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Rules for September auctions that promise to add $224 million or more to the coffers of bankrupt solar power developer SunEdison Inc. won approval from Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Judge Bernstein signed off on the bidding rules for two parcels of alternative energy projects SunEdison was developing when it foundered amid legal and financial trouble and landed in bankruptcy at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Company lawyers have said that they’re still pondering a reorganization of the beleaguered company, which faces federal investigations into its financial affairs and multiple lawsuits. Meanwhile, SunEdison has put the alternative-energy projects that were in the pipeline at the time of its April bankruptcy petition on the auction block. Read more. (Subscription required.)

In related news, Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein held off ruling on whether Vivint Solar Inc. can proceed with its $1 billion lawsuit over a failed merger with bankrupt SunEdison Inc. because the two companies can’t agree on a timetable for the litigation, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Judge Bernstein ended a hearing yesterday without deciding whether to lift the “automatic stay” that shields bankrupt companies like SunEdison from lawsuits. SunEdison has said that while the dispute needs to be worked out, it’s too early in the chapter 11 process to litigate the claim. Steven Schatz, a lawyer for Vivint, told the judge the two sides were still haggling over how soon a trial might occur. The suit itself is in Delaware Chancery Court. “We thought we were close,” he told Bernstein. “Frankly, at best, we’re no closer. Maybe further apart.” Bernstein could issue a ruling in a court filing later. Read more. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a $1.2 million claim in SandRidge Energy Inc.'s bankruptcy case relating the company's firing of a whistleblower who alleged the company had inflated its oil and natural gas reserves, the Oklahoman reported today. The claim comes as the SEC has announced several fines of companies that have run afoul of federal securities regulations that protect whistleblowers. SandRidge, which first disclosed the investigation in securities filings earlier this year, provided more information in a quarterly filing on Monday. The company said that it is cooperating with the investigation. The audit committee of the company's board of directors has hired an independent law firm to look into the former employee's allegations.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. has struck a deal to settle one of several pending bondholder lawsuits, a key step toward peace in the contentious bankruptcy case of the casino company's largest operating unit, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. The settlement, which Caesars disclosed yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, resolves a class-action lawsuit brought by the holders of unsecured bond debt issued by its Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. unit. Like other litigation pending against Caesars, the lawsuit sought to hold Caesars to guarantees of the bankrupt CEOC unit's debt. Under the settlement, which was reached on Monday, lead plaintiff Frederick Barton Danner agreed to drop the lawsuit in a New York federal court and to support CEOC's chapter 11 restructuring, which includes a broader settlement of potential legal claims against Caesars and its private-equity backers, Apollo Global Management and TPG. Read more. 

In related news, Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar suggested the casino operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CEC) ask its parent's private equity sponsors for money to fund a plan to exit its contentious $18 billion bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital Management LP formed the Caesars casino holding company in a 2008 buyout and the three groups are facing claims of fraud and asset stripping by creditors of the bankrupt unit. Caesars, Apollo and TPG have denied the claims. "Why should a successful reorganization depend on contribution from CEC alone?" Judge Goldgar asked at a monthly hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. The unit recently asked Judge Goldgar to extend a halt on billions of dollars in lawsuits over debt guarantees from several bondholders against the parent while it makes a last-ditch attempt to settle with holdout creditors. Read more. 

Bankrupt coal company Peabody Energy won U.S. court approval yesterday for agreements with three states to partially cover $1.14 billion in potential environmental liabilities and for a bonus plan for its six top executives, Reuters reported yesterday. Under the agreements, Wyoming can receive $127 million in cash if Peabody walks away from its mine cleanup obligations in the state while in bankruptcy, while New Mexico would receive $32 million and Indiana would get $17 million. Until now those liabilities were covered by a federal program known as self-bonding. It allows the largest miners to extract coal without setting aside cash or collateral. The program is currently under review. Peabody's agreements with Wyoming, New Mexico and Indiana are similar to deals reached by bankrupt coal miners Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources on self-bonds in Wyoming and West Virginia. Peabody also overcame objections by funds affiliated with the United Mine Workers of America to its executive bonus plan. The plan and another incentive plan for non-insider employees proposed setting aside up to $16.2 million in bonuses.

Energy Future Holdings Corp., Texas' biggest power company, yesterday urged a U.S. bankruptcy court to allow the bulk of its operations to exit chapter 11, Reuters reported. Energy Future filed for chapter 11 in April 2014 with $42 billion in debt, the largest bankruptcy since General Motors Corp's in 2009. Much of the debt had been taken on in 2007 when the Dallas-based company was formed through the $45 billion leveraged buyout of TXU Corp, led by KKR & Co., TPG Capital Management and the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs. Energy Future and its creditors have been engaged in expensive legal fights over a wide range of disputes. Other reorganization plans had failed to get support. Under the latest plan, the company would be renamed TCEH and own TXU Energy, the state's largest retail electric utility, and Luminant, Texas's largest power plant operator and largest coal miner. Leading the fight against the proposal are holders of about $650 million of notes issued by Energy Future. They argue that the plan would not fairly compensate creditors for tax benefits and back office operations that would be transferred to the new company. The noteholders estimated that the transfers would add more than $1 billion to the TCEH operations.

The Diocese of Duluth, Minn., is seeking an extension to file reorganization plans in its bankruptcy case as representatives prepare for more settlement talks with victims of child sexual abuse, the Duluth News Tribune reported today. The diocese and a court-appointed creditors committee met for a "productive," two-day mediation session last month in Minneapolis, and they're planning to return to the table for additional discussions during the week of Nov. 14, diocese attorneys said. "The parties are optimistic that a global resolution will be reached by the close of the November session," attorneys Bruce Anderson and Phillip Kunkel wrote in the motion. The motion asks Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel to extend a deadline for the diocese to file a proposal to regain control of its finances and repay creditors. That plan is currently due Sept. 1, but attorneys are asking for it to be pushed back to March 17.