2025 Indiana General Assembly 

As the Statehouse trudges toward its committee deadline in two weeks, consumer advocates were faced with another busy week at the Indiana Statehouse — we testified in both the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee and House Government and Regulatory Reform before the day was over Monday.  

We testified in opposition to 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. HB1037 ignores our local communities' innate geographical differences. This bill is at the behest of the Indiana Builders Association, a special interest group dedicated to deregulation. The bill was held for another week and remains on the calendar for the next meeting of the Committee for amend and vote only (meaning no more testimony will be taken regardless of whether the bill is amended).

We also testified in support of SB310 in the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee.  You may recall we’ve testified in support of this measure in years past. Authored by Sen. Andy Zay, Senate Bill 310 would allow the Indiana Department of Administration to conduct energy audits of the Indiana State Government Center. The bill was amended in Committee to place a fiscal guardrail for the feasibility study in the bill. It heads to House Ways and Means for further consideration.

Senate Enrolled Act 424, which creates a subsidy for financially healthy utilities to “consider” small modular nuclear reactors (SMR), passed the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 32 to 15. See how your State Senator voted here. If the Governor signs the bill, utilities could charge ratepayer billions of dollars for “project development costs” or pre-construction costs like permitting procurement, and licensing for SMRs — even if they end up canceling their plans. Be sure to visit act.citact.org/i45khgj to urge Gov. Braun to veto SB424!

And finally… the behemoth energy bill that will exacerbate the affordability crisis, House Bill 1007,  finally received a hearing on Thursday, with two hours of testimony. In our testimony, Kerwin focused on the further erosion of regulatory oversight thanks to timelines being shortened for regulators, stakeholders and the public to vet filings from the monopolies. 

HB1007 includes the egregious tracker for non-existent SMRs that is also a provision in SEA424. HB1007 does provide some consumer protections related to the extraordinary costs necessary to meet the voracious energy appetites of data centers. Despite those protections, the bill is riddled with rate increases for Hoosier ratepayers. Watch our Kerwin Olson’s testimony here. Senate Utilities passed HB1007 by a vote of 8-3 on party lines. We remain strenuously opposed and ask that you contact legislators to oppose HB1007, as it will head to the Senate Tax and Fiscal Committee for further action. 

As a reminder, both Senate Bill 422, which requires utilities to fully consider software or hardware technologies that increase the capacity, efficiency, reliability, or safety of an existing or new electric transmission facility during their integrated resource planning process (IRP), and Senate Bill 457, which is a follow-up bill to 2022 legislation enabling Carbon Capture and Storage, are on the Governor’s desk awaiting action. Follow the progress in the Governor’s office with his bill track here.

The House Utilities Committee passed Senate Bill 4 with a vote of 12-0. SB4 is a priority bill from the Senate Republicans addressing large water withdrawals, large water users, and pipelines of 30+ miles from the water source. The bill was motivated by the controversial LEAP District and the tremendous water needs of that project. We testified as “neutral” on the bill — mostly because of the tracker, which puts ratepayers on the hook for these massive pipelines. The bill heads to the House floor for further consideration.

Senate Bill 178, a bill that defines natural gas and propane as clean energy (yes, you read that correctly) in Indiana law, passed the House this week by a vote of 74-20. The bill also includes wind, solar and other actual clean energy technologies in the definition of “clean.” The bill heads to the Governor for further action.

Coming up

• We expect that SB4 will be scheduled for a vote on the House floor late next week, but it has not been placed on the House calendar yet. That's the bill dealing with large water withdrawals and "long haul" water pipelines.

• Several Senate bills assigned to the House Utilities Committee have not been scheduled for a hearing yet. One notable bill among those is Senate Bill 425, which eviscerates local control in locations/areas defined as “energy production zones,” while still allowing local communities to block wind and solar projects. Another is SB423, the SMR pilot project bill.  Whether or not these bills will receive a hearing is unclear at this time. 

• In the Senate, House Bill 1007 will be heard in the Tax & Fiscal commitee but has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. 

• And lastly, it's likely that Senate Enrolled Act 424, formerly SB424, will land on the Governor's desk for his signature. Another reminder to visit act.citact.org/i45khgj to urge Gov. Braun to protect Hoosier consumers and veto SB424.

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