John Stehr/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission canceled a hearing this week on a controversial Duke Energy proposal to build a generating plant in Edwardsville.
The IURC had no choice. It is without a chairman after Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels fired David Lott Hardy for ethics violations.
Things sometimes look different in the light of day, but 24 hours after firing his IURC chairman, Gov. Daniels says it was the right decision.
"Zero tolerance means zero," said the governor.
The governor fired Hardy because he knew that IURC chief counsel Scott Storms was up for a job with Duke, while presiding over Duke cases. Storms eventually left his state job to work for the energy company.
"We wanted to reaffirm to people that, if they are making public decisions, they should not be doing it at any time during which someone might think that they have any other motive," said Daniels.
The $2.9-billion Duke plant at Edwardsport is controversial because construction costs have doubled since 2007. The governor wants the entire case reopened and reviewed to make sure the approval process has not been tainted.
"The decision here was affirmed by the legal staff, the technical staff, and the unanimous commission, but it was the way in which is was reached and the timing, that troubled me and it just did not live up to the standards that we established," said the governor.
