U.S. Solicitor General's Office to Review PPL Montana's Streambed Use Case Petition

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Nov 01, 2010, 05:20 ET

BILLINGS, Mont., Nov. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the U.S. Office of the Solicitor General to provide further analysis of PPL Montana's petition for review of the Montana streambed use case.

"We're pleased by this development in the streambed use case," said Robert J. Grey, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of PPL Corporation. "The Solicitor General's office will review the case over the next several months and then present its views to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The Office of the Solicitor General is a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice that is responsible for supervising and conducting government litigation in the Supreme Court.

Grey said the streambed case raises broad federal issues that go well beyond PPL Montana's business interests and has implications for the rights of streambed users including hydroelectric plant operators, ranchers, irrigators, cities, dock owners and recreationalists.

"We had broad support of our petition to the Supreme Court, which shows the importance and potential consequences of this issue in Montana and other states," Grey said.

"The 'friend of the court' briefs from the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, the Montana Water Resources Association, the Edison Electric Institute, the National Hydropower Association, the Cato Institute and history professors specializing in the development of the American West reinforced the importance of this decision to a wide range of interests," he said.

PPL Montana is a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL). PPL Corporation, headquartered in Allentown, Pa., owns or controls about 19,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets, and delivers electricity and natural gas to about 5.2 million customers in the United States and the United Kingdom. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.

SOURCE PPL Corporation