On April 30, 2012, Duke Energy Indiana, the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, Nucor Steel, and a group of Duke industrial customers announced they had reached a settlement in the pending regulatory review of the nearly $1.3 billion in cost overruns at Duke's Edwardsport IGCC plant. Under the terms of the agreement, Duke is guaranteed to recover $2.595 billion of the $3.3 billion of construction and financing costs, in addition to certain financing costs and expenses already being recovered from ratepayers. [...]

In a recent decision, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana addressed, for the first time, whether a municipal utility was required to grant a customer notice and opportunity for a hearing prior to disconnection of the customer’s utility service under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The Court concluded that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment was implicated by the disconnection of municipal utility services and that the utility in the case failed to afford the customer due process of law. [...]

The Kentucky Supreme Court recently addressed the issue of whether a local non-profit community development organization, which bought property, made improvements, and sold it in order to facilitate economic growth, was a charitable organization for taxing purposes. The Floyd County Property Valuation Administrator wanted to tax a piece of property which the Prestonsburg Industrial Corporation had recently purchased from the city for $1 and a portion of the proceeds after resale. In Hancock v. Prestonsburg Industrial Corporation, __________ S.W.3d __________ the Court determined that it was not a “purely public charity” and was therefore subject to state taxation. [...]