Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Another Duke Energy executive has resigned in connection with a too-cozy arrangement with a top utility regulator in Indiana, where the company has a huge operation. The regulator was overseeing approval of Duke’s $2.9 billion coal gasification plant while also negotiating a job offer with the company. Hmmm. Do you think that’s a problem? Indiana’s governor sacked the head of the utility commission because he sanctioned this obvious conflict of interest, and the regulator and the president of Duke’s Indiana division, himself a former regulator, were both put on leave during an investigation. Now it turns out another executive, the president of Duke’s utility division based in Charlotte, was courting a top Indiana regulator – until a string of chummy emails surfaced and cost the president his job. The emails appeared after Duke’s chairman, Jim Rogers, denied the existence of “any inappropriate ex parte communications.” Some state officials are calling for a broader investigation of the revolving door between Indiana’s utility regulatory commission and the utility companies “serving” the state.