(Bloomberg) -- The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority is keeping a planned March 4 confirmation hearing, denying a request from some creditors to postpone a discussion of the utility’s debt-cutting plan on that date.

Bond insurance companies and certain investors of the electric utility’s nearly $9 billion of debt sought to delay the March confirmation hearings until the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit determined whether bondholders have a secured claim to the agency’s future revenue collections. 

US District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain Monday rejected that request. Prepa, as the utility is known, has been in bankruptcy since July 2017 and Swain has expressed eagerness to resolve a case that’s already been held up by natural disasters, the pandemic and the commonwealth’s own bankruptcy process.

Read more: Puerto Rico Utility’s Future Revenue at Risk in Bondholder Fight

“What movants propose will likely leave the debtor, the commonwealth, and the people of Puerto Rico in a further prolonged state of uncertainty and impede progress toward renewal of the critical service infrastructure necessary to Puerto Rico’s return to the capital markets,” Swain wrote in her decision.

Assured Guaranty Corp., Syncora Guarantee, GoldenTree Asset Management and an ad hoc group of bondholders were seeking to delay the March 4 hearing.

Prepa’s debt plan would slash $10 billion of claims by 75%. It has the support of BlackRock Financial Management and Nuveen Asset Management.

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