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SPP and Member Utilities Successfully Achieve Western Expansion Milestone

LCG, April 2, 2026--Southwest Power Pool (SPP) today announced that the expansion of its service territory into the Western Interconnection has been a success. The milestone makes SPP the first regional transmission organization (RTO) with services spanning the Eastern and Western Interconnections. Its member organizations, which cover all or part of 17 states, can now benefit from a more operationally and geographically diverse integrated system.

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Holtec Achieves Milestone towards Restarting Palisades Nuclear Facility and Advances Plans to Build Two SMRs at Palisades Site

LCG, March 31, 2026--Holtec International yesterday announced that it successfully completed a milestone test necessary to return Holtec's Palisades Nuclear Generating Station to service. The 805-MW pressurized water reactor (PWR) is located in Michigan and was shut down by Entergy in May 2022. Holtec acquired the facility in June 2022 and has pursued a path to return the plant to service.

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Industry News

PG&E Told to Defend Legality of Reorg Plan

LCG, Dec. 5, 2001--U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali yesterday told Pacific Gas & Electric Co. that it would have to defend the legality of its reorganization plan at a January 25 hearing on the co-called "preemption issue" raised by state regulators.

PG&E's plan to emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy relies in large part on Montali's willingness to preempt state regulations that limit a utility's right to sell power plants and other assets. While the company has not suggested that it wants to sell its remaining power plants, it does want to transfer them into a non-regulated subsidiary of its parent holding company PG&E Corp.

The California Public Utilities Commission had asked for a separate trial on the issue, but Montali rejected the request. Even so, Gary Cohen, general counsel for the CPUC, said "Overall, I'm pleased with what happened today."

PG&E was also pleased. Oscar Cantu, a lawyer for the utility, said the judge's ruling had put the monkey on the CPU's back. "It's their burden to show there is no set of circumstances" under which the reorganization plan could be found legal by the court, he said.

There are a number of laws with which the PG&E plan may be in conflict, most notably legislation passed just three months before the utility filed for Chapter 11 protection, that prohibits any transfer of a utility's generating assets until 2006.

Lawyers for the CPUC have been hesitant to insist on enforcement of some of these laws lest they might compromise the state's sovereign immunity and trigger a federal review of the state laws.

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