NextEra Energy (NEE) Risk Factors

The local and national political, regulatory and economic environment has had, and may in the future have, an adverse effect on regulatory decisions with negative consequences for NEE and FPL. These decisions, which may come from any level of government, may require, for example, FPL or NEER to cancel or delay planned development activities, to reduce or delay other planned capital expenditures or to pay for investments or otherwise incur costs that it may not be able to recover through rates or otherwise, each of which could have a material adverse effect on the business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects of NEE and FPL.

NEE's and FPL's business is influenced by various legislative and regulatory initiatives, including, but not limited to, new or revised laws, including international trade laws, regulations and interpretations, constitutional ballot and regulatory initiatives regarding deregulation or restructuring of the energy industry, regulation of the commodities trading and derivatives markets, and regulation of environmental matters, such as regulation of air emissions, regulation of water consumption and water discharges, and regulation of gas and oil infrastructure operations, as well as associated environmental permitting. Changes in the nature of the regulation of NEE's and FPL's business could have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. NEE and FPL are unable to predict future legislative or regulatory changes, including through constitutional ballot initiatives or changed legal or regulatory interpretations, although any such changes may increase costs and competitive pressures on NEE and FPL, which could have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. FPL has limited, but growing, competition in the Florida market for retail electricity customers and is not subject to a RPS. Any changes in Florida law or regulation, whether through new or modified legislation or regulation or through citizen-approved state constitutional ballot initiatives, which increase competition in the Florida retail electricity market, such as government incentives that would further facilitate the installation of solar generation facilities on residential or other rooftops, would permit third-party sales of electricity or would mandate the transition to renewable energy at FPL, could have a material adverse effect on FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. There can be no assurance that FPL would be able to respond adequately to such regulatory changes, which could have a material adverse effect on FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. NEER is subject to FERC rules related to transmission that are designed to facilitate competition in the wholesale market on practically a nationwide basis. NEE cannot predict the impact of changing FERC rules or policies of the RTOs and ISOs, such as rules governing generator interconnection procedures and transmission planning requirements and cost allocation methodologies, or the effect of changes in levels of wholesale supply and demand, which are typically driven by factors beyond NEE's control. There can be no assurance that NEER will be able to respond adequately or sufficiently quickly to such rules and developments, which may impact the ability, timeline and cost of interconnecting new or repowered energy projects to the transmission system and the availability of transmission system capacity to deliver energy products to market, or to any changes that reverse or restrict the competitive restructuring of the energy industry in those jurisdictions in which such restructuring has occurred. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on NEE's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Federal or state laws or regulations may be adopted that would impose new or additional limits on the emissions of greenhouse gases, including, but not limited to, carbon dioxide and methane, from electric generation units using fuels, such as natural gas. The potential effects of greenhouse gas emission limits on NEE's and FPL's electric generation units are subject to significant uncertainties based on, among other things, the timing of the implementation of any new requirements, the required levels of emission reductions, the nature of any market-based or tax-based mechanisms adopted to facilitate reductions, the relative availability of greenhouse gas emission reduction offsets, the development of cost-effective, commercial-scale carbon capture and storage technology and supporting regulations and liability mitigation measures, and the range of available compliance alternatives. While NEE's and FPL's electric generation portfolio emits greenhouse gases at a lower rate of emissions than most of the U.S. electric generation sector, the results of operations of NEE and FPL could be materially adversely affected to the extent that new federal or state laws or regulations impose any new greenhouse gas emission limits. Any future limits on greenhouse gas emissions could: - create substantial additional costs in the form of taxes or emissions allowances;- make some of NEE's and FPL's electric generation units uneconomical to operate in the long term;- require significant capital investment in carbon capture and storage technology, fuel switching, or the replacement of high-emitting generation facilities with lower-emitting generation facilities; or - affect the availability or cost of fuel, such as natural gas. There can be no assurance that NEE or FPL would be able to completely recover any such costs or investments, which could have a material adverse effect on their business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

NEE is a holding company and, as such, has no material operations of its own. Substantially all of NEE's consolidated assets are held by its subsidiaries. NEE's ability to meet its financial obligations, including, but not limited to, its guarantees, and to pay dividends on its common stock is primarily dependent on its subsidiaries' net income and cash flows, which are subject to the risks of their respective businesses, and their ability to pay upstream dividends or to repay funds to NEE. NEE's subsidiaries are separate legal entities and have no independent obligation to provide NEE with funds for its payment obligations. The subsidiaries have financial obligations, including, but not limited to, payment of debt service, which they must satisfy before they can provide NEE with funds. In addition, in the event of a subsidiary's liquidation or reorganization, NEE's right to participate in a distribution of assets is subject to the prior claims of the subsidiary's creditors. The dividend-paying ability of some of the subsidiaries is limited by contractual restrictions which are contained in outstanding financing agreements and which may be included in future financing agreements. The future enactment of laws or regulations also may prohibit or restrict the ability of NEE's subsidiaries to pay upstream dividends or to repay funds.

The inability of NEE, NEECH and FPL to maintain their current credit ratings could materially adversely affect their ability to raise capital or obtain credit on favorable terms, which, in turn, could impact NEE's and FPL's ability to grow their businesses and service indebtedness and refinance or repay borrowings, and would likely increase their interest costs. In addition, certain agreements and guarantee arrangements would require posting of additional collateral in the event of a ratings downgrade. Some of the factors that can affect credit ratings are cash flows, liquidity, the amount of debt as a component of total capitalization including rating agencies' treatment of certain indebtedness, NEE's overall business mix and political, legislative and regulatory actions. There can be no assurance that one or more of the ratings of NEE, NEECH and FPL will not be lowered or withdrawn entirely by a rating agency.

The inability of NEE's, NEECH's and FPL's credit providers to fund their credit commitments or to maintain their current credit ratings could require NEE, NEECH or FPL, among other things, to renegotiate requirements in agreements, find an alternative credit provider with acceptable credit ratings to meet funding requirements, or post cash collateral and could have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's liquidity.

NEE and FPL are required to maintain decommissioning funds to satisfy their future obligations to decommission their nuclear power plants. A decline in the market value of the assets held in the decommissioning funds due to poor investment performance or other factors may increase the funding requirements for these obligations. Any increase in funding requirements may have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations and prospects.

NEE holds certain investments where changes in the fair value affect NEE's financial results. In some cases there may be no observable market values for these investments, requiring fair value estimates to be based on other valuation techniques. This type of analysis requires significant judgment and the actual values realized in a sale of these investments could differ materially from those estimated. A sale of an investment below previously estimated value, or other decline in the fair value of an investment, could result in losses or the write-off of such investment, and may have a material adverse effect on NEE's liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Weather conditions directly influence the demand for electricity and natural gas and other fuels and affect the price of energy and energy-related commodities. In addition, severe weather and natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, droughts, extreme temperatures, icing events, wildfires, severe convective storms and earthquakes, can be destructive and cause power outages, personal injury and property damage, reduce revenue, affect the availability of fuel and water, and require NEE and FPL to incur additional costs, for example, to restore service and repair damaged facilities, to obtain replacement power, to access available financing sources, to obtain insurance, to pay for any associated injuries and damages and to fund any associated legal matters and compliance penalties. Furthermore, NEE's and FPL's physical plants could be placed at greater risk of damage should changes in the global climate produce unusual variations in temperature and weather patterns, resulting in more intense, frequent and extreme weather events, abnormal levels of precipitation and, particularly relevant to FPL, a change in sea level. FPL operates in the east and lower west coasts of Florida and in northwest Florida, areas that historically have been prone to severe weather events, such as hurricanes. A disruption or failure of electric generation, transmission or distribution systems or natural gas production, transmission, storage or distribution systems in the event of a hurricane, tornado or other severe weather event, or otherwise, could prevent NEE and FPL from operating their business in the normal course and could result in any of the adverse consequences described above. Additionally, the actions taken to address the potential for severe weather such as additional winterizing of critical equipment and infrastructure, modifying or alternating plant operations and expanding load shedding options could result in significant increases in costs. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. At FPL and other businesses of NEE where cost recovery is available, recovery of costs to restore service, to repair damaged facilities or for other actions to address severe weather is or may be subject to regulatory approval, and any determination by the regulator not to permit timely and full recovery of the costs incurred could have a material adverse effect on NEE's and FPL's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Changes in weather can also affect the production of electricity at power generation facilities, including, but not limited to, NEER's wind and solar facilities. For example, the level of wind resource affects the revenue produced by wind generation facilities. Because the levels of wind and solar resources are variable and difficult to predict, NEER's results of operations for individual wind and solar facilities specifically, and NEE's results of operations generally, may vary significantly from period to period, depending on the level of available resources. To the extent that resources are not available at planned levels, the financial results from these facilities may be less than expected.

NEE is an active participant in energy markets. Liquidity in energy markets can be described as the degree to which a product, such as electricity, gas or transmission rights, can be quickly bought or sold without significantly affecting its price and without incurring significant transaction costs. It can be driven in part by the number of active market participants and is an important factor in NEE's ability to manage risks in its participation in these markets. Liquidity in the energy markets can be adversely affected by price volatility, restrictions on the availability of credit, inflation, rising interest rates and other factors, and any reduction in the liquidity of energy markets could have a material adverse effect on NEE's business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

The market price and trading volume of NEE's common stock are subject to fluctuations as a result of, among other factors, general credit and capital market conditions and changes in market sentiment regarding the operations, business and financing strategies of NEE, its subsidiaries and its affiliates, including NEP. As a result, disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit and capital markets may, for example, have a material adverse effect on the market price of NEE's common stock.

NEE and FPL are exposed to risks associated with the creditworthiness and performance of their customers, hedging counterparties and vendors under contracts for the supply of equipment, materials, fuel and other goods and services required for their business operations and for the construction and operation of, and for capital improvements to, their facilities. Adverse conditions in the energy industry or the general economy such as inflation, as well as circumstances of individual customers, hedging counterparties and vendors, may adversely affect the ability of some customers, hedging counterparties and vendors to perform as required under their contracts with NEE and FPL. If any vendor or hedging or other counterparty fails to fulfill its contractual obligations, NEE and FPL may need to make arrangements with other counterparties or vendors, which could result in material financial losses, higher costs, untimely completion of power generation facilities and other projects, and/or a disruption of their operations. If a defaulting counterparty is in poor financial condition, NEE and FPL may not be able to recover damages for any contract breach.