Gov. Scott and Siting Board Approve Fracked Gas Plant Despite Financial Conflicts and Lack of Transparency

Today, Governor Rick Scott and the rest of the Florida Power Plant Siting Board voted unanimously to approve the expansion of fracked gas burning at Florida Power and Light’s (FPL) Dania Beach Plant. The vote concludes a murky process where the date of the vote was moved three times (once to ensure it would be after the election) and siting board members were allowed to join by phone while requiring opponents to attend in-person.

Three members of the siting board, Gov. Scott, Commissioner Adam Putnam, and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, also have significant financial conflicts of interest in matters related to FPL. Accordingly, the Sierra Club filed motions to disqualify Scott, Patronis, and Putnam from voting on the plant. The conflicts are summarized below.

“The public, your constituents, simply do not want this plant and have made it very clear at every step in this contorted process,” Susannah Randolph, the Sierra Club’s Senior Campaign Representative for Florida told Gov. Scott. “From the beginning, this process has excluded the very communities who are most likely to be impacted,” she added.

The plant has been controversial because it would extend by decades the burning of climate-disrupting fracked gas at a time when Florida is already feeling the effects of climate change from stronger hurricanes, extreme flooding, and sea level rise. FPL, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and even the Scott administration have quietly been forced to agree that climate change and sea level rise are real and that this plant will contribute to climate change. In fact, FPL will raise the elevation of the plant itself to 11.5 feet above sea level to mitigate the expected effects of sea level rise. Meanwhile, they have no plans to address those effects for the people, homes, and communities surrounding the plant.

Addressing this, Randolph said, “It is unfair and unconscionable to put Floridians in a situation that will make climate change worse simply because utility companies like FPL find it more profitable in the short term to fall back on the old way of doing business.”  She added, “this process has excluded the very communities who are most likely to be impacted; voices of those who have already been affected by climate change have been largely ignored, and it’s been widely documented that decision makers in this very process have publicly denied or questioned the very existence of climate change, and in some cases even banned the use of the term.”

Summary of financial conflicts of interest

Scott: Governor

• NextEra and FPL executives and employees contributed at least $109,000 to Governor Scott’s Senate race, including over $25,000 from FPL executives and employees.

• Scott’s Senate campaign benefited from at least $880,000 in contributions from oil, gas and energy industry, executives, and employees, including interests that profit from fracked gas and gas pipelines. FPL has contributed $1.2 million to Scott’s 2014 campaign.

• Scott and his wife have invested as much as $750,000 in NextEra Energy Partners which is affiliated with FPL and includes investments in fracked-gas infrastructure assets.

• Scott is invested in oil and gas firms that are strongly opposed to stricter environmental regulations and climate change policies, including regulating GHGs.  

• Governor Scott has “not been convinced that there’s any man-made climate change.”

• Under Governor Scott, DEP officials were instructed not to use the term climate change or global warming in any official communications, emails, or reports.

Putnam: Commissioner of Agriculture

• FPL, its executives, and employees have contributed more than $500,000 to Putnam’s gubernatorial campaign.

• Putnam questions the causal relationship of human activity on climate change and prioritizes industry over climate change impacts, including hurricanes.

• As a US Representative, Putnam has consistently voted for oil and gas industry and against GHG emission limits and renewable energy.

Patronis: Chief Financial Officer

• Fossil fuel interests have contributed nearly $100,000 to Patronis’s campaign, including $24,000 from FPL, its executives, and employees.

• Patronis served as the state chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative interest group that fights renewable energy and climate regulations.

• Patronis was known for his pro-utility votes when serving on the Public Service Commission.

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