Dive Summary:

• The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that state regulators acted appropriately when they rejected Duke Energy Corp.'s proposal to pass repair costs from a 2009 ice storm onto its customers.
• The court found that further explanation of the initial decision wasn't required; a Duke spokesperson said that the utility disagrees with the ruling.
• Duke is entitled to appeal the ruling, but are currently unable to charge its customers any of the $11.6 million in repair costs.

From the article:

Duke Energy attorney Jon Laramore had told the court during Dec. 10 oral arguments that the panel's reversal of its initial July 2010 decision was an "arbitrary and capricious action." He also said the IURC didn't explain how it reached two different conclusions based on the same evidence.

But in Friday's ruling, the three-judge court said the IURC's decision was similar to a trial court rejecting a request to throw out a lawsuit early only to make an unexplained about-face close to trial in dismissing the suit. ...