Commitments and Contingencies | COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Guarantees We have entered into contracts that contain guarantees to unaffiliated parties that could require performance or payment under certain conditions. Material guarantees are discussed below. Letters of Credit As of June 30, 2023, we had outstanding letters of credit totaling $2.441 billion as follows: • $2.136 billion to support commodity risk management collateral requirements in the normal course of business, including over-the-counter and exchange-traded transactions and collateral postings with ISOs/RTOs; • $143 million to support battery and solar development projects; • $27 million to support executory contracts and insurance agreements; • $89 million to support our REP financial requirements with the PUCT, and • $46 million for other credit support requirements. Surety Bonds As of June 30, 2023, we had outstanding surety bonds totaling $933 million to support performance under various contracts and legal obligations in the normal course of business. Litigation and Regulatory Proceedings Our material legal proceedings and regulatory proceedings affecting our business are described below. We believe that we have valid defenses to the legal proceedings described below and intend to defend them vigorously. We also intend to participate in the regulatory processes described below. We record reserves for estimated losses related to these matters when information available indicates that a loss is probable and the amount of the loss, or range of loss, can be reasonably estimated. As applicable, we have established an adequate reserve for the matters discussed below. In addition, legal costs are expensed as incurred. Management has assessed each of the following legal matters based on current information and made a judgment concerning its potential outcome, considering the nature of the claim, the amount and nature of damages sought, and the probability of success. Unless specified below, we are unable to predict the outcome of these matters or reasonably estimate the scope or amount of any associated costs and potential liabilities, but they could have a material impact on our results of operations, liquidity, or financial condition. As additional information becomes available, we adjust our assessment and estimates of such contingencies accordingly. Because litigation and rulemaking proceedings are subject to inherent uncertainties and unfavorable rulings or developments, it is possible that the ultimate resolution of these matters could be at amounts that are different from our currently recorded reserves and that such differences could be material. Litigation Gas Index Pricing Litigation — We, through our subsidiaries, and another company remain named as defendants in one consolidated putative class action lawsuit pending in federal court in Wisconsin claiming damages resulting from alleged price manipulation through false reporting of natural gas prices to various index publications, wash trading and churn trading from 2000-2002. The plaintiffs in these cases allege that the defendants engaged in an antitrust conspiracy to inflate natural gas prices during the relevant time period and seek damages under the respective state antitrust statutes. In April 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Seventh Circuit Court) heard oral argument on an interlocutory appeal challenging the district court’s order certifying a class. Illinois Attorney General Complaint Against Illinois Gas & Electric (IG&E) — In May 2022, the Illinois Attorney General filed a complaint against IG&E, a subsidiary we acquired when we purchased Crius in July 2019. The complaint filed in Illinois state court alleges, among other things, that IG&E engaged in improper marketing conduct and overcharged customers. The vast majority of the conduct in question occurred prior to our acquisition of IG&E. In July 2022, we moved to dismiss the complaint, and in October 2022, the district court granted in part our motion to dismiss, barring all claims asserted by the Illinois Attorney General that were outside of the 5-year statute of limitations period, which now limits the period during which claims may be made to start in May 2017 rather than extending back to 2013 as the Illinois Attorney General had alleged in its complaint. Winter Storm Uri Legal Proceedings Repricing Challenges — In March 2021, we filed an appeal in the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas (Third Court of Appeals), challenging the PUCT's February 15 and February 16, 2021 orders governing ERCOT's determination of wholesale power prices during load-shedding events. Other parties also supported our challenge to the PUCT's orders. In March 2023, the Third Court of Appeals issued a unanimous decision and agreed with our arguments that the PUCT's pricing orders constituted de facto competition rules and exceeded the PUCT's statutory authority. The Third Court of Appeals vacated the pricing orders and remanded the matter to the PUCT for further proceedings. In March 2023, the PUCT appealed the Third Court of Appeals' ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. In addition, we have also submitted settlement disputes with ERCOT over power prices and other issues during Winter Storm Uri. Following an appeal of the PUCT's March 5, 2021 verbal order and other statements made by the PUCT, the Texas Attorney General, on behalf of the PUCT, its client, represented in a letter agreement filed with the Third Court of Appeals that we and other parties may continue disputing the pricing during Winter Storm Uri through the ERCOT process and, to the extent the outcome of that process comes before the PUCT for review, the PUCT has not prejudged or made a final decision on that matter. We are not able to reasonably estimate the financial statement impact of a repricing as, among other things, the matter is subject to ongoing legal proceedings and, even if we were ultimately successful in the current legal proceeding, the price at which the market would be resettled is not reasonably estimable because that would be subject to further proceedings at ERCOT and the PUCT. Brazos Electric Cooperative Inc. (Brazos) Bankruptcy — As a result of the lengthy period of peak pricing administratively imposed by the PUCT during Winter Storm Uri, certain market participants within ERCOT were not able to pay their full obligations to ERCOT. Consequently, ERCOT was "short-paid" approximately $2.9 billion, the majority of which was related to Brazos, a Texas-based non-profit electric cooperative corporation that provides wholesale electricity to its members, which, in turn, provide retail electricity to Texas consumers. After applying standard ERCOT market default protocols for the recovery of losses through issuance of default liability to all market participants, we recognized an approximately $189 million default uplift liability in the first quarter of 2021 based on our market share. The $189 million default uplift liability was subsequently reduced to $124 million as ERCOT collected amounts owed from certain defaulting entities through other means, primarily through securitization. In March 2021, Brazos commenced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. As part of the Brazos bankruptcy proceeding, ERCOT filed a claim to recover approximately $1.9 billion from Brazos. In September 2022, Brazos and ERCOT reached a settlement that provided for material payments to ERCOT for its prior "short-paid" amounts and, importantly, precluded ERCOT from collecting default uplift from market participants for any prepetition amounts owed by Brazos ( i.e. , it supplants the process to uplift the short-pay claim to market participants), which allowed Vistra to extinguish the remaining $124 million default uplift liability to ERCOT on account of the Brazos short pay. In December 2022, the Brazos plan of reorganization became effective. Accordingly, the $124 million default uplift liability to ERCOT, which was entirely attributable to the Brazos default, was derecognized in the fourth quarter of 2022 and recognized as revenue in the statement of operations. Regulatory Investigations and Other Litigation Matters — Following the events of Winter Storm Uri, various regulatory bodies, including ERCOT, the ERCOT Independent Market Monitor, the Texas Attorney General, the FERC and the NRC initiated investigations or issued requests for information of various parties related to the significant load shed event that occurred during the event as well as operational challenges for generators arising from the event, including performance and fuel and supply issues. We responded to all those investigatory requests. In addition, a large number of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits related to Winter Storm Uri have been, and continue to be, filed in various Texas state courts against us and numerous generators, transmission and distribution utilities, retail and electric providers, as well as ERCOT. We and other defendants requested that all pretrial proceedings in these personal injury cases be consolidated and transferred to a single multi-district litigation (MDL) pretrial judge. In June 2021, the MDL panel granted the request to consolidate all these cases into a MDL for pretrial proceedings. Additional personal injury cases that have been, and continue to be, filed on behalf of additional plaintiffs have been consolidated with the MDL proceedings. In addition, in January 2022, an insurance subrogation lawsuit was filed in Austin state court by over one hundred insurance companies against ERCOT, Vistra and several other defendants. The lawsuit seeks recovery of insurance funds paid out by these insurance companies to various policyholders for claims related to Winter Storm Uri, and that case has also now been consolidated with the MDL proceedings. In the summer of 2022, various defendant groups filed motions to dismiss five so-called bellwether cases, and the MDL court heard oral argument on those motions in October 2022. In January 2023, the MDL court ruled on the various motions to dismiss and denied the motions to dismiss of the generator defendants and the transmission distribution utilities defendants, but granted the motions of some of the other defendant groups, including the retail electric providers and ERCOT. In February 2023, the generator defendants filed a mandamus petition with the Houston Court of Appeals to review the MDL court's denial of the motion to dismiss. We believe we have strong defenses to these lawsuits and intend to defend against these cases vigorously. Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) In July 2019, the EPA finalized a rule that repealed the Clean Power Plan (CPP) that had been finalized in 2015 and established new regulations addressing GHG emissions from existing coal-fueled electric generation units, referred to as the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. The ACE rule developed emission guidelines that states must use when developing plans to regulate GHG emissions from existing coal-fueled electric generating units. In response to challenges brought by environmental groups and certain states, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit Court) vacated the ACE rule, including the repeal of the CPP, in January 2021 and remanded the rule to the EPA for further action. In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion reversing the D.C. Circuit Court's decision, and finding that the EPA exceeded its authority under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act when the EPA set emission requirements in the CPP based on generation shifting. In October 2022, the D.C. Circuit Court issued an amended judgment, denying petitions for review of the ACE rule and challenges to the repeal of the CPP. In addition, the EPA opened a docket seeking input on questions related to the regulation of GHGs under Section 111(d) which closed in March 2023. In May 2023, the EPA released a new proposal regulating power plant GHG emissions, while also proposing to repeal the ACE rule. The new GHG proposal sets limits for (a) new gas-fired combustion turbines, (b) existing coal-, oil- and gas-fired steam generating units, and (c) certain existing gas-fired combustion turbines. The proposed standards are based on technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS), low-GHG hydrogen co-firing, and natural gas co-firing. Starting in 2030, the proposal would generally require more CO 2 emissions control at fossil fuel-fired power plants that operate more frequently and for more years and would phase in increasingly stringent CO 2 requirements over time. Under the proposal, states would be required to submit plans to the EPA within 24 months of the rule's effective date that provide for the establishment, implementation, and enforcement of standards of performance for existing sources. These state plans must generally establish standards that are at least as stringent as the EPA's emission guidelines. Existing steam generating units must start complying with their standards of performance on January 1, 2030. Existing combustion turbine units must start complying with their standards of performance on January 1, 2032, or January 1, 2035, depending on their subcategory. We submitted comments to the EPA on this proposal in August 2023. Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) In October 2015, the EPA revised the primary and secondary ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to lower the 8-hour standard for ozone emissions during ozone season (May to September). As required under the CAA, in October 2018, the State of Texas submitted a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to the EPA demonstrating that emissions from Texas sources do not contribute significantly to nonattainment in, or interfere with maintenance by, any other state with respect to the revised ozone NAAQS. In February 2023, the EPA disapproved Texas' SIP and the State of Texas, Luminant, certain trade groups, and others challenged that disapproval in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Fifth Circuit Court). In March 2023, those same parties filed motions to stay the EPA's SIP disapproval in the Fifth Circuit Court, and the EPA moved to transfer our challenges to the D.C. Circuit Court or have those challenges dismissed. In April 2022, prior to the EPA's disapproval of Texas' SIP, the EPA proposed a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) to address the 2015 ozone NAAQS. We, along with many other companies, trade groups, states and ISOs, including ERCOT, PJM and MISO, filed responsive comments to the EPA's proposal in June 2022, expressing concerns about certain elements of the proposal, particularly those that may result in challenges to electric reliability under certain conditions. In March 2023, the EPA administrator signed its final FIP. The FIP applies to 22 states beginning with the 2023 ozone seasons. States where Vistra operates generation units that would be subject to this rule are Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Texas would be moved into the revised Group 3 trading program previously established in the Revised CSAPR Update Rule that includes emission budgets for 2023 that the EPA says are achievable through existing controls installed at power plants. Allowances will be limited under the program and will be further reduced beginning in ozone season 2026 to a level that is intended to reduce operating time of coal-fueled power plants during ozone season or force coal plants to retire, particularly those that do not have selective catalytic reduction systems such as our Martin Lake power plant. In May 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court granted our motion to stay the EPA's disapproval of Texas' SIP pending a decision on the merits and denied the EPA's motion to transfer our challenge to the D.C. Circuit Court. As a result of the stay, we do not believe the EPA has authority to implement the FIP as to Texas sources pending the resolution of the merits, meaning that Texas will remain in Group 2 and not be subject to any requirements under the FIP at least until the Fifth Circuit Court rules on the merits. In June 2023, the EPA published the final FIP in the Federal Register, which included requirements as to Texas despite the stay of the SIP disapproval by the Fifth Circuit Court. In June 2023, the State of Texas, Luminant and various other parties also filed challenges to the FIP in the Fifth Circuit Court, filed a motion to stay the FIP and confirm venue for this dispute in the Fifth Circuit Court. After the motion to stay and to confirm venue was filed, the EPA signed an interim final rule on June 29, 2023 that confirms the FIP as to Texas is stayed. In July 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court ruled that the FIP challenge would be held in abeyance pending the resolution of the litigation on the SIP disapproval and denied the motion to stay as not needed given the EPA's administrative stay. Regional Haze — Reasonable Progress and Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) for Texas In October 2017, the EPA issued a final rule addressing BART for Texas electricity generation units, with the rule serving as a partial approval of Texas' 2009 SIP and a partial FIP. For SO 2 , the rule established an intrastate Texas emission allowance trading program as a "BART alternative" that operates in a similar fashion to a CSAPR trading program. The program includes 39 generating units (including the Martin Lake, Big Brown, Monticello, Sandow 4, Coleto Creek, Stryker 2 and Graham 2 plants). The compliance obligations in the program started on January 1, 2019. For NO X , the rule adopted the CSAPR's ozone program as BART and for particulate matter, the rule approved Texas' SIP that determines that no electricity generation units are subject to BART for particulate matter. In August 2020, the EPA issued a final rule affirming the prior BART final rule but also included additional revisions that were proposed in November 2019. Challenges to both the 2017 rule and the 2020 rules have been consolidated in the D.C. Circuit Court, where we have intervened in support of the EPA. We are in compliance with the rule, and the retirements of our Monticello, Big Brown and Sandow 4 plants have enhanced our ability to comply. The EPA is in the process of reconsidering the BART rule, and the challenges in the D.C. Circuit Court have been held in abeyance pending the EPA's final action on reconsideration. In May 2023, a proposed BART rule was published in the Federal Register that would withdraw the trading program provisions of the prior rule and would establish SO 2 limits on six facilities in Texas, including Martin Lake and Coleto Creek. Under the current proposal, compliance would be required within 3 years for Martin Lake and 5 years for Coleto Creek. Due to the announced shutdown for Coleto Creek, we do not anticipate any impacts at that facility, and we are evaluating potential compliance options at Martin Lake should this proposal become final. We submitted comments to the EPA on this proposal in August 2023. SO2 Designations for Texas In November 2016, the EPA finalized its nonattainment designations for counties surrounding our Martin Lake generation plant and our now retired Big Brown and Monticello plants. The final designations require Texas to develop nonattainment plans for these areas. In February 2017, the State of Texas and Luminant filed challenges to the nonattainment designations in the Fifth Circuit Court. In August 2019, the EPA issued a proposed Error Correction Rule for all three areas, which, if finalized, would have revised its previous nonattainment designations and each area at issue would be designated unclassifiable. In May 2021, the EPA finalized a "Clean Data" determination for the areas surrounding the retired Big Brown and Monticello plants, redesignating those areas as attainment based on monitoring data supporting an attainment designation. In June 2021, the EPA published two notices; one that it was withdrawing the August 2019 Error Correction Rule and a second separate notice denying petitions from Luminant and the State of Texas to reconsider the original nonattainment designations. We, along with the State of Texas, challenged that EPA action and have consolidated it with the pending challenge in the Fifth Circuit Court, and this case was argued before the Fifth Circuit Court in July 2022. In September 2021, the TCEQ considered a proposal for its nonattainment SIP revision for the Martin Lake area and an agreed order to reduce SO 2 emissions from the plant. The proposed agreed order associated with the SIP proposal reduces emission limits as of January 2022. Emission reductions required are those necessary to demonstrate attainment with the NAAQS. The TCEQ's SIP action was finalized in February 2022 and has been submitted to the EPA for review and approval. In February 2023, the Sierra Club filed suit against the EPA in the Northern District of California to compel them to issue a FIP for Texas. The Sierra Club and the EPA now have a proposed consent decree, which would require the EPA to take final action promulgating a FIP for the nonattainment area by December 13, 2024, unless the EPA approves a SIP by that deadline. Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELGs) In November 2015, the EPA revised the ELGs for steam electricity generation facilities, which will impose more stringent standards (as individual permits are renewed) for wastewater streams, such as flue gas desulfurization (FGD), fly ash, bottom ash and flue gas mercury control wastewaters. Various parties filed petitions for review of the ELG rule, and the petitions were consolidated in the Fifth Circuit Court. In April 2017, the EPA granted petitions requesting reconsideration of the ELG rule and administratively stayed the rule's compliance date deadlines. In April 2019, the Fifth Circuit Court vacated and remanded portions of the EPA's ELG rule pertaining to effluent limitations for legacy wastewater and leachate. The EPA published a final rule in October 2020 that extends the compliance date for both FGD and bottom ash transport water to no later than December 2025, as negotiated with the state permitting agency. Additionally, the final rule allows for a retirement exemption that exempts facilities certifying that units will retire by December 2028 provided certain effluent limitations are met. In November 2020, environmental groups petitioned for review of the new ELG revisions, and Vistra subsidiaries filed a motion to intervene in support of the EPA in December 2020. Notifications were made to Texas, Illinois and Ohio state agencies on the retirement exemption for applicable coal plants by the regulatory deadline of October 13, 2021. In March 2023, the EPA published its proposed supplemental ELG rule, which retains the retirement exemption from the 2020 ELG rule and sets new limits for plants that are continuing to operate. The proposed rule also establishes pretreatment standards for combustion residual leachate, and we are currently evaluating the impact of those proposed requirements. We submitted comments on the proposal in May 2023. Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR)/Groundwater In August 2018, the D.C. Circuit Court issued a decision that vacates and remands certain provisions of the 2015 CCR rule, including an applicability exemption for legacy impoundments. In August 2020, the EPA issued a final rule establishing a deadline of April 11, 2021 to cease receipt of waste and initiate closure at unlined CCR impoundments. The final rule allows a generation plant to seek the EPA's approval to extend this deadline if no alternative disposal capacity is available and either a conversion to comply with the CCR rule is underway or retirement will occur by either 2023 or 2028 (depending on the size of the impoundment at issue). Prior to the November 2020 deadline, we submitted applications to the EPA requesting compliance extensions under both conversion and retirement scenarios. In November 2020, environmental groups petitioned for review of this rule in the D.C. Circuit Court, and Vistra subsidiaries filed a motion to intervene in support of the EPA in December 2020. Also, in November 2020, the EPA finalized a rule that would allow an alternative liner demonstration for certain qualifying facilities. In November 2020, we submitted an application for an alternate liner demonstration for one CCR unit at Martin Lake. In August 2021, we submitted a request to transfer our conversion application for the Zimmer facility to a retirement application following the announcement that Zimmer will close by May 31, 2022. In January 2022, the EPA determined that our conversion and retirement applications for our CCR facilities were complete but has not yet proposed action on any of those applications. In addition, in January 2022, the EPA also made a series of public statements, including in a press release, that purported to impose new, more onerous closure requirements for CCR units. The EPA issued these new purported requirements without prior notice and without following the legal requirements for adopting new rules. These new purported requirements announced by the EPA are contrary to existing regulations and the EPA's prior positions. In April 2022, we, along with the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG), a trade association of over 130 utility operating companies, energy companies, and certain other industry associations, filed petitions for review with the D.C. Circuit Court and have asked the court to determine that the EPA cannot implement or enforce the new purported requirements because the EPA has not followed the required procedures. The State of Texas and the TCEQ have intervened in support of the petitions filed by the Vistra subsidiaries and USWAG, and various environmental groups have intervened on behalf of the EPA. The parties are awaiting a briefing schedule from the D.C. Circuit Court. In May 2023, the EPA issued another proposal that further revises the federal CCR rule that would expand coverage of groundwater monitoring and closure requirements to the following two new categories of units: (a) legacy units which are CCR impoundments at inactive sites that ceased receiving waste before October 19, 2015 and (b) so-called "CCR management units" which generally could encompass areas of CCR located at a facility that is currently regulated by the existing CCR rule. CCR Management Units, as defined by the EPA in the proposal, could include any ash deposits, haul roads, and previously closed impoundments and landfills. As part of the proposed rule, the EPA identified 134 CCR management units at 82 different facilities across the country, including six of our potential units. The Vermilion ash ponds discussed below are the only unit which we believe qualify as a legacy CCR surface impoundment and given our closure plan for that site we do not believe this proposal, if finalized, will have any impact on that site. We are continuing to evaluate what would be required of the CCR management units identified in the proposal should the proposal become final in its current form. We submitted comments in July 2023. MISO — In 2012, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) issued violation notices alleging violations of groundwater standards onsite at our Baldwin and Vermilion facilities' CCR surface impoundments. These violation notices remain unresolved; however, in 2016, the IEPA approved our closure and post-closure care plans for the Baldwin old east, east, and west fly ash CCR surface impoundments. We have completed closure activities at those ponds at our Baldwin facility. At our retired Vermilion facility, which was not potentially subject to the EPA's 2015 CCR rule until the aforementioned D.C. Circuit Court decision in August 2018, we submitted proposed corrective action plans involving closure of two CCR surface impoundments ( i.e. , the old east and the north impoundments) to the IEPA in 2012, and we submitted revised plans in 2014. In May 2017, in response to a request from the IEPA for additional information regarding the closure of these Vermilion surface impoundments, we agreed to perform additional groundwater sampling and closure options and riverbank stabilizing options. In May 2018, Prairie Rivers Network (PRN) filed a citizen suit in federal court in Illinois against Dynegy Midwest Generation, LLC (DMG), alleging violations of the Clean Water Act for alleged unauthorized discharges. In August 2018, we filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In November 2018, the district court granted our motion to dismiss and judgment was entered in our favor. In June 2021, the Seventh Circuit Court affirmed the district court's dismissal of the lawsuit. In April 2019, PRN also filed a complaint against DMG before the IPCB, alleging that groundwater flows allegedly associated with the ash impoundments at the Vermilion site have resulted in exceedances both of surface water standards and Illinois groundwater standards dating back to 1992. We answered that complaint in July 2021. In July 2023, PRN filed an unopposed motion to voluntarily dismiss the case with prejudice, which the IPCB granted in August 2023 and closed the case. In 2012, the IEPA issued violation notices alleging violations of groundwater standards at the Newton and Coffeen facilities' CCR surface impoundments. We are addressing these CCR surface impoundments in accordance with the federal CCR rule. In June 2018, the IEPA issued a violation notice for alleged seep discharges claimed to be coming from the surface impoundments at our retired Vermilion facility, which is owned by our subsidiary DMG, and that notice was referred to the Illinois Attorney General. In June 2021, the Illinois Attorney General and the Vermilion County State Attorney filed a complaint in Illinois state court with an agreed interim consent order which the court subsequently entered. Given the violation notices and the enforcement action, the unique characteristics of the site, and the proximity of the site to the only national scenic river in Illinois, we agreed to enter into the interim consent order to resolve this matter. Per the terms of the agreed interim consent order, DMG is required to evaluate the closure alternatives under the requirements of the newly implemented Illinois Coal Ash regulation (discussed below) and close the site by removal. In addition, the interim consent order requires that during the impoundment closure process, impacted groundwater will be collected before it leaves the site or enters the nearby Vermilion river and, if necessary, DMG will be required to install temporary riverbank protection if the river migrates within a certain distance of the impoundments. The interim order was modified in December 2022 to require certain amendments to the Safety Emergency Response Plan. In June 2023, the Illinois state court approved and entered the final consent order, which included the terms above and a requirement that when IEPA issues a final closure permit for the site, DMG will demolish the power station and submit for approval to construct an on-site landfill within the footprint of the former plant to store and manage the coal ash. These proposed closure costs are reflected in the ARO in our condensed consolidated balance sheets (see Note 19). In July 2019, coal ash disposal and storage legislation in Illinois was enacted. The legislation addresses state requirements for the proper closure of coal ash ponds in the state of Illinois. The law tasks the IEPA and the IPCB to set up a series of guidelines, rules and permit requirements for closure of ash ponds. Under the final rule, which was finalized and became effective in April 2021, coal ash impoundment owners would be required to submit a closure alternative analysis to the IEPA for the selection of the best method for coal ash remediation at a particular site. The rule does not mandate closure by removal at any site. In May 2021, we filed an appeal in the Illinois Fourth Judicial District over certain provisions of the final rule and that case remains pending. Other parties have also filed appeals of certain provisions of the final rule. In October 2021, we filed operating permit applications for 18 impoundments as required by the Illinois coal ash rule, and filed construction permit applications for three of our sites in January 2022 and five of our sites in July 2022. One additional closure construction application will be filed for our Baldwin facility in 2023. For all of the above matters, if certain c |