2025 Indiana General Assembly 

During the last two weeks leading up to the Legislature’s motion to adjourn sine die on April 24th, a strange mix of boredom and hustle gripped the slew of lobbyists, advocates, and lawmakers in the hallways at the Statehouse. CAC staff joined colleagues from the Indiana Coalition for Human Services in watching each conference committee meeting to ensure anti-consumer and other harmful language didn’t appear.

You might remember that Senate Bill 197 was amended to include two controversial issues: (1) the criminalization of homelessness, and (2) the prevention of local communities from requiring commercial property owners to report utility usage data from their properties, commonly called energy benchmarking. This amendment was at the behest of the Indiana Apartment Association, with an assist from the utilities, to effectively kill the Thrive Indianapolis program and other climate resiliency initiatives being considered by other municipalities. The bill barely passed the House, 52-40.

However, the Senate author of SB197 dissented from the changes the House made, sending the bill to conference committee. The chairman of the conference committee, Sen. Aaron Freeman (R-Indianapolis), refused to include the language in the conference committee report, meaning that the criminalization of homelessness language was pulled out of SB197.

We then moved into search mode to locate the new bills that the anti-energy efficiency and criminalization of homelessness language would be shoved into. The criminalization of homelessness language was inserted into House Bill 1014 and then removed at the last hour, finally dying. 

The language eliminating mandatory energy benchmarking found a home in House Bill 1389. However, other provisions in the bill complicated its path forward, so HB1389 failed to pass the Senate by a vote of 17-33.

A huge thank you is owed to the lobbying team at  the Indiana League of Conservation Voters, who led the efforts in the halls to defeat the anti-energy efficiency language. It was a sweet victory in the final hours of a brutal legislative session.

The Senate voted 34-12 to concur on SB423, with bipartisan opposition. As it was introduced, SB423 would have authorized the approval of two SMR pilot projects. However, the language limiting approval was removed, probably because it was no longer necessary due to SB424 being signed into law by Gov. Braun. Removing that language effectively eliminated the intent of the legislation, rendering it meaningless. Nonetheless, SB423 now heads to the Governor for further action.

The House voted 59-38 to pass Senate Bill 425, Energy Production Zones, authored by Sen. Eric Koch (R-Bedford). SB425 deals with the siting of electric generation resources. Sen. Koch filed a motion to concur on changes the House made, then withdrew the motion after there wasn’t support to pass the bill in the Senate. Koch then filed a motion to dissent on changes made to the bill and it headed to conference committee.

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. As the session progressed towards sine die, the issue grew even more toxic - it passed by only eleven votes in the House. The bill remains on the Governor’s desk for further action. More from Indiana Public Media here.

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, passed the House 68-20 on its concurrence motion. It was amended in the Senate but it did not address our concerns. This bill is at the behest of the Indiana Builders Association, a special interest group dedicated to deregulation. HB1037 heads to the Governor for further action. 

Senate Bill 193 passed the House with our support, as it codifies enhanced oversight for Confined Feeding Operations (CFOs). Its author Sen. Rick Niemeyer (R-Lowell), filed a motion to concur. The Senate voted to pass the bill and it also heads to the Governor for further action. 

You may recall our update a few weeks ago regarding House Bill 1007, which was amended on the Senate floor to remove the tracker for SMRs because it was aready signed into law by Gov. Braun via SEA424. HB1007 is chock full of rate increases due to extending the life of ancient coal plants powered by dirty fossil fuels. HB1007 sat on the House calendar for over a week, ultimately passing by a vote of 63-23 in the last days of the session. The bill awaits further action by the Governor.

Thank you for following these reports throughout the legislative session. We will produce our final report soon and continue to update you on regulatory issues via our website and our social media: Facebook, X and Instagram.

Respectfully Submitted,

The CAC Team