Indiana legislators are on the final slide down the hill towards sine die, the official adjournment of the Indiana legislature, which is due to occur on or before April 29th. A number of legislative priorities have already been enacted, including House Bill 1007, which the Governor signed last week. The bill places 5 considerations into state statute for the state’s energy conversation to include: reliability, affordability, resiliency, stability, and environmental sustainability.

SB114: Receivership for past due utility bills was also signed by the Governor last week. SB114 attempts to address the issue of unpaid utility bills incurred by apartment complexes. Ko Lyn Cheang recently reported on this in the Indy Star.

And of course Senate Bill 9 has already been signed by the Governor, two hours after he received it, leaving many of us in the consumer arena baffled as to its speed.  SB9 went from a bill dealing with the retirement of electric facilities to a bill that gives a massive bailout to Duke, as well as a blank check for all Indiana monopoly electric utilities to spend enormous amounts of ratepayer money on projects which may or may not be necessary for the utility to comply with new federal mandates. 

Some legislation is still very much in flux, including the State’s biennial budget, and will remain so until the moments leading up to the final gavel for this year’s legislative session.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bill we told you about last week has been passed by the House. SB265 brings TANF funding up to date. If you can believe it TANF hasn’t been increased or adjusted since 1988 (coverage here.) The bill heads back to the Senate where it will receive a vote as soon as Monday. 

House Bill 1138 was passed by the Senate last week. HB1138 is a follow up bill to Rep. Carolyn Jackson’s (D-Hammond, 2020 Legislative Session House Bill 1265, which is now state law requiring lead testing in schools. Since daycares were not included in the 2020 bill, the sole aim of HB1138 is to include those daycares. The bill will be up for a concurrence vote as soon as Tuesday.

We testified on House Bill 1623 in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, and our take was featured in the Indiana Capitol Chronicle. While the bill was amended significantly, we remain opposed because of its implications having to do with coal ash. HB1623 is an administrative rulemaking bill which would restrict the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) from implementing requirements stricter than federal law on Indiana coal plants — specifically coal ash storage ponds. The bill now heads to the Senate floor for further action where we expect amendments to be discussed. It could receive a vote as soon as Tuesday. Take action on HB1623 here.  

Upcoming this Week

We’re expecting the House Bill 1420 to receive a hearing in the Senate Utilities Committee next week. HB1420 would grant utilities what is known as the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) for most transmission projects built in their monopoly service territory. The bill will further undermine competition against monopoly utilities that is essential to controlling electric bills, by effectively blocking competitive bidding on the maintenance, operations, and ownership of highly expensive transmission projects. This bill is newsworthy right now because a similar proposal in Iowa was rejected by the Iowa Supreme Court recently.

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Respectfully Submitted,

Lindsay Haake & Kerwin Olson