DALLAS – NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) extended its record of delivering value to shareholders in 2012 as the company successfully executed the largest capital investment program in its history, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Robo said at the company’s annual meeting on May 23.
In a Business Update, Robo reviewed the company’s major accomplishments:
- Florida Power & Light Company, NextEra Energy’s principal rate-regulated utility subsidiary, invested more than $4 billion in 2012 to continue to strengthen a customer value proposition that includes high reliability, award-winning customer service, a clean emissions profile and the lowest typical residential customer bill in Florida. The Florida Public Service Commission approved a four-year settlement to FPL’s rate case that the company believes is fair for both customers and shareholders, and FPL successfully completed Extended Power Uprates at the St. Lucie units 1 and 2 and Turkey Point unit 3 nuclear facilities.
- NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the company’s competitive energy business, added roughly 1,500 MW of new U.S. wind projects to its portfolio in 2012, marking the largest wind program ever completed in the U.S. in a single year. The company’s wind portfolio operates in 19 states and four Canadian provinces, representing a total capital investment of more than $15 billion.
- Lone Star Transmission, LLC, the company’s 330-mile rate-regulated transmission line in Texas, was energized on time and under budget earlier in 2013. NextEra Energy’s nearly $7 billion in investments in the state also includes more than 5,400 megawatts of generating capacity and the Texas-based retail electricity provider Gexa, which serves more than 200,000 residential and industrial customers across 14 states and the District of Columbia.
“NextEra Energy had a terrific 2012,” Robo said. “Each of our major businesses contributed to our successful performance, and we had our best year ever for safety. NextEra Energy has highly visible growth opportunities through 2016 that are supported by one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry.”
Items of business approved by shareholders
During the meeting, shareholders elected the following slate of directors to one-year terms: Sherry S. Barrat, Robert M. Beall, II, James L. Camaren, Kenneth B. Dunn, Lewis Hay, III, Toni Jennings, James L. Robo, Rudy E. Schupp, John L. Skolds, William H. Swanson, Michael H. Thaman, and Hansel E. Tookes, II.
Shareholders also ratified the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2013, approved, as required by Internal Revenue Code section 162(m), the material terms for payment of performance-based annual incentive compensation under the NextEra Energy, Inc. 2013 Executive Annual Incentive Plan and approved, by non-binding advisory vote, NextEra Energy's compensation of its named executive officers.
A shareholder proposal regarding the storage of nuclear waste did not receive the necessary votes and therefore was not approved.
Board declares dividend
Today, NextEra Energy’s board of directors declared a regular quarterly common stock dividend of 66 cents per share. The dividend is payable June 17, 2013, to shareholders of record on June 3, 2013.
NextEra Energy, Inc.
NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) is a leading clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $14.3 billion, more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, and nearly 15,000 employees in 26 states and Canada as of year-end 2012. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., NextEra Energy's principal subsidiaries are Florida Power & Light Company, which serves approximately 4.6 million customer accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the United States, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which together with its affiliated entities is the largest generator in North America of renewable energy from the wind and sun. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy generates clean, emissions-free electricity from eight commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin. For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com,www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.
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Cautionary Statements And Risk Factors That May Affect Future Results
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical facts, but instead represent the current expectations of NextEra Energy, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy) regarding future operating results and other future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of NextEra Energy's control. In some cases, you can identify the forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “will,” “will result,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “intend,” “plan,” “seek,” “aim,” “potential,” “projection,” “forecast,” “predict,” “goals,” “target,” “outlook,” “should,” “would” or similar words or expressions. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future performance. The future results of NextEra Energy are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: effects of extensive regulation of NextEra Energy's business operations; inability of NextEra Energy to recover in a timely manner any significant amount of costs, a return on certain assets or an appropriate return on capital through base rates, cost recovery clauses, other regulatory mechanisms or otherwise; impact of political, regulatory and economic factors on regulatory decisions important to NextEra Energy; risks of disallowance of cost recovery based on a finding of imprudent use of derivative instruments; effect of any reductions to or elimination of governmental incentives that support renewable energy projects; impact of new or revised laws, regulations or interpretations or other regulatory initiatives on NextEra Energy; effect on NextEra Energy of potential regulatory action to broaden the scope of regulation of over-the-counter (OTC) financial derivatives and to apply such regulation to NextEra Energy; capital expenditures, increased operating costs and various liabilities attributable to environmental laws, regulations and other standards applicable to NextEra Energy; effects on NextEra Energy of federal or state laws or regulations mandating new or additional limits on the production of greenhouse gas emissions; exposure of NextEra Energy to significant and increasing compliance costs and substantial monetary penalties and other sanctions as a result of extensive federal regulation of its operations; effect on NextEra Energy of changes in tax laws and in judgments and estimates used to determine tax-related asset and liability amounts; impact on NextEra Energy of adverse results of litigation; effect on NextEra Energy of failure to proceed with projects under development or inability to complete the construction of (or capital improvements to) electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities, gas infrastructure facilities or other facilities on schedule or within budget; impact on development and operating activities of NextEra Energy resulting from risks related to project siting, financing, construction, permitting, governmental approvals and the negotiation of project development agreements; risks involved in the operation and maintenance of electric generation, transmission and distribution facilities, gas infrastructure facilities and other facilities; effect on NextEra Energy of a lack of growth or slower growth in the number of customers or in customer usage; impact on NextEra Energy of severe weather and other weather conditions; risks associated with threats of terrorism and catastrophic events that could result from terrorism, cyber attacks or other attempts to disrupt NextEra Energy's business or the businesses of third parties; risk of lack of availability of adequate insurance coverage for protection of NextEra Energy against significant losses; risk of increased operating costs resulting from unfavorable supply costs necessary to provide full energy and capacity requirement services; inability or failure to hedge effectively assets or positions against changes in commodity prices, volumes, interest rates, counterparty credit risk or other risk measures; potential volatility of NextEra Energy's results of operations caused by sales of power on the spot market or on a short-term contractual basis; effect of reductions in the liquidity of energy markets on NextEra Energy's ability to manage operational risks; effectiveness of NextEra Energy's hedging and trading procedures and associated risk management tools to protect against significant losses; impact of unavailability or disruption of power transmission or commodity transportation facilities on sale and delivery of power or natural gas; exposure of NextEra Energy to credit and performance risk from customers, hedging counterparties and vendors; risks of failure of counterparties to perform under derivative contracts or of requirement for NextEra Energy to post margin cash collateral under derivative contracts; failure or breach of NextEra Energy's information technology systems; risks to NextEra Energy's retail businesses of compromise of sensitive customer data; risks to NextEra Energy of volatility in the market values of derivative instruments and limited liquidity in OTC markets; impact of negative publicity; inability to maintain, negotiate or renegotiate acceptable franchise agreements; increasing costs of health care plans; lack of a qualified workforce or the loss or retirement of key employees; occurrence of work strikes or stoppages and increasing personnel costs; NextEra Energy's ability to successfully identify, complete and integrate acquisitions; environmental, health and financial risks associated with ownership of nuclear generation facilities; liability of NextEra Energy for significant retrospective assessments and/or retrospective insurance premiums in the event of an incident at certain nuclear generation facilities; increased operating and capital expenditures at nuclear generation facilities resulting from orders or new regulations of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; inability to operate any owned nuclear generation units through the end of their respective operating licenses; liability for increased nuclear licensing or compliance costs resulting from hazards posed to owned nuclear generation facilities; risks associated with outages of owned nuclear units; effect of disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit and capital markets on NextEra Energy's ability to fund its liquidity and capital needs and meet its growth objectives; inability to maintain current credit ratings; risk of impairment of liquidity from inability of creditors to fund their credit commitments or to maintain their current credit ratings; poor market performance and other economic factors that could affect NextEra Energy's defined benefit pension plan's funded status; poor market performance and other risks to the asset values of nuclear decommissioning funds; changes in market value and other risks to certain of NextEra Energy's investments; effect of inability of NextEra Energy subsidiaries to upstream dividends or repay funds to NextEra Energy or of NextEra Energy's performance under guarantees of subsidiary obligations on NextEra Energy's ability to meet its financial obligations and to pay dividends on its common stock; and effect of disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit and capital markets of the market price of NextEra Energy's common stock. NextEra Energy discusses these and other risks and uncertainties in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and other SEC filings, and this news release should be read in conjunction with such SEC filings made through the date of this news release. The forward-looking statements made in this news release are made only as of the date of this news release and NextEra Energy and FPL undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.