December 24, 2010-The Louisville Courier Journal Editorial–
So many shoes are dropping in the ongoing Duke Energy-Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission scandal that you’d think there was a centipede involved somewhere.
The reach of the mess is both micro and macro. Careers have ended, the ethics and integrity of the state’s regulators have been seriously undermined, the people’s trust in their elected and appointed officials has been stomped on, the financing deal on Duke’s huge and hugely expensive coal-gasification plant in Edwardsport has been withdrawn for renegotiation, and various investigations have been completed, are under way or are being proposed. The whole thing stinks.
A recap: Heads turned several months ago when Scott Storms, an attorney for the utility commission, went to work for Duke Energy. Gov. Mitch Daniels fired IURC chairman David Lott Hardy for allowing the move, which rightfully begged questions of just how chummy Duke and its regulator were. The Indianapolis Star started digging, and its open-records requests yielded frat-boy like e-mails between Mr. Hardy and James Turner, Duke’s second highest-paid executive. How cozy was the relationship between regulator and utility? An example from Mr. Turner to Mr. Hardy, as Mr. Turner rode a boat on Lake Michigan: “Would the ethics police have a cow if you and the woman came up some weekend?” (Let’s hope the new ethics police would.)
Other twists in the scandal: A Daniels-ordered review found that Mr. Storms had been trying to land his new job while he was involved in cases dealing with Duke, and that Mr. Hardy knew it. After he made the move, Duke fired Mr. Storms, as well as Mike Reed, who became head of its Indiana operations after leaving the Daniels administration, where he had been commissioner of the Department of Transportation. (Mr. Reed also had served as the head of IURC under Gov. Daniels for several years.) Mr. Turner resigned from Duke, with apologies — and with a $3.8 million severance package.
In order to get to the bottom of any corruption that may have existed, and indeed in order to put more than one degree of separation between himself and some of the scandal’s players, Gov. Daniels must insist on a completely independent review of IURC and its dealings with Duke, and let the chips fall where they may.
Until and unless that happens, the people of Indiana will not be able to trust their regulators, and the Governor will always be answering questions about this ethical blow-up on his watch. Aside from the paramount accountability aspects of his role as the state’s executive, demanding anything less than an independent evaluation won’t and can’t help any further political ambitions Mr. Daniels may harbor. He has denied having designs on the White House — a target that may always be out of his reach if he doesn’t get to the bottom of all the dropping shoes in the Duke-IURC imbroglio.