2025 Indiana General Assembly 

The countdown is on — only fifteen or so days stand between Hoosiers and the Indiana Legislature’s final gavel, also called sine die. The deadline for committees to hear bills that made their way across the hallway to the other chamber is this coming week, and many committees have already announced they will not meet again.

In addition to the public hearings announced for April 17, 2025, regarding Duke Energy’s plan to build expensive brand-new fossil fuel plants, a lot happened in the utilities and energy regulatory space this week. The House Utilities Committee voted 9-4 to pass SB423, with all Republicans voting yes, and all Democrats voting no. As it was introduced, SB423 would have authorized the approval of two SMR pilot projects. However, the language limiting approval was removed, effectively eliminating the intent of the legislation. 

Senate Bill 425, Energy Production Zones, which deals with the siting of electric generation resources, passed the House Utilities Committee and has been sitting on the House calendar for a few days. SB425 eviscerates local control in locations/areas defined as “energy production zones” for certain energy technologies and the related infrastructure. These zones are defined as abandoned coal mines or sites with existing electric generation facilities of 80MWs or greater. The bill does little to advance wind and solar in Indiana as local communities would still be able to block wind and solar projects from being developed in energy production zones, but those same communities will have no say when it comes to the development of coal, hydrogen, gas, or nuclear facilities. SB425 sparked opposition from property rights devotees and drew the ire of renewable energy proponents, earning bipartisan opposition in the Senate with a 37-12 vote. The bill advanced out of the House Utilities Committee by a party-line vote of 9-4. 

The Senate Environmental Affairs Committee passed House Bill 1037, which paves the way for further no-more-stringent-than policy in Indiana, barring locals from stormwater management that exceeds the bar set by existing state and federal standards. It was amended but it does NOT address our concerns. This bill is at the behest of the Indiana Builders Association, a special interest group dedicated to deregulation. We joined our colleagues at the Indiana Conservation Voters, whose Desi Ryboldt wrote a fantastic letter about this harmful legislation.

Senate Bill 193 passed the House this week. We testified in support of SB193, as it codifies enhanced oversight for Confined Feeding Operations (CFOs). 

We were completely unsurprised to see Senate Bill 197 amended by the House Judiciary Committee this week to include two new controversial issues: the criminalization of homelessness (which failed to pass initially, as House Bill 1662 died on the House calendar) and the prevention of local communities from requiring commercial property owners to report utility usage data from their properties, commonly called energy benchmarking. The amendment was at the request of the Indiana Apartment Association and was designed to end the Thrive Indianapolis program. Take action opposing SB197 here.

After its final passage in early April, Senate Bill 424, which creates a subsidy for financially healthy utilities to merely consider small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), was signed by the Governor on Thursday. Follow the progress in the Governor’s office with his bill track here. Utilities stand to receive billions of ratepayer dollars for “project development costs” or pre-construction costs like permitting procurement and licensing for SMRs—even if they cancel their plans. SB424 is now an enrolled act and will become public law.

On top of that, Governor Braun signed three executive orders on Friday, stating that Indiana is a one-stop shop for SMR manufacturers, utilities, and Big Tech oligarchs looking to cash in on captive Hoosier ratepayers, sacrificing free market dynamics for investment in unproven “technology,” all at the behest of being able to gloat that Indiana is one of the nation’s first SMR hotbeds. Indiana Public Media’s Rebecca Thiel discusses those orders, Braun orders aim to keep coal plants online, advance nuclear, sidestep climate damages.

Executive Order 25-48 will convene a “Nuclear Indiana Coalition,” which directs the Legislative Council and the Governor’s Office to receive a yearly report outlining actions and proposed initiatives to prop up one of the riskiest manners of generating electricity. Though there is no word yet as to which stakeholders will sit on the coalition, we welcome the opportunity to afford the Coalition a perspective from Indiana’s only ratepayer advocate.

In a rather obvious messaging pas de deux, Governor Braun echoed President Trump’s recent edict condemning market signals embracing the clean energy transition by signing Executive Order 25-49, which directs state agencies to reject “social costs of greenhouse gases and climate action plans.” We weren’t aware of any meaningful climate action that was occurring by state agencies, but that’s neither here nor there.

And again, despite the free market’s embrace of the clean energy economy, Governor Braun’s coup de grâce is Executive Order 25-50, which defies all market tendencies and requires the state of Indiana to “evaluate every remaining coal-based electric generation plant in the state and re-evaluate each unit to consider extending the life of the plant.” This language doubles down on the passage of House Bill 1007 this week, which, despite being amended on the Senate floor to remove the tracker for SMRs (which was already signed in SEA 424 by the Governor, as we noted above), remains riddled with rate increases due to extending the life of ancient coal plants powered by dirty fossil fuels. HB1007 had a lengthy hearing in the Senate Tax and Fiscal Committee earlier this week - watch our Kerwin Olson’s testimony here. It passed 10-3 and remains on the Senate’s calendar for a vote as early as Monday. Take action here.

Just about the only good news this week came with the death of House Bill 1174, an expansion of payday lending. As a steering member of Hoosiers for Responsible Lending, we helped lead a diverse coalition of partners in opposition. In the House, the bill received overwhelming testimony in opposition from faith, consumer advocacy, and nonprofit organizations. The Senate Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee chairman, Sen. Scott Baldwin, did not bring the bill for a hearing. Our work with Hoosiers for Responsible Lending will continue, as the payday lenders will be back, looking to grow their profits on the backs of Hoosiers. 

Coming up this week

Tuesday is the deadline for which all bills must be voted on by their respective chambers, including SB423 and SB425. The conference committee process will then begin in earnest. It will be all hands on deck for CAC and our allies in the hallways to follow this opaque process and be on guard for legislative shenanigans in the closing days of the session. 

To follow these bills in real time, make sure you follow our social media for an up-to-date detailing of our work at the Indiana Statehouse: Facebook, X and Instagram. We tweet and post throughout the week about the progress of bills we mention in our reports.

Respectfully Submitted,

The CAC Team