WASHINGTON (AP) – The largest Florida corporate donor to a super political action committee backing former Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential run is NextEra Energy Inc., the company that owns electric utility giant Florida Power & Light.
Bush, a leading Republican contender, knows the company well. In 2009, more than two years after leaving office, he penned an opinion piece in the state capital’s newspaper urging regulators to approve the utility’s proposed rate increase for Florida customers.
“With power, the cash registers open and close,” Bush wrote in the op-ed, published in the Tallahassee Democrat. FP&L is the state’s largest electric utility, and NextEra operates in 26 other states and Canada.
Now, NextEra is opening its own coffers to support Right to Rise, the super PAC formed to help Bush’s bid for the presidency. The publicly traded, Fortune 200 company contributed more than $1 million to the group this year, according to newly available records – not including cash from its top executive to Bush’s campaign.
For Bush, NextEra’s contributions could raise questions about how the governor’s past support for the power company factored into its financial support and whether, as president, he would face conflicts should the company undergo federal regulatory scrutiny.