The second half of the General Assembly’s 2023 Legislation Session got off to a rather quick start in the Statehouse. There were meetings of each chamber’s utilities committee (although floor action has been minimal with rather quick meetings of both the House and Senate).

During the Senate Utilities Committee last week, PJM, one of Indiana’s Regional Transmission Organizations, presented details as to its role in the ongoing conversation of grid reliability. Many legislators showed interest in Winter Storm Elliott and the failure of natural gas and fossil fuels’ reliability during severe weather. 

The Senate Utilities Committee passed House Bill 1007, a priority bill for the House Republicans and an attempt at an Energy Policy for the state. We testified on HB1007 from a neutral standpoint. The Committee also passed House Bill 1421, which gives utilities Construction Work in Progress, or CWIP, for the construction of dirty and expensive fossil-gas power plants. CAC was the only opposing testimony on the bill. Our testimony on HB1421, available on YouTube, was detailed in an article by John Russell at the Indianapolis Business Journal.

More coverage of legislation impacting Indiana consumers in the Indianapolis Star includes HB1623, which would allow electric utilities to further manipulate loopholes in the existing EPA rule regarding coal combustion residuals (coal ash). Although HB1623 has not been announced for a hearing in the Senate yet, this bill is a dangerous prospect for Hoosiers since we have more coal ash ponds than any other state, and our ponds are leaking toxins that threaten our water supply. The Star article also discussed Senate Bill 33, which deals with solar panel decommissioning. SB33 is awaiting a hearing in the House.

The House Utilities Committee passed three bills, all of which will be voted on before the full House as soon as Monday afternoon:

• SB114: Receivership for past due utility - this bill attempts to address the issue of unpaid utility bills incurred by apartment complexes. Ko Lyn Cheang recently reported on this in the IndyStar: City, state, water company sue negligent apartment owners in Indianapolis.
• SB374: Regional water, sewage, or solid waste districts - this bill increases compensation for board members of a regional water, sewage, or solid waste district.
• SB176: Small modular nuclear reactors - this bill increases the megawatt eligibility for CWIP (Construction Work in Progress) from 350 to 470, to include the Rolls Royce SMRs being developed in the UK.

CAC was the only opposing testimony on SB176. Our testimony is available on YouTube and was covered by the NWI-Times, Hoosier lawmakers poised to OK bigger reactors if nuclear power comes to Indiana.

The Indianapolis Business Journal also covered our take on Senate Bill 390, authored by Sen. Mark Messmer (R-Jasper). SB390 is a post cursor to last year’s Senate Bill 411, which set voluntary standards for renewable-friendly siting ordinances at the local level. The legislature chose not to fund the incentive for locals to write the ordinances - SB390 allows federal dollars to support the locals’ work, but does not fund it with any state appropriation in the 2023 Budget.

Upcoming This Week

We’ll be monitoring multiple meetings of both Senate and House Committees. We will be monitoring House Bill 1173, in the Senate Homeland Security Committee. HB1173, authored by Rep. Jim Pressel (R), speaks to utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) and the approval process required to build the facilities. The bill is prompted by concerns over the lack of emergency preparedness in communities where they  have been deployed.

On Tuesday, House Utilities will hear SB9, a bill dealing with the retirement of electric facilities; SB33, which creates a study to look at the decommissioning of solar and wind farms and the related disposal of the solar panels and wind turbine components; and SB298, a bill speaking to the cost recovery for infrastructure investments made by municipal and non-profit water and wastewater utilities. 

We’ll also be testifying in the House Environmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday when they hear SB451 which is yet another attempt by Wabash Valley Resources to take away the rights of property owners to enable their Carbon Sequestration science experiment in Vigo County that we’ve been fighting successfully for years. SB451 very narrowly passed the Senate - sending a signal to the House that the bill is contentious at the very best.

A Reminder

To follow these bills in real time, make sure you follow us on Twitter. We tweet throughout the week as to the progress of bills we mention in our reports and on the Indiana General Assembly page of our website.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lindsay Haake & Kerwin Olson