By Ivan Penn
A North Carolina environmental watchdog group filed an appeal Wednesday to revoke or modify the Progress Energy and Duke Energy merger, citing costly troubles with Progress’ nuclear fleet in Florida.
In particular, the group, NC WARN, alleges that Duke Energy knew the broken Crystal River nuclear plant could cost more than $5 billion in repair and related costs.
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NC WARN is asking the North Carolina Court of Appeals to review the decisions by the state’s regulators to approve the merger. NC WARN said it asked North Carolina regulators to review these and other issues prior to the close of the merger on July 2, but they gave short shrift to the request.
“We are confident that the judges will agree that the merger must be either revoked or significantly altered,” said Jim Warren, executive director of NC WARN, “which could lead to Duke shareholders shouldering more of the billion-dollar mistakes Duke wants to foist on families, local governments, and small businesses.”