2026 Week 9 Statehouse Report
Deadlines are here once again, and regularly scheduled committee hearings have come to an end. Legislation that made it across the Statehouse from its original chamber, which failed to receive a hearing in the other chamber, is now officially dead.
This past week, we started President’s Day with a hearing in the Senate Elections Committee, where they amended House Bill 1359 to halve the number of days comprising Indiana's voting period. The Committee took no public testimony and passed the bill, 7-2. The bill remains on the Senate Second Reading calendar, with several amendments filed to restore the early voting period to the 30 days currently in state statute.
House Utilities Chairman Ed Soliday’s (R-Valparaiso) House Bill 1368, which requires the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to seek primacy for Indiana to issue Class VI permits for Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) remains on the Senate Third Reading calendar. Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency has exclusive authority to issue Class VI permits. We oppose the bill, primarily because it inexplicably continues to exempt the Wabash Valley Resources project in West Terre Haute from the Statewide rules governing CCS in Indiana.
Language regarding data centers from House Bill 1333 which sends a paltry 1% of the sales tax "savings" enjoyed by data centers to the local government entity from which the data center receives permitting approval is now in House Bill 1210, which is on the Senate Third reading calendar.
House Enrolled Act 1002 passed the House on Thursday by a vote of 94-2 after a unanimous Senate vote, and heads to Gov. Braun for further action. You can check out coverage from the Indiana Capital Chronicle here. The bill is a significant step forward and implements levelized billing - better known as budget billing - to only apply to households that are enrolled in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). While those households will still be allowed to opt-out of levelized billing, we expressed our opposition to treating low-income households differently from everyone else. We will work to influence the application process so 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.
HEA1002 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, these include assistance programs for low-income electric ratepayers, mandatory reporting of customer payment data to the Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC), and a disconnection moratorium during the hottest times of the year.
Senate Bill 240, which would allow for surplus interconnection service (SIS) to be included in utility Integrated Resource Plans as of 2029 is on the Senate concurrence calendar. CAC supports the bill as it may lead to lower costs for consumers and the more efficient interconnection of new clean energy resources.
Senate Enrolled Act 258 silences Hoosier voices by revoking the authority of the IDEM Commissioner (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) to conduct public hearings about the environmental effects of the operations of proposed nuclear reactors. SEA258 also reduces state oversight of nuclear facilities by removing the current authority of IDEM to adopt rules and standards to protect Hoosier communities and residents from the hazards of radiation, and to issue permits related to those rules and standards. Sadly, state legislators passed SB258, and Gov. Braun signed SEA258 into law this past week. You can visit the Governor’s Bill Watch page to keep up with the bills that have landed on his desk.
House Bill 1116, which we supported alongside the AARP, aims to prevent seniors from falling victim to cryptocurrency scams. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Scott Baldwin (R-Noblesville), was strengthened to fully ban crypto kiosks in Senate Committee and passed the Senate by a vote 45-0. The House concured with the Senate amendments by a vote of 94-1, and proceeds to the Governor for further action.
Indiana’s environmental deregulation bill, SB277 remains on the House’s Second Reading calendar, meaning it may be amended. The bill, if possible, became worse during the House Environmental Affairs Committee, with an amendment adding harmful PFAS language from SB237, a dead bill that would reclassify PFAS chemicals and could allow polluters to escape penalties for emitting “forever chemicals” into our air and water. We’ve been working with our colleagues from the Hoosier Environmental Council, Conservation Law Center, and Indiana Conservation Voters to educate legislators on SB277. Visit citact.org/act.26iga.sb277 to take action ASAP on this detrimental bill!
Coming up this week, Senate Bill 6 remains on the House Third Reading Calendar. We testified in support of SB6 this session, which speaks to the notification requirements that utilities must provide to landowners prior to condemning land for purposes of extending water or wastewater service.
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
