2026 Indiana General Assembly 

The House has now caught up to the Senate, and this past week brought the official midpoint of the Indiana Legislature's short session. While bills that died are no longer alive, that doesn’t prevent legislators from including any language from those “dead” bills in legislation that is still alive and moving through the process. 

In Senate Utilities this week, House Bill 1002, authored by Rep. Alaina Shonkwiler (R-Noblesville), was heard. CAC supported the legislation, unlike when the bill was heard in the House committee. You’ll recall that CAC opposed the bill as introduced but moved to a position of support after the bill was significantly amended in committee the following week. 

The bill was amended in the Senate committee to remove the requirement that all ratepayers are automatically enrolled in levelized billing, also known as budget billing. The amendment changed the mandate for enrollment in levelized billing to only apply to households who are enrolled in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). However, those households will still be allowed to opt-out of levelized billing.  We expressed our opposition to treating low-income households differently than everyone else. Therefore, we recommended that eligible households are notified of the automatic enrollment when they are signing up for the program and offered the opportunity to opt-out at that time should they choose to do so. 

As a reminder, HB1002 includes significant priority issues of CAC, which were also components of our Ratepayer Relief Plan released with our partners at Indiana Conservation Voters. As previously discussed, those include assistance programs for low-income electric ratepayers, mandatory reporting requirements of customer payment data to the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) on a quarterly basis, and a disconnection moratorium during the hottest times of the year. More on HB1002 from the Post Tribune here.

The bill passed the Senate committee unanimously and was unfortunately, recommitted to the Senate Committee on Appropriations. We are hopeful the bill is scheduled for hearing in that committee soon and continues moving through the process.  We are still working to improve the bill so if you haven’t already, please help us in those efforts and take action on HB1002 today.

In the House, Senate Bill 240, which would allow for surplus interconnection service (SIS) to be included in utility Integrated Resource Plans as of 2029, remains on the second reading calendar. CAC continues to support the bill as it may lead to lower costs for consumers and the more efficient interconnection of new clean energy resources..

Senate Bill 258 also remains on the House third reading calendar. is a stand-alone bill that includes only the nuclear language contained in SB277, which is also scheduled to be heard in the House Environmental Affairs Committee this week. Our testimony on SB258 made clear that the State of Indiana has no experience operating a commercial-scale nuclear reactor, so it makes no sense to remove the State's authority in that regard without understanding what is necessary to protect public health and our environment. Assuming the bill passes the House, it will proceed directly to the Governor, who will sign it into law, and it will take immediate effect. Action is critical on both of these bills, both of which face action this week.

SB277 eliminates more than 250 environmental mandates and deregulates Indiana’s environment in the name of "efficiency." Of most concern to CAC is the elimination of any IDEM oversight related to the radioactive, hazardous and toxic waste resulting from the operations of nuclear reactors. SB277 also removes the IDEM Commissioner's authority to call a public hearing on the risks to public health and safety posed by nuclear reactors. Read more on this bill, featuring our colleagues at the Hoosier Environmental Council and our Lindsay Haake in the Indianapolis Business Journal. 

Coming up this week:

The House Committee on Energy Utilities and Telecommunications will meet on Tuesday to hear SB6, while the House Committee on Environmental Affairs will hear SB277 on Wednesday. Lastly, SB258 will be voted on by the full Senate. 

To follow these bills in real time, make sure you follow our social media for an up-to-date detailing of our work at the Indiana Statehouse: Facebook, X and Instagram. We tweet and post throughout the week about the progress of bills we mention in our reports.

Respectfully Submitted,

The CAC Team