Everyone in Charlotte is too busy slurping Jim Rogers to notice, but Duke Energy was playing dirty in Indiana, as The Indy Star details:
A former top lawyer at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission broke state ethics laws when he participated in cases involving Duke Energy Corp. while talking to the company about a job, a state panel has ruled.
The Indiana State Ethics Commission on Thursday concluded that Scott Storms committed three violations of state law for his role in a scandal that has cast a shadow over a state agency that is supposed to impartially decide the utility rates paid by millions of Indiana residents and businesses.
The panel fined Storms $12,120 and barred him from future state employment.
Indiana Inspector General David Thomas, who filed the civil charges against Storms, declined to say whether he would bring charges against others implicated in the scandal, or to confirm whether the investigation is continuing. … The ethics commission also pointed a finger at Duke, concluding that the company had a financial interest in the outcome of the Edwardsport case as it negotiated a job for Storms.
Tim Stewart, a lawyer at Lewis & Kappes, which represents large industrial customers of Duke, said the company should take some blame for the situation.
“The finding that Duke had a financial interest in cases presided over by Storms, after he had received an employment offer from Duke, clearly places the wrongdoing where it belongs, at the feet of Duke’s upper management,” Stewart said in an email.
Doesn’t sound like the Hoosier state is ready to let this one go, does it?
