Duke Energy received a delay Tuesday in pleading guilty to environmental crimes by claiming that bureaucratic red tape could result in power being cut-off for military bases across North Carolina.
“U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard approved a one-month delay in Duke’s plea and sentencing hearing for criminal violations of the Clean Water Act, which had been set for later this week.
The nation’s largest electricity company announced in February that it would admit guilt on nine misdemeanor counts and pay $102 million in fines and restitution over years of illegal pollution leaking from coal-ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants. The company would also serve five years of probation, during which federal authorities would monitor its compliance with environmental laws.” [ABC News]
Energy Future Holdings Corp. have filed a plan that outlines how the Texas energy company plans to restructure its $42 billion debt. “The time is right to begin a determined march toward confirmation,” said Edward Sassower, the company’s lawyer, at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. on Tuesday.
Confirmation by a judge that Energy Future’s plan meets legal requirements is required before the restructuring can be put into effect.
Creditors, however, haven’t signed on to the Chapter 11 emergence proposal, which the company expects will see it out of bankruptcy before the end of the year.” [WSJ]
Fukui Prefecture, a Japanese facility with 13 nuclear reactors has emerged as a battleground for the Japanese government’s effort to rebuild the nuclear industry in a bid to reverse the economic impact of the reactor shutdowns. “On Tuesday, a local judge blocked the latest attempt to get atomic power back on the grid, issuing an injunction forbidding the restarting of two nuclear reactors at the Takahama power plant in the region.
The nuclear industry has been in a state of paralysis since the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant four years ago. None of the 48 usable reactors in Japan are back online.” [The NY Times]
