Wait ’til next year: New York utility regulators likely will not decide the fate of Entergy Corp.’s plan to spin off its wholesale nuclear power generators into a separate company until at least early in 2010. New Orleans-based Entergy had hoped for a decision in November on whether to put six nuclear reactors under a separate publicly traded company known as Enexus Energy Corp. But administrative law judges for the New York Public Service Commission have proposed a schedule under which regulators would make a final decision in January.
Would affect communities ravaged by storm: A national civil rights coalition wants Congress to authorize a special census for certain Gulf Coast communities still recovering from Hurricane Katrina when the traditional Census is taken next year. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights notes that people are still returning to the region and that federal recovery aid is still flowing four years after the storm. The group urges Congress to evaluate the status of Gulf Coast recovery after the 2010 Census to see which communities should be included in a special census in 2012 or 2013. The group says a special census would allow for any major population shifts to be reflected in the allocation of funds for certain state and federal programs that use Census data.
A job well done: Louisiana Economic Development received three awards from the Southern Economic Development Council. The agency got an “excellent” award for its magazines and advertorials, and two merit awards for its national magazine and newspaper campaigns. Louisiana-based economic development agencies got 13 awards from the SEDC, more than any other state. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber picked up seven awards and the South Louisiana Economic Council earned three awards.
