Duke Energy wants to force its Indiana customers to pay for a business-as-usual plan that continues to rely almost exclusively on dirty and expensive coal- and gas-fired power plants, ignoring the enormous potential of clean, safe, efficient and affordable renewable sources such as wind and solar.

INDIANAPOLIS— Since June 2013, when the Edwardsport IGCC power plant in Knox County, Indiana, was declared “in-service”, by Duke Energy, its captive ratepayers have doled out nearly $1.8 billion to pay for the inconsistent and unreliable operations of the plant. According to expert testimony filed on Tuesday by the Citizens Action Coalition (CAC) before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), this represents $1.4 billion more than ratepayers would have paid for electricity on the wholesale market, a huge subsidy to the monopoly utility Duke Energy and a massive economic loss for captive ratepayers.