Seniors Across America
Seniors Across America is a front group that spent thousands of dollars on Facebook advertisements that urged Floridians to support an anti-rooftop solar bill. Text of the legislation, HB 741, was sent to state senator Jennifer Bradley’s staff from a Florida Power & Light (FPL) lobbyist. FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy, contributed $10,000 to Bradely’s political committee just days after Bradley received the legislation and an additional $10,000 weeks later.
As the bill moved through the legislature, Seniors Across America ran advertisements promoting it, targeting those aged 55 and over, and claiming that the “stealth solar tax” disproportionately hurt senior ratepayers by forcing them to subsidize customers who could afford to purchase solar for their homes. Former Florida state senator John Grant is the president of Seniors Across America. Grant testified in favor of the bill.
The bill would have authorized utilities to charge all customers for recovering their lost revenue, creating the very subsidy Senior Across America claimed solar was causing. Solar allies opposing the bill presented thousands of comments establishing the fact that no solar “cost shift” currently exists in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed the bill, saying that it would have forced rate increases among FPL’s captive customers. Seniors Across America continues to advertise warnings against “shady solar salespeople.”
Seniors Across America’s Ad Spending
Utilities continue to stall and limit climate action by funding front groups to spread climate misinformation and false solutions to solve the crisis through advertising on social media networks.
Using data from the Meta Ad Library API and existing code from Brown University, EPI created a tool to expose the amount utility front groups are spending on advertisements about social issues, elections, or politics across Meta technologies, along with the specific regions the advertisements target.
