructure and operations according to best available science.

The kind of best available science the company routinely shrugs its shoulders at, even when legal agreements are in place. The question for voters: when will voters finally throw out the elected officials who allowed FPL free reign? It is a very long list of elected officials, by the way, who will not stand up and be counted until voters do that for them.

Credit the Herald OPED page for opening daylight on FPL's crazy plan to build new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point ... by gimleteye

I'm impressed: the Miami Herald actually printed an OPED critical of FPL's outrageous plan to put $24 billion in new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, co-written by four of Miami's outstanding public officials willing to stand up to the corporate leviathan. Impressed, because The Miami Herald has been welded to the hip to FPL since the beginning of time.

The one point that the OPED writers miss: FPL argues that its nuclear plant is elevated against the likelihood of sea level rise, but its ratepayer base is not.

Regulators are transfixed by the lower-end estimate of sea level rise, but the radar-image maps do not lie: during the service lifetime of the planned reactors, FPL's rate base will be severely eroded in South Florida. That could happen years before we are literally navigating streets in boats because insurance, mortgages and financing will have rolled up their welcome mats and moved away.

The point: the entire business model of FPL is subject to disruption by climate change. For the time being, it is government-sanctioned policies like "early cost recovery" that compensates FPL executives that are blocking any daylight on these issues -- although the Herald OPED is a new crack in the shield.

How utilities expect to meet the threats of sea level rise and climate change ought to be required reporting by the SEC; not just for FPL and all the nation's publicly owned utilities. (Not to mention, the impact of consumer-level energy storage like the battery planned by Tesla in its new $5 billion manufacturing facility.)

I recommend viewing online the week-long series on sea level rise and Florida, broadcast by MSNBC "The Ed Show" featuring some of Miami's leaders on climate change like Dr. Harold Wanless, chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami. Begin, by clicking this link and start with "Rising sea levels threaten major cities".

Miami Herald: FPL’s nuclear-power plan regressive, harmful
By TOMÁS REGALADO, CINDY LERNER, PHILIP STODDARD AND JOSÉ JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ

To contact NRC with your comments (hit "comment now" on right side of page)
Florida Power &Light argues that its new nuclear project is environmentally friendly, that it will benefit us economically, and that its future plans at Turkey Point are safe. Unfortunately, none of these claims are accurate.

FPL is currently seeking approval from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission for two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point and miles of 10-story transmission lines in residential Miami-Dade County and downtown Miami.

FPL’s project would reduce the availability of fresh water for our communities, it would commit South Florida to antiquated and expensive nuclear technology from last century, and it would render our electric system vulnerable to storm surges from rising seas. FPL ignores these difficult facts.

June 26th: Respond to FPL. By Geniusofdespair

I got this message from Philip Stoddard and wanted to share it with our readers:

Please help get the word out to have people attend the Public Service Commission on proposed rate hikes that will take place in Miami, this Tuesday, June 26th. The PSC will hold a public meeting 9:00 am at the Dade County Auditorium, 2901 West Flagler St, and a second meeting 4:00 pm at Florida Memorial College, 15800 NW 42nd Ave, Miami Gardens.

FPL seeks a 16% rate increase

FPL is asking Florida’s Public Service Commission (FPSC) for a 16% rate increase, nearly all of which will go to increase the rate of return to their corporate shareholders. FPL insists the increase will only cost us rate payers a percent or two, because their increase to the base rate will be offset by dropping fuel charges. Forget that logic: those fuel savings belong to us, the rate payers. Our FPL bills have two parts, the base rate and the fuel charge, so the fuel cost is passed through straight to the rate payers. If the cost of fuel goes up, we pay more; if it goes down, we pay less. Very simple – the cost of fuel is independent of the base rate.

It's about their profits, not your service

FPL will squeak and squeak about how they need the money to provide good service. But the requested rate increase is very close to the percentage they want to increase profits to shareholders. Here's a link to an article about FPL's earnings being up 39% – yet FPL has the audacity to ask for higher rates to provide higher return on equity to shareholders.

Cost of FPL rate increase to South Miami’s economy

I calculate that the base rate increase will cost South Miami’s residents and businesses $1.7 million a year, none of which will come back to improve our service. FPL already gets “pass-throughs” to charge us directly for storm recovery and storm reserves. This $1.7 million would be extracted from our economy every year to benefit FPL’s shareholders. In fact, the stock price of their parent company, Next Era Energy (NYSE: NEE) has already risen 15% in anticipation that the rate case will be approved. FPL reminds us that they have among the lowest rates in Florida. Terrific. Let’s keep it that way. In a final bid for sympathy to their rate increase request, FPL’s government representative told me that utilities do go bankrupt. Hmm. Not as often as cities.

Another twist of the screw

Through the Nuclear Cost Recovery pass-through, FPL’s rate payers are already paying $3 billion up front to “uprate” FPL’s nuclear reactors at Turkey Point and St. Lucy, enabling them to generate 15% more power with the same fuel from the same 40 year old reactor vessels. We deserve the reward on our capital investment and risk. Instead, FPL’s shareholders currently get to charge us 11.25% on our investment, and now FPL is asking to INCREASE the amount we pay their shareholders for the capital we gave them. If that sounds completely preposterous, it is. That’s what happens when a Wall Street monopoly buys Tallahassee.

And the ultimate injury to South Miami, the issue that put FPL in the dog house to begin with…

US 1 transmission lines

FPL has stonewalled South Miami’s request that FPL bear the full $21 million cost of burying their proposed 230 kV transmission lines on South Miami’s US 1. Our economic study estimated those transmission lines, if built above ground, will destroy $28.5 million in South Miami property values, cost $21.6 million annually in lost wages, and cost us $1.73 million in annual property taxes. And that’s on top of the extra $1.7 million FPL will take from us every year they get their requested rate increase. Let us not forget the greatly elevated incidence of childhood leukemia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other senile dementias reported among people living near transmission lines.

South Miami and Pinecrest are legally intervening in the rate case to oppose it, and we expect several other cities to join us. Several cities have passed resolutions opposing the rate increase. AARP and S Fl Hospital association have also Intervened. But...

The PSC MUST hear from the public!

So please show up on Tuesday and let the PSC know what you think about FPL's proposed rate increase. Bring a friend and email 5 more.

FPL Pollutes and Loots At Turkey Point ... guest blog by George Cavros

George Cavros has been active in state and local energy issues for over a decade. He is also an adjunct professor of Energy Law.

FPL Pollutes and Loots at Turkey Point
September 29th, 2017
Clean Energy, Energy Policy, High Risk Energy, Nuclear › George Cavros, Southern Alliance For Clean Energy

You make a mess, you clean it up.

That’s a basic lesson that’s taught to us by our parents at an early age. Yet, executives at Florida Power & Light (FPL), the state’s biggest power company, have apparently forgotten that lesson over time. It wants its customers to pay more than $200 million over the next ten years for cleaning up a mess – created on its watch – at its Turkey Point plant in south Florida.

Polluting

The company operates a ten square mile cooling canal system for its aging Turkey Point plant 3 & 4 reactors. FPL is the only utility in the country to use this system for cooling water for power generation. The miles of canals are unlined, and due to the porous geology of south Florida, water from canals has leached underground to form a plume of hyper-saline and contaminated water spreading westward in the Biscayne Aquifer towards drinking water wells and eastward into Biscayne National Park. The Biscayne Aquifer is the sole drinking water source for Miami-Dade County and the Keys.

Last year, FPL entered into a “consent order” with the FL Dept. of Environmental Protection for a plan to clean up it’s mess. An expert say that this plan won’t even solve the problem (more on that later). Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) filed a Clean Water Act lawsuit last year asking a federal judge to find that FPL violated its environmental discharge permit and require a remedy that stops the source of the pollution. A hearing is scheduled for next year.

Looting

There’s more. FPL has filed a request with the Florida Public Service Commission to recover more than $100 million from its customers next year for alleged clean-up expenses and investments that it has already racked up. It will seek to ultimately recover over $200 million dollars from families and businesses in its territory. Yes, it wants its customer to pay. Let that sink in for a moment. This request is especially shameless given that FPL earned record profits last year – taking home $1.7 Billion.

A Commission hearing in the Environmental Cost Recovery Docket is scheduled for October 25th in Tallahassee to determine whether these costs were “prudently” incurred. If not, FPL will have to cover the costs to clean up its own mess.

A history of negligence at Turkey Point

Expert testimony, filed in the docket by the Office of Public Counsel, establishes a historical trail of FPL negligence and concludes that the Company’s clean-up plan – the one for which it wants customers to pay – won’t achieve its goal. FPL knew, or should have known, about the spreading pollution since 1978 – but failed to act on it for decades. Is FPL’s inaction in the face of a spreading pollution prudent? The expert specifically found:

- There are data & studies from 1978 that showed impacts to groundwater from the cooling canals;

- FPL should have known by 1978, but certainly by 1992, that it had a growing problem on its hands;

- FPL appears to claim that 2013 is the first time it discovered the plume was expanding;

- FPL and its consultants either ignored or turned a blind eye to data showing a growing problem.

The evidence of FPL’s failure to address the pollution mess over decades at Turkey Point is compelling, but FPL has oversized influence in Tallahassee and disputes the claims. That’s why Florida Public Service Commission needs to hear from FPL customers. Expect the legal fireworks to fly at the October 25th Commission hearing. SACE, along with other consumer parties, will be opposing FPL’s attempt to loot customers.

After all, families and businesses served by FPL shouldn’t have to pay for the Company’s negligence. FPL should clean up its own mess.

Time to make a decision for Everglades National Park. If you don't the Lobbyists will. By Geniusofdespair

Dear Friend of Everglades National Park:

I  (Brien Culhane) am pleased to announce the availability of the Acquisition of Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) Land in the East Everglades Expansion Area (EEEA) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS). The Draft EIS addresses options for National Park Service (NPS) acquisition of FPL land in the EEEA to facilitate hydrologic and ecologic restoration of Everglades National Park. We also invite you to attend a public meeting to be held as follows:

Date: February 19, 2014 Time: 5:30 to 8:30 pm
Location: Florida International University-Stadium Club
11310 Southwest 17th Street, Miami Florida, 33199
The Stadium Club is located within the FIU Football Stadium between gates 2 and 3.

This public meeting will provide an opportunity for you to learn about the purpose and need for federal action, proposed alternatives, issues, and the decision-making process. It will include a presentation and displays about the proposed action and the EIS process and provide for comments to be recorded in a public hearing format. NPS and project staff will be there to answer questions and listen to comments.

NPS acquisition of the FPL property, or a flowage easement on the property, is needed to support the mission of the park and is vital to long-term protection of the park for ecosystem restoration purposes. The FPL property (a 320 acre, 7.4 mile corridor in the EEEA) is needed to support the goals of restoring the Northeast Shark River Slough and to fulfill the purposes of the Modified Water Deliveries project and the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Public Law (PL) 101-229 (December 13, 1989) articulates that the Everglades is both nationally and internationally significant and sets forth specific goals and objectives for acquisition of properties in this area. Acquisition of FPL’s property through an exchange of lands with NPS is also authorized by Public Law 111-11 (March 2009).

In June 2011, we conducted public scoping to obtain your input on the alternatives to be considered and issues to be addressed in the Draft EIS. After carefully considering more than 39,000 comments from the public, we evaluated a number of acquisition alternatives. The Draft EIS addresses the potential impacts from the acquisition of FPL land in the park, as well as the indirect impacts that could result from the subsequent construction and operation of transmission lines that could be built by FPL either inside or outside the park as a result of the land acquisition alternative selected. The alternatives are described in detail in Chapter 2 of the Draft EIS, and Chapter 4 details the impacts of implementing the alternatives.

• Under alternative 1a, the No-Action Alternative, the NPS would not take action to acquire FPL property within the park or a flowage easement on it. There would be no change in status of the FPL lands in the park, and this alternative assumes that FPL would not construct transmission lines. This is the alternative that all other alternatives are compared to in the EIS impact analysis.

• Under alternative 1b, the NPS would not take action to acquire FPL property within the park or a flowage easement on it. Although it represents the same land acquisition option as alternative 1a, this alternative assumes that FPL would construct transmission lines on its existing land in the park.

• Under alternative 2, the FPL corridor would be acquired directly by purchase or through the exercise of eminent domain authority by the United States. This alternative assumes that FPL would likely acquire a replacement corridor east of the existing park boundary and the transmission lines would be built outside of the park.

• Under alternative 3 or 4, the NPS would acquire fee title to the 320 acre FPL corridor through an exchange for park property (alternative 3) or an easement on that property (alternative 4). The exchange corridor would consist of 260 acres along 6.5 miles of the eastern boundary of the EEEA. Under alternative 3, the boundary of the park would be adjusted to remove the lands conveyed to FPL out of federal ownership. Under Alternative 4, the NPS would retain ownership of the 260 acre corridor and grant a utility easement to FPL. The construction scenario associated with these alternatives assumes that FPL would build the transmission lines in the exchange corridor and meet the terms and conditions agreed to in the exchange.

• Under alternative 5, the NPS would acquire a perpetual flowage easement on FPL’s property within the EEEA through purchase, condemnation, or donation by FPL. FPL would retain ownership of its corridor in the park during the term of the easement and could seek permits to construct transmission lines there. The construction scenario associated with this alternative would be the same as for alternative 1b.

The Draft EIS does not identify a preferred alternative and the NPS wants to obtain public input on the alternatives under consideration to help inform this important decision. A preferred alternative will be identified and announced in the Final EIS scheduled for completion in the autumn of 2014.

The Draft EIS is available for review and comment at:  (then go to the “Open for Comment” link).

We would appreciate receiving any comments you may have by Tuesday, March 18, 2014, the end of the public comment period, directly through the online link above. You may also comment via mail to: Everglades National Park FPL Project Planning Team, Attn: Morgan Elmer (DSC-P), P.O. Box 25287, Denver, CO 80225-0287; or by hand delivery to Park headquarters, at 40001 State Road 9336, Homestead, FL 33034-6733.

Burythelines.com : check it out ... by gimleteye

The following is from a website: burythelines.com  The question is: when will FPL ratepayers be allowed to save money and stop paying FPL for new nuclear reactors that will never be built? This is from the website:

"The Early Cost Recovery (ECR) scam, is not new and has been used for years by utilities across the nation to gouge their customers (over whom they hold a monopoly) in order to pay for improvements to their own infrastructure and capital base.

In 2007, after a year in which FPL handed out nearly $1.3 million in campaign contributions, the legislature passed Florida statute 366.93, which allows for “Cost recovery for the siting, design, licensing, and construction of nuclear and integrated gasification combined cycle power plants.” An electric utility can take our money, up front, for any and all of the following:

FPL executives feel the pressure rising and try to "manipulate the flow" ... by gimleteye

It was a "feel-good" day at Florida International University for FPL and that is pretty much how the Miami Herald reported it. The kind of day that feels like a very big corporation trying to curry favor with the public after its image has been tarnished by problems at FPL Turkey Point that could quickly become the largest single water crisis in Florida.

The Miami Herald, in its report (below) slid past at least one point that deserves explanation: "An additional $660,000 five-year grant will provide 21 engineering students with a chance to study fluctuations caused by cloud cover or seasonal variations and design smart technology to manipulate the flow." Question: manipulate which flow?

If the massive problem in the cooling canals at Turkey Point demonstrate anything, it is along the lines of hubris. Back in the early 1970's, there was lots of civic skepticism -- by the very same conservation groups hammering away at FPL's dismal record, today -- that the untried, untested cooling canals would not work. Today, and over the past thirty years, the history is clear: FPL kept away from the public data and information about its growing problem.

The corporation was so confident of its ability to "manipulate the flow" of information and outcomes, suppressed data collection related to its pollution, and repeatedly pushed away and finally broke the back of state regulators who were charged to protect the public interest.

Today the corporation is facing multi-billion dollar costs to fix the broken cooling canal system that is putting the whole of the Florida Keys and much of the aquifer in south Miami-Dade at risk.

It is no surprise that the corporation's message machinery is working double-shifts to paint a rosy picture for the public and mask how poorly its "manipulation of flow" worked in the past. As a side note, the cooling canals at Turkey Point work on the principle that "dilution is the solution to pollution". That principle applies equally to criminal laws against polluters.

Another question: FPL's "$4.7 million dollar solar array" is over a parking lot. Good idea. We've asked the question before (most recently, right here!) why won't FPL allow other businesses to erect and to own solar arrays like this on the top of rooftop warehouses in the Miami Airport industrial neighborhoods? They could either buy or lease the technology from FPL and sell the excess electricity produced, back into the FPL grid. (read our archive on FPL, for more on this.)

This freedom to choose whether or not or how to participate in the solar revolution is exactly what FPL and the state's other utilities are determined to stop. FPL wants to control every aspect of energy distribution, as it does in South Florida today. We are supposed to be thankful, FPL suggests, because we have some of the lowest electric rates in the nation. But at what cost? the sceptic asks looking at Turkey Point's severe pollution trouble.

FPL's top executive, Eric Silagy, told the Herald, "... FPL supports solar, as long as it’s good for customers — and cost and reliability remain issues. Expensive rooftop panels, which gives credit to customers for the electricity they don’t use, forces poorer customers to subsidize wealthier ones who can afford systems that run more than $30,000, he said. This year, a rebate program that paid $30 million to just 1,700 residential and commercial customers ended because it failed to spur enough new solar use."

What Silagy didn't say: the solar program in Florida failed to provide clear incentives for adoption by business and consumers because the state's utilities manipulated the flow against the benefits to the public.

If there is one thing FPL does better than produce electricity, it is being disingenuous.

April 27, 2016

Is it a lab or a parking lot? FPL, FIU partner on new solar project

Highlights:

FPL’s new solar array at FIU to serve as research lab for engineers

Panels to produce 1.4 megwatts of solar power

Research will look at how to feed solar energy into the grid

FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy, adds his signature to a display solar
panel during an unveiling of a new solar array at the FIU college of engineering.

By Jenny Staletovich - jstaletovich@miamiherald.com

Engineering students at Florida International University are getting a two-fer with Florida Power & Light’s new 1.4-megawatt solar array at the university’s Sweetwater campus: covered parking and a lab.

Be Heard on FPL Rate Hike. By Geniusofdespair

Eduardo Balbis, Lisa Polak Edgar, Ronald A. Brise, Art Graham, Julie Brown

A Public Service Commission meeting on proposed rate hikes by FPL will take place in Miami on June 26th. There will be a 9:00 am meeting at Dade County Auditorium and a 4:00 pm one at Florida Memorial College. Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner said:

"Pinecrest has intervened in the Rate case to oppose it, and I expect several other cities to join us. Several have passed resolutions opposing the rate increase. AARP and South Florida Hospital Association have also Intervened. The Public Service Commission MUST hear from the public."

9:00 AM - Miami-Dade County Auditorium, 2901 W. Flagler Street, Miami (take 836 to SW 27 Avenue - go South)
4:OO pm., Florida Memorial University Lou Rawls Auditorium, 15800 NW 42nd Avenue, Miami Gardens (826 west to NW 37th Avenue exit, turn left on NW 42nd Avenue)

Palm Beach post on rate hike:

FPL’s request for $690.4 million rate increase gets poor reviews at customer service hearing 06/14/2012 9:55 PM

People on fixed incomes, ordinary working people and an attorney representing retail stores were among those who pleaded with the Florida Public Service Commission on Thursday to deny Florida Power & Light Co. a proposed $690.4 million rate increase for 2013.

The commission held a three-hour customer service hearing, which about 75 customers attended, along with FPL and PSC officials.

If the rate hike is approved, the 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential customer’s base rate would jump to $50.35 in June 2013 from $43.26 this year. Due to a projected decrease in fuel charges and an increase in other charges such as nuclear costs, the total customer bill would increase to $96.03 in June 2013 from the current $94.62.

About 30 customers addressed the PSC in the hearing, which took place at the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County in suburban West Palm Beach. Several said the proposed $7.09 per month base rate increase — which is what it would be for a customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month — would be a burden on them.

Even though FPL has stressed that the 16 percent rate hike would be offset by lower fuel costs, resulting in a net increase of $1.41 a month on that typical customer bill, the fact that the increase would be permanent made some uneasy.

The company’s requested rate of return on equity — or profits — of an 11.5 percent midpoint was also criticized and called ridiculous by some ratepayers. Several commented on NextEra CEO Lew Hay’s $22 million annual compensation. Both NextEra, FPL’s parent company, and FPL are headquartered in Juno Beach.

FPL Turkey Point update and the November election ... by gimleteye

Earlier this year, the pollution crisis exploded at FPL Turkey Point. Science revealed what environmentalists had been complaining about for many years; that pollution was contaminating underground aquifers serving south Dade, threatening the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay.

Only a few years ago, environmentalists had strongly opposed the "up-rating" of the aging nuclear facility and now their fears were realized: the super-hot, saline conditions were radiating beyond the boundaries of the nuclear plant, underground.

The bad news triggered a hurried response from GOP leadership in Florida, as afraid for the political outcome of regulatory failure in November as for fixing the crisis itself.

Fixing the crisis would require a commitment to de-comission the failed cooling canal system and to replace it with cooling towers, standard at every other nuclear reactor facility in the U.S.

In the past, it paid politically to bury all the ways the cooling canal system at Turkey Point violated binding agreements between FPL and the state. How FPL and its parent company, NextEra Energy, did this -- beyond campaign contributions to incumbents who are part of the protection racket -- is to make sure that when government regulators test water quality, that testing is designed to reveal positive results the polluter seeks instead of science that might tilt politics in the direction of protecting people not corporate profits.

For example, for many years FPL steadfastly opposed the use of a radioactive isotope produced by Turkey Point reactors in assessing its water pollution by regulators, even though that isotope -- called tritium -- is scientifically established as a true marker of water contamination sources.

FPL needed a fast plan to deflect public criticism or else its political protectors would face jeopardy at the polls, so earlier this summer -- after an emergency field hearing in Homestead headed by incoming state senate president Joe Negron -- FPL and the state came up with a quick fix that will cost the company, and ratepayers, at least $200 million.

When Negron came to Homestead, he was flanked by two fellow Republican state senators who are influential members of the Miami-Dade GOP delegation, Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a former FPL lobbyist, and Anitere Flores, supportive of FPL until the crisis blew up.

The electoral optics were clear: "we are going to fix this problem" was the message, delivered by Michael Sole, FPL's top environmental officer in Florida, past director of Gov. Rick Scott's environmental agency, and current board member of the Everglades Foundation.

The so-called "fix" helped deflect attention away from the jeopardy to Republicans in November.

This week, the primary civic group challenging FPL at Turkey Point on the cooling canal crisis -- the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy -- said the state plan won't work. The 160 mile long cooling canal system is leaking through underground fractures and convection routes through the soft and porous aquifer, according to a report of new data.

Voters should care about the bad public policy and politics that continues to permit pollution from one of the most powerful corporations in Florida.

This issue alone is a reason to vote for Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democratic state representative who is running against Diaz de la Portilla for the state senate. Rodriquez has been one of the most vocal critics of FPL on Turkey Point, in sharp contrast to DLP.

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat running against incumbent state senator Anitere Flores, has a long record of civic involvement on behalf of the environment and Biscayne Bay.

Florida taxpayers, FPL ratepayers, and citizens deserve better than our current Republican leadership. A vote for Jose Javier Rodriguez and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is a step in the right direction.


FPL’s Turkey Point fix won’t solve pollution problems, group asserts
Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post
October 27, 2016

Just weeks after Florida Power & Light began work to clean up an underground plume of extremely salty water and other toxins stemming from its Turkey Point nuclear plant, a clean energy advocacy group says the plan will not work.

“The solutions that FPL and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection have proposed will not stop the pollution. It will only clean up the old pollution,” said Laura Reynolds, a consultant for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

In fact, new findings provided by Miami-Dade County indicate water from the cooling canals is likely seeping into Biscayne Bay, Reynolds said this week.

FPL pushes its weight in South Miami elections: the attempt to destroy South Miami mayor Philip Stoddard … by gimleteye

A glaring example of corporate abuse is unfolding in a small south Florida municipality, where one of the nation's largest electric utilities is backing an effort extract a two term incumbent mayor, Philip Stoddard, who is leading the charge against two new nuclear reactors at sea level in another municipality, scarcely twenty miles away.

On a one to ten scale, what is happening in South Miami -- through a smear campaign it is directing at Mayor Philip Stoddard -- Florida Power and Light (FPL) tips the scales at a twelve.

Through carefully placed lobbyists as intermediaries and dark money channels through which sources of money are routinely scrubbed, FPL is slugging its weight in a local election in ways that can be described, simply, as shameful including telephone push polls requiring listeners to react to slander it may have invented in the first place.

Among those helping: Jorge Luis Lopez, a FPL lobbyist and long-time Miami-Dade political operative. The entities opposing Stoddard and supporting a pro-FPL slate of candidates go by benign names: "Progress for the People ECO" and "New Leadership Network". The telephone push poll enumerates issues of importance to South Miami voters and ends with "would you be more or less likely to vote for a candidate who" does something revolting.

What the push polls and efforts to stack the mayor's office and city commission deck don't disclose are the reasons why FPL wants to extract Mayor Stoddard. Money. Its money.

FPL is inching toward state approval of a plan to build two new nuclear reactors about twenty miles from South Miami. The cost, $20 billion, and promises of jobs (6,000) has politicians salivating except for a few thorny problems. Those problems manifest for FPL in the political influence of Mayor Stoddard.

Stoddard, a science professor at Florida International University, opposes the nuclear reactors at Turkey Point in Homestead, Florida. Among the chief reasons; the plan by FPL to route new high voltage power lines directly through highly populated South Florida municipalities in order to deliver power wherever and whenever it is needed, inside Florida and out of state. For good reasons, voters strongly object to new lines stretching overhead through their communities.

Mayor Stoddard is the visible leader of the opposition among other mayors and municipalities in South Florida. In 2011, he wrote and the city commission passed a resolution opposing nuclear cost recovery, the measure approved by state regulators that allows FPL to charge its customers for the "planning" of the new nuclear reactors and their permitting. FPL has generated well over $100 million a year; a potent source of hush money that keeps most of the political and economic elite in South Florida very quiet and complacent.

But not Mayor Stoddard. South Miami hired its own economist to evaluate the soundness of the FPL transmission line plan, and Mayor Stoddard then persuaded nearby municipalities, including wealthier neighbors like Coral Gables and Pinecrest, to oppose the transmission line plan preferred by FPL. He also testified four times in the state capitol, Tallahassee, against FPL with the Governor and Cabinet.

Unsurprisingly, the slate of candidates supported by the FPL says it is time to drop opposition to the FPL.

Alone, Mayor Stoddard's leadership against the transmission lines would be enough to trigger the corporate backlash and dirty tricks. But Stoddard has also taken aim against the electric utility at one of its most hallowed and time-honored deals that undergird monopolistic practices: the little-known franchise agreement with local governments.

Back in the old days, some Florida municipalities generated their own electricity for consumers. With franchise agreements, governments abandoned their production of electricity in return for a source of income. Through franchise agreements, FPL provides a valuable non-ad valorem revenue stream that can be used to bond other government needs -- in return for an exclusive monopoly.

Mayor Stoddard opposes the thirty year term of the typical franchise agreement that is coming up for renewal in South Miami. Moreover, he has undertaken to explain and to educate other municipalities why the thirty year term that is the gold standard for Florida's electrical utilities is a poor application of government policy. (For one, according to Stoddard, the franchise agreements effectively inhibit municipalities and elected officials from encouraging consumers to micro-generate their own power. The franchise agreements bar competition and also allow utilities like FPL to put in infrastructure wherever and whenever it pleases.)

The South Miami election will take place on February 11th. FPL aims to not only replace Mayor Stoddard but to turn the commission majority in its favor. On the ground operatives are distributing flyers, mailers, and questionable practices on absentee ballots have been raised with the county elections department, itself turned into a virtual fortress because so many illegal campaign activities in Miami-Dade have drawn the attention of the federal law enforcement.

The indelible stamp of big money and big power shows FPL at its most ham-handed self. If corporations are people -- then FPL is someone you don't want to know and can't live without: an oppressor the founders of this republic would have joined to expel from the colonies.

(For the record, I support Mayor Philip Stoddard. I also support nuclear power but not at sea-level at Turkey Point.)

10 Questions for FPL Dave: shame on, who? by gimleteye

My post on the "off-normal" event at FPL's Turkey Point nuclear facility provoked a detailed FPL response, ending: "shame on you". The shame comment will be addressed in due course. But first, thanks to several commenters after the FPL anonymous response. It is noteworthy when FPL technical and spin doctors, knowing that they face growing public resistance to new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, use a blog -- Eyeonmiami-- to offer technical rebuttals when the company is notorious in withholding details of its planned nuclear expansion. In public meetings scheduled by county government, to review safety violations at the existing reactors and its plans for new reactors, FPL did not even send representatives. Audiences addressed their questions from a microphone to an empty table on a podium. The anonymity of a blog is an easier place for the multi-billion dollar corporation to express itself: through a poster named "Dave" (Dave, is he the brother of "Bob", the better known half of FPL television marketing efforts?)

Well, Dave, here are a few other points to answer since you appear to have the inside line to corporate communications and tactical response to the blogsphere. A partial list: 1) why hasn't FPL disclosed its list of compensation for high paid executives, as requested by the Public Service Commission; 2) Why did FPL lobbyists engage in private Blackberry communication with PSC staffers, against clear PSC rules and ordinary ethical consideration; 3) Why does FPL want us to pay a drastic rate increase and why does FPL oppose meaningful--not just token--energy efficiency standards to guide future infrastructure investment, 4) Why, in its planning for two new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, has FPL embraced a divide and conquer strategy-- withholding information from Miami-Dade and state permitting agencies until the force of that information, on water supply and rock mining for example, would not be able to stop the new nuke permitting process, 5) why did FPL fail to undertake testing as required in its agreement with the state of Florida to measure movement of super saline water from cooling canals at its existing Turkey Point nuclear units and why will it take so long to complete science on those failed promises, 6) why did FPL object to using tritium as a tracer for movement of water underground when the only conceivable source of tritium is its nuclear facility at Turkey Point; 7) why has FPL stood by while wetlands around Turkey Point turned into a nuclear apocalyptic vision out of Mad Max; 8) why did the top manager of Turkey Point resign suddenly on the basis of safety concerns at the nuclear reactors that you, Dave, assure blog readers is safe; 9) why did FPL employees and lobbyists bundle campaign contributions to South Miami mayor Horace Feliu in advance of his stating the city's support for new overhead power transmission lines despite the fact that the city commission had authorized no such support?

I'm sure there's a 10th question I've missed, that some of our readers can offer up to Dave.

Lastly, I'd like to address FPL Dave's "shame on me" that concluded his explanation of why the FPL report of an "off normal" event at the reactor site was not off normal. Like many of our readers, Dave, the fact that we are not nuclear engineers does not preclude us from opining on the matter of nuclear power. You are a multi-billion dollar corporation. We are citizens whose interests are presumably represented by government agencies. I'm not sure that is always the case. FPL appears settled on using this permitting period for new nuclear, to test out new tactics for battling the public. I meant, "informing the public". That includes disclosing technical information according to its will and supporting whatever tactics it can legally employ to suppress other information that may appear in public too late to matter in the context of predetermined outcomes that may be or are in the process of being embraced by elected officials with their hands out.

Will the anti-citizen record of FPL disrupt a planned merger with Hawaii Electric? ... by gimleteye

Monopolistic utilities like FPL are run like kingdoms. To be sure, it is complex -- with billions of dollars of hard assets at play -- to provide uninterrupted, reasonably priced electricity to millions of consumers. In the case of FPL, it is also transparently clear that the utility will do whatever is within its legal rights to maintain its control over the energy future of its market base. Today, several thousand miles away from Florida, FPL is trying to persuade a state legislature in Hawaii to approve a planned merger between Hawaii Electric and the FPL holding company, NextEra Energy, Inc. based in Juno.

Although FPL spends a considerable amount of money in South Florida to polish its public image, in fact its tactics are ham-handed.

For example, in the 2014 local election cycle, through a political committee run by a prominent Miami lobbyist for which it was sole contributor, the company wanted to oust its fiercest critic -- a popular South Miami mayor and science professor at a local university, Phil Stoddard. The political committee spread a false allegation of sexual abuse against him.

At the same time, FPL has angered citizens. Its plans for new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point include new high-voltage overhead power lines through heavily populated areas in Miami. In its effort to site those lines, company lobbyists waged a behind-closed-doors campaign to divide and conquer local municipal governments, cutting side deals to soften opposition who -- representing taxpayers -- wanted the company bury its lines. The City of Miami and South Miami sued FPL.

The planned power lines also have to traverse through one of America's most threatened national parks. FPL's right-of-way through Everglades National Park was dormant for decades, and of no practical value, until the company decided to put its new transmission lines smack dab in the middle of where environmentalists have spent decades trying to push more clean, fresh water to rehydrate the dying River of Grass. Although the Miami Herald reported, today, that the company has settled the matter with the National Park Service, the needless struggle has consumed scarce resources of environmental groups at a ferocious rate.

Early cost recovery for the new planned nukes provide unlimited funds for FPL to hire consultants, lobbyists and attorneys to promote its plan, sending cash-strapped environmental groups on extraordinarily difficult, complex journeys through the legal system to obtain a measure of fairness and equity. In 2014, the company obtained permission from Gov. Rick Scott and his cabinet to site the new reactors. A public hearing in the state capitol was an outrageous display of force. Opposition -- which had unsuccessfully struggled in a lazy state court clearly in FPL's corner -- was never given the chance to offer top elected officials legitimate arguments against the new nukes based on solid economic facts. Permission by the state gives FPL the right to continue planning and even to start infrastructure on new power lines, despite the fact that federally required environmental planning and licensing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission faces significant delays.

The early cost recovery that benefits FPL and other regulated utilities in Florida puts hundreds of millions of dollars per year in the hands of top executives who have little incentive to stray from tried and true business models. Thanks to liberal campaign contributions to the state legislature and a public service commission, appointed by the governor and approved by the legislature, energy policy in Florida literally grows from the marketing department of FPL. For electric utilities, wars of attrition are easy to wage when ratepayers are funding them reliably, every month through their electric bill.

Despite the fact that Florida calls itself "The Sunshine State", monopolistic practices of the big utilities including FPL have obstructed consumer adoption of solar power. Today FPL is a major investor in a sham ballot initiative whose purpose is to block a citizens' referendum to amend the Florida constitution in order to facilitate the clear benefits from solar technologies and energy use. Pitting its millions against twenty and one hundred dollar contributions from citizens to do what's right for our energy future should also give Hawaii legislators reason to hit the pause button.

Recently, two Florida environmental groups praised FPL in an OPED distributed in Hawaii, but both groups skipped past the most damning fact against the company's burnished reputation in Florida: its reckless pollution of a drinking water aquifer as a consequence of a failed cooling canal system for two existing nuclear reactors in south Florida. In the 1970s, FPL agreed to monitor its two nuclear reactors at Turkey Point and ensure that a 168 mile long radiator for very hot, super saline water would not impact nearby wetlands and adjacent waters of Biscayne National Park.

Time after time, the utility entered into legally binding agreements with the state that it would not or could not keep and which the state would not enforce. Today, the presence of tritium -- a radioactive marker -- and salt water intrusion measurements leave tracks how FPL has not been a good corporate citizen. Earlier this year, FPL sought emergency permission from the state to inject one hundred million gallons per day of fresh water sucked from underground to try to stem its pollution. As in the case of a fair solar power future in Florida, or a clean, safe drinking water aquifer in Homestead, or buried power lines instead of over-head lines that may affect public health or property values in Coral Gables and other south Florida municipalities, the competition for fresh water to protect natural resources, or how the playing field tilts to favor extraordinarily wealthy and powerful special interests; it doesn't matter what citizens want. FPL got its way in a way that protects its prerogatives, shareholder value and executive compensation.