WPPSS won a round in federal court.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said residents of three Northwestern states must continue to pay for three nuclear power plants, two of which have been mothballed, that were built by the Washington Public Power Supply System. The court upheld the validity of contracts that WPPSS had worked out with more than 100 local power companies to pay assessments needed to retire bonds issued to finance construction of the plants. In a related matter, Chemical Bank, the trustee for WPPSS bondholders, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a 1983 Washington state court ruling that led to default on the bonds.