Hoosiers face a significant battle to protect Indiana’s low electric rates in the legislature as a group of large industrial consumers push a one-sided comprehensive electric deregulation bill in the General Assembly. Sponsored once again by Senator Morris Mills (R - Indianapolis), the legislation would promote comprehensive monopoly deregulation of electric industry and allow for large industrial consumers to shift costs to small business and residential customers without providing any meaningful competition. It effectively eliminate many consumer protections, such as the moratorium on winter disconnections, provides a huge bailout for past utility inefficiencies, and allows large industrial customers to get favorable terms and sweetheart deals at the expense of smaller customers.

Beyond the Mills’ Deregulation Bill being a bad bill, this is not the year for comprehensive electric deregulation. Indiana still enjoys some of the lowest electric rates in the country and radical deregulation experiments in other states, like California, have shown consumers will see little in the way of savings and choices while facing significant chaos and reliability concerns. Concerned citizens should call their legislators and urge them to say no to the Mills’ electric deregulation bill.

Meanwhile, Indiana’s largest electric monopolies are attempting to slowly chip away at regulation by taking advantage of anti-consumer legislation passed in 1995. Although some of these efforts present new opportunities for consumers, i.e. IPL’s "Green Power" option and the NIPSCO Choice Plan, this attack on multiple fronts also puts the reliability and affordability of electric and gas rates at risk.

Included among these deregulation efforts are requests that the state regulators decline to exercise their jurisdiction over new power plants by Indianapolis Power & Light and AES Greenfield, an independent global energy company. NIPSCO has asked for special treatment in the way its gas costs are treated. And, of course, there are still serious problems and legal questions surrounding the ProLiance venture by Citizens Gas and Indiana Gas. (See legal briefs)