FPL CEO lunches with Obama at White House
by Dara Kam | October 8th, 2009FPL Group CEO Lew Hay lunched with President Barack Obama and a handful of other Fortune 500 executives at the White House today.
FPL Group’s subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Co., has been in the headlines lately because of a contentious hearing over a proposed $1.3 billion rate increase and a $1.5 billion natural gas pipeline nixed by state regulators earlier this week.
Today, the Juno Beach-based power company agreed to pay $20 million in fines to federal regulators and spend another $5 million on itself to improve reliability of its electric grid after a 2008 blackout that thousands of customers in the dark for hours.
Lew along with Amazon.com Jeff Bezos, Eastman Kodak Co.’s Antonio Perez and Kraft Foods Inc.’s Irene Rosenfeld ate with Obama in his private dining room.
“The Administration has continued to seek the input of a diverse group of business leaders in order to hear directly from the private sector about key issues including the health of the financial sector, health insurance reform, climate change policy and job creation,” a White House press release on the meeting said.
Hay boasted to the president about FPL Group’s environmental achievements and Florida Power & Light’s plans to open the nation’s largest solar power plant later this month in Arcadia, FPL spokesman Mark Bubriski said.
“Mr. Hay had a great conversation with the President and fellow business leaders,” Bubriski said. “He also discussed his belief that forward-looking, clean-energy policies are vital to America’s economic recovery and FPL Group’s strong support for legislation to combat global warming and strengthen America’s energy security.”
Hopefully Hay got a warmer reception from Obama, a Democrat, than the cold shoulder Republican Gov. Charlie Crist has been giving the state’s largest utility.
Crist has publicly denounced FPL’s proposed rate hike and effectively fired two sitting Public Service Commissioners last week by bypassing them for reappointment. He’s also asked the regulatory panel to hold off on the FPL rate case and another $500 million rate increase sought by Progress Energy Florida until his new appointees come on board in January.
Tags: Barack Obama, Charlie Crist, Florida Power & Light, FPL, PSC, Public Service Commission
October 8th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
That’s wonderful. Meanwhile, FPL just got hit with a $25-million fine for a February 2008 blackout. But, get this: $10-million goes to the US Treasury, $10-million goes to the NARC (North American Reliability Council), and the remaining $5-million goes to FPL, to be spent on “reliability improvements”. At least, they’re not allowed to recoup the $25-million from us ratepayers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/us/09blackout.html?hp
What’s up with the $10-million to the US Treasury? and the $10-million to the NARC? So, FPL pays $5-million to itself??! WTF??
October 8th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Jonathan, you’re an idiot. It says they’re not paying themselves, it’s an expense to improve things. And it’s actually not that much in the grand scheme of things. FPL may have issues but I’m glad that they’re building a solar plant in Florida and making other efforts for renewable energy.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:07 am
[...] Group CEO Lew Hay and three other chief executives broke bread with President Barack Obama today in the president’s private dining [...]
October 9th, 2009 at 7:31 am
When will the requirement that limits the top executive happen on these essential services? The taxpayers and the environment keep being punished while the top execs like FPL “go to power lunches with their power salaries!” The pay gap between the executives and the taxpayers just keeps widening.
Wasn’t it Ford who said that I need to pay my workers enough so they can buy my Model-T? We don’t need the Rolls.