RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina is giving up its decade-long legal fight to control one of the state’s largest rivers and the water power that once fueled a factory employing 1,000.
State Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Brewer said the state had until Thursday to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and opted against continuing the fight.
In January, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., rejected North Carolina’s lawsuit trying to force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reconsider the new license it issued to operate the Yadkin River dams until 2055.
North Carolina’s top leaders have fought for the dams since 2009, when Alcoa Inc. announced it was closing its aluminum smelter that had been powered by the water-produced electricity for nearly a century. The electricity is now sold to commercial customers.
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