House Bill 1470 gives Indiana monopoly utilities a Blank Check at YOUR expense!

House Bill 1470 was a clear attempt by Indiana’s monopoly utilities to usurp the regulatory process so they can raise your rates as much as they want, whenever they want. 

HB1470 effectively guarantees captive Hoosier gas and electric customers will face ENORMOUS increases in their monthly utility bills.

HB1470 amends the controversial Senate Enrolled Act 560 (SEA560, 2013), giving Indiana’s electric and natural gas utilities a tracker to raise your rates virtually automatically for the costs related to investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Trackers (a.k.a. bill “riders”) allow the utilities to raise your rates without filing a base rate case. This means that they get to raise rates when their costs are going up in certain areas, without having to open up their books and lower rates when their costs are going down in other areas. For example, the utilities would be able to charge you for new poles and wires with a tracker, while also continuing to charge you for the old poles and wires that they replaced that are still included in your base rates. 

Before, SEA560 required that the utilities clearly identified the projects they were planning on spending your money on. The utilities didn’t like that, so they wrote HB1470 to remove that requirement. 

Despite outcry from many coalition groups, HB1470 was passed and Governor Eric Holcomb signed the bill.

Indiana should be exploring legislation to shield consumers from the excesses of monopoly utilities, NOT increasing the monopoly stranglehold on the regulatory process.

CHILLING FREE SPEECH: Senate Bill 471 threatens the Constitutional Rights of all Hoosiers.

SB471 threatens the Constitutional Rights of all Hoosiers, including Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom of Association. It imposes high criminal punishment for offenses involving “critical infrastructure facilities,” which it defines as places such as power plants, pipelines, refineries, and dams, among many others. This legislation elevates the misdemeanor of trespass to a FELONY offense, punishable with up to 2½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine. If property damage occurs, the offense is punishable by up to six years and a $10,000 fine.  The bill goes even further to make entire groups of people collectively liable for the actions of one individual. Any organization that simply verbalizes support for an individual, an organization, or an action, can be found guilty of an offense under this legislation, and could be fined up to $100,000. SB471 is riddled with ambiguity and will have an enormous chilling effect on the Constitutional Rights of Hoosiers. 

While legislators made efforts to remove some of the problematic language in the bill and despite more than 10,000 messages sent to legislators by our coalition of supporters and calls on the Governor to veto, SB 471 was signed into law.

REDISTRICTING REFORM:

As an active member of The Indiana Coalition for Independent Redistricting (All IN for Democracy), CAC advocated for redistricting reform in the 2019 Indiana General Assembly. The coalition played a significant role in putting forth a proposal that merged the best features from redistricting laws across the country. 
Once again, the Indiana Senate took historic strides in passing reform this year while the House decided to kill the issue. The Indiana legislature fell short of passing any redistricting legislation despite the introduction of several bills.

For a deeper discussion of redistricting, you can visit our Redistricting Campaign Page.

Please check our weekly reports for more details on how the session played out. And be sure to follow our social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) for an up-to-date detailing of our work at the Indiana Statehouse.

Below are the lists of the bills that CAC is following during the 2019 Indiana General Assembly:

2019 Consumer, Energy, and Utility Bill Watch List 

2019 Agriculture and Environment Bill Watch List 

2019 Redistricting & Good Government Bill Watch List 

Below are our weekly reports regarding the goings-on at the Indiana State House:

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 1

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 2 

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 3 

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 4

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 5

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 6

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 7

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 8 & 9 (Halftime Report) 

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 10

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 11

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 12

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 13

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Week 14

2019 Indiana General Assembly Report, Final Report