Photo: Library of Congress- Alfred Palmer
The midwest utility provider and the IURC have both been under scrutiny following the high profile hiring of a regulator by Duke Energy.
The state ethics commission has slapped the state‘s former top utility lawyer with a $12,000 fine. Scott Storms was general counsel to the utility regulatory commission until last September, when he followed former IURC Executive Director Michael Reed to Duke Energy.
He lost that job seven weeks later amid revelations he‘d presided over Duke-related hearings. The ethics panel says Storms presided over a commission hearing on Duke‘s Edwardsport Project hours after accepting the job, and heard another Duke-related case the next day.
The panel says not only was that a conflict of interest, but so was the work he did on Duke-related issues in the four months his job there was in the works. The fine is the maximum allowed by state law.
