House Bill 1007, a priority bill for the House Republicans, was passed by a vote of 96-1 by the House on Monday. The bill now moves to the Senate where it is expected to move swiftly once bills begin the process again in the opposite chamber from which they originated. The Capital Chronicle covered it here. 

House Bill 1290, which we testified in support of, was amended on the House floor Thursday. House Bill 1290 was amended to increase the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to 12%. You may recall that the bill also recouples Indiana’s EITC with that of the federal EITC. This is excellent news for low-income families in Indiana. The bill could be voted on the House floor as soon as Monday where it is expected to pass.

Last week we attended meetings of the House and Senate Utilities Committee as well as the Senate Environmental Affairs committee which passed SB472, the “Advanced Recycling” bill which codifies toxic materials refining processes. That bill will head to the Senate for a vote as early as Monday.

While the Senate Environmental Affairs didn’t hear SB451 last week, they will hear it first thing this week. SB451 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. We’ll be testifying on this bill so make sure to follow us on Twitter as we routinely live tweet. 

The House Utilities Committee heard House Bill 1173 again, but didn’t act on it. The bill speaks to utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), specifically the concerns over the lack of emergency preparedness in communities where they  have been deployed. The Committee also heard but did not act on House Bill 1258 which deals with telecom providers’ underground equipment. 

Unfortunately, the Committee passed House Bill 1421. This is the bill which gives utilities Construction Work in Progress, or CWIP, for the construction of dirty and expensive fossil-gas power plants.  Since we know that every Indiana investor-owned electric utility wants to build a new gas plant in the near future, captive Hoosier consumers will be forced to bankroll these dirty and expensive plants, before they are even providing electricity, which will only exacerbate the affordability crisis.  HB1421 was covered by both Indiana Public Media and the Indiana Environmental Reporter.

Items upcoming this week

We’re hearing good news that Senate Bill 335, which creates a climate task force, will be getting a hearing on February 13th. We will keep an eye out!

This week in House Utilities, we’ll be testifying on House Bill 1420. HB1420 would grant utilities what is known as the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) for all 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 blocking competitive bidding on highly expensive transmission projects. 

We’ll also be testifying on House Bill 1417. HB1417 is a dangerous piece of legislation that as introduced, will unquestionably lead to unaffordable utility bills for all utility consumers (including electric, gas, water, and wastewater) by literally making the IURC a rubber stamp with little to no authority. The bill will allow utilities essentially to self-approve and book any expenditures they make and guarantees that they will recover those costs from ratepayers in a future rate case, including financing costs and return on investment (profit margin) for those investment.

Please help us fight these bad bills by taking action here.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lindsay Haake & Kerwin Olson