LITTLE ROCK — Nature groups seek halt
to power-plant project
The Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society on Wednesday asked the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to halt construction of a $2.1 billion coal-fired power-plant project near Texarkana.
The groups say that a decision by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which required a Louisville, Ky., utility to provide a specific analysis of its proposed coal plant's environmental impact, means the owner of the Arkansas plant must stop building the John W. Turk Jr.
plant until it does a similar analysis.
Southwest Electric Power Co., a subsidiary of American Electric Power Co. of Columbus, Ohio, is building the power plant in Hempstead County, about 15 miles northeast of Texarkana.
The Public Service Commission's approval of the plant was recently overturned by the Arkansas Court of Appeals, which sided with private hunting clubs in opposing the decision.
The Sierra Club and Audubon Society previously appealed an air permit granted for the Turk plant by the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission.
Windstream gets ruling in retiree-benefits case
A U.S. district court judge in Nebraska on Wednesday granted Little Rock-based Windstream's motion for summary judgment in a case over the company's ability to change benefits for certain retirees.
Judge Warren Urbom wrote that the benefits at issue, including medical benefits for retirees of certain companies acquired by Windstream, weren't vested.
He found no specific language saying the retirees had a permanent right to the benefits.
In December, Urbom said he wouldn't block a Windstream plan to reduce retiree benefits and force retirees to share health-insurance costs.
Urbom wrote in Wednesday's judgment that no issues remained for trial.
Windstream, a voice and broadband Internet provider, proved its right to make the changes at issue in the case, he wrote.
Arkansas Index drops
a bit as 11 stocks fall
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 0.45 to 159.28 Wednesday.
"A disappointing durable goods report [excluding-aircraft orders] offset further improvements in the housing sector, keeping U.S. equities essentially unchanged in a choppy trading session," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. "The Arkansas Index slipped slightly as six stocks advanced, 11 declined and one remained unchanged."
J.B. Hunt Transport Services lost 3.5 percent in average trading. Deltic Timber was up 1.1 percent in light trading.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 23 on 08/27/2009