Be careful what you wish for, though... a verdict against FirstEnergy puts more $$ in the hands of railroads and coal mining companies, and arguably makes it harder to retire coal plants or bring environmental enforcement actions while the company's tied up in bankruptcy proceedings for a year or more. :)

On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 8:42 PM, James Kotcon jkotcon@wvu.edu wrote:

This news story suggests that court verdicts expected in Pennsylvania Tuesday could lead to a bankruptcy filing by First Energy. Should we be following this?

I tend to agree that FE's closure of the Hatfields Ferry plant, and perhaps others, was an effort to blame EPA's mercury rules for the closure, when it was, in reality, poor management decisions. The mercury rules would not have required closure before 2015, so why were those plants closed in 2012.

Jim Kotcon

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*From:* johnbird@frontier.com johnbird@frontier.com *Sent:* Monday, April 24, 2017 8:02 PM *To:* James Kotcon *Subject:* more first eneryg problems

Jim,

article on first energy

http://powersource.post-gazette.com/powersource/companies/2017/04/24/ FirstEnergy-awaits-judgment-that-may-hasten-bankruptcy- electric-utility-power-plants/stories/201704230095

John