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Monday, October 04, 2010

Ind. Gov't. - Still more on: Fallout from "Consumer group criticizes Indiana regulator's move to Duke Energy"

Updating two earlier ILB entries, from Sept. 24 and Sept. 25, 2010, here are a few quotes from this commentary in the Bloomington Alternative by Steven Higgs, dated Oct. 2, 2010:

When [Scott] Storms started his job with Duke Energy on Sept. 27, state politicos were abuzz with talk of ethics. Duke is one of the world’s great environmental polluters and is at the center of one of the most audacious economic/environmental crimes against the citizenry in Indiana history, which really is saying something.

Instead of following the state’s mandatory “one-year cooling-off rule” and not working for a company he had previously regulated, Scott Storms walked through a loophole, packed his briefcase at the IURC and unpacked it at Duke.

“The hubris by Duke Energy and those involved in this hiring decision is horrid,” CAC’s Kerwin Olsen said in a Sept. 25 news release. “… Those laws were put in place to remove the appearance of impropriety on the part of the State employee seeking employment and the corporation doing the hiring.”

According to documents obtained by CAC, Storms has “issued at least four orders relative to Duke Energy cases” pending before the IURC since July 8, 2010. All were related to the company’s economically risky, taxpayer-funded, coal-gasification power plant under construction at Edwardsport in Knox County. * * *

CAC said Storms wrote and signed the July 28 IURC order that allowed Duke to recover costs from ratepayers and earn incentives, even though the plant isn’t producing electricity and is experiencing delays and soaring costs.

See this Aug. 15, 2010 ILB entry for some background on the CWIP request.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 4, 2010 10:22 AM
Posted to Indiana Government