Eric Silagy, CEO of the company Florida’s Power and Light who powers around 50% of the whole state of Florida, will be stepping down February 15th.

During Silagy’s time as the head of the company, FPL had been under fire from journalists and spies. There had been leaked texts, emails, and documents, from a political consulting firm the company had hired. News outlets such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Florida Times-Union had also gone after the company. Terry Spencer, a journalist covering the situation had written, “the newspapers charged that the (electric) consulting company, Matrix LLC, went after politicians FPL opposed and secretly took over a Florida political news website and used it to give the company favorable coverage.” Along with news that FPL had tried to buy Jacksonville’s power company, which was not taken lightly.

The political swaying was due to a bill being proposed by Democratic State Senator José Javier Rodríguez that would have made the company lose some profits, and FPL was going to make sure that he did not win the reelection. In 2019, the Sentinel had obtained an email chain written by Silagy that read, “I want you to make (Rodriguez’s) life a living hell.” The email had been shared to two of the company’s vice presidents, who forwarded the email to Matrix LLC.

It was later admitted by Matrix that they did not have any political interest but was bribed by the company to support Rodriguez’s political opponent. The man Rodriguez was going against had the same last name and was part of an independent party which Matrix made sure to gerrymander the votes in favor of.

At his retirement, Silagy had said, “It has been an honor and privilege to lead the FPL team for more than a decade and I couldn’t be more proud of the accomplishments we have delivered to our customers and the state of Florida.” Not mentioning the controversies that follow him as he steps down from his place as CEO of Florida’s Light and Power.