COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 4, 2002 — A consolidated shareholder class action suit against American Electric Power concerning disclosures related to an extended outage at the company's D.C. Cook Nuclear Plant was dismissed with prejudice in an order filed Dec. 26 by U.S. District Judge James Graham.

The suit, filed June 23, 2000, claimed that AEP had made misstatements concerning the condition, length of outage and the cost of restart of the Cook plant, which artificially inflated the company's stock price and damaged shareholders.

American Electric Power is a multinational energy company based in Columbus, Ohio. AEP owns and operates more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity, making it America's largest generator of electricity.

The company is also a wholesale energy marketer and trader, ranking second in North America in wholesale electricity and wholesale natural gas volume.

AEP provides retail electricity to more than 7 million customers worldwide and has holdings in the U.S. and select international markets.

Wholly owned subsidiaries are involved in power engineering and construction services, energy management and telecommunications.