Citizen Power | October 2026
Energy Efficiency ~ Regulatory Roundup ~ Data Center Digest ~ CAC Shoutout ~ CAC in the News
Are you taking advantage of the energy efficiency programs available to you?
As utility rates continue to increase across the state, Hoosiers are increasingly looking for ways to save money and conserve electricity. We know that energy efficiency is the cheapest and cleanest source of electricity because it is the electricity that never needs to be generated in the first place. That’s why one story we are highlighting in this month’s Citizen Power relates to some of the key energy efficiency programs available to Hoosier households.
With substantial input from advocates like CAC and oversight from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), Indiana's utilities offer a number of beneficial programs designed to help you reduce electricity consumption.
These utility programs pass rigorous cost-benefit tests and are available to both renters and homeowners. The end result is lower bills for customers and the need for fewer expensive and polluting power plants – a true win-win for consumers and the environment.
While each utility’s energy efficiency program is unique, many of them include rebates on energy-efficient appliances and HVAC tune-ups, insulation and weatherization that can significantly reduce your energy needs in the winter and summer alike, incentives for smart thermostats, and other energy- and cost-saving measures.
Read more about these programs below and check out your utility’s webpage, along with other energy efficiency resources in Indiana, to make sure you don’t miss out!
In solidarity,
The CAC Team
Regulatory Roundup
**CAC Advocates for More Robust Utility Energy Efficiency Programs**
CAC continues to advocate for more robust energy efficiency programs as a member of utility Demand-Side Management (DSM, also known as energy efficiency and conservation) Oversight Boards and in DSM cases at the IURC. This summer, we worked with our long-time energy efficiency and demand response experts at Energy Futures Group to file testimony in DSM Plan cases before the IURC for AES Indiana (Cause No 46417), NIPSCO Electric (Cause Number 46391), and NIPSCO Gas (Cause Number 46390). As always, CAC's recommendations focus on making the programs more robust and an even better deal for Hoosier utility customers.
Did you know that both the State of Indiana (via funding from the federal government) and many Indiana utilities currently offer rebates and incentives for energy efficiency upgrades to your home and business? You can find residential energy efficiency incentives for Indiana's five investor-owned electric utilities at the following links:
**IURC Grants Rehearing in AES Rate Case**
The IURC granted requests by CAC and the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor to reconsider its decision from earlier this summer in the AES Indiana rate case (Cause Number 46258), including readdressing important pillars of Indiana's energy policy like affordability. The IURC’s order had approved a $71 million rate increase, resulting in a public rebuke of the IURC from Governor Braun and the demotion of then-Chairman Andy Zay, who was fired by the Governor later in the summer.
In addition, the IURC granted CAC’s request to rehear the case to gather new evidence regarding the Google data center in Monrovia and the acquisition of AES Corp. by a BlackRock-led consortium – two developments that occurred after the record had initially closed in the case. It is rare for the IURC to rehear and reconsider a rate case decision in this manner, and a major positive development for Indianapolis residents.
**CAC Opposes NIPSCO’s Coal Rate Hike at FERC as Court Strikes Down Federal Coal Plant Overreach in Michigan**
CAC joined other leading consumer and environmental organizations in opposing NIPSCO’s request to raise rates by $38 million across the Midwest to pay for Q1 2026 operating and repair costs, plus millions in profits for NIPSCO shareholders, for the Schahfer coal plant.
NIPSCO planned to retire the plant in December 2025, but the federal government intervened at the last second, ordering the coal plant to stay open, ostensibly to aid reliability across the Midwest. One small problem with that logic: one unit of the broken-down coal plant hasn’t operated since February, and the other hasn’t operated since July 2025. NIPSCO is now spending tens of millions to rebuild the broken down coal plant and planning to send the bill to ratepayers across the Midwest.
In late September, the U.S. Department of Energy issued additional orders requiring that NIPSCO keep Schahfer open, as well as that CenterPoint keep coal-fired Culley Unit 2 open, though at least December 18, 2026.
In addition, NIPSCO filed a second cost recovery proposal at FERC, requesting an additional $62.6 million rate increase to cover Q2 2026 costs, even though the power plant didn’t generate any electricity during the quarter. The request would bring the total net costs for keeping the coal plant open in the first half of the year to more than $100 million.
The Schahfer coal plant’s days could be numbered, however. A panel of judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the Trump administration’s emergency order forcing a Michigan coal plant to stay open, finding it exceeded the federal government’s authority. The facts of the case closely parallel CAC’s pending legal challenges of similar federal government orders for two Indiana coal plants. If the decision is upheld (it can still be appealed to the full Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court), it could result in the federal orders being struck down in Indiana.
Data Center Digest
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Did you miss our data center webinar on September 1st? No worries – you can watch the replay here to get the latest updates. -
A worker from Oklahoma was struck by a truck and killed at the Meta data center construction site at the LEAP District in Lebanon, local media reported.
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A CAC analysis of estimated data center power demand under contracts executed with electric utilities in Indiana finds that it will grow by an astonishing 60 times in a 10-year period.CAC estimates that data centers could use nearly 10,000 MW of power by 2032, equivalent to roughly half of Indiana’s 2024 peak power demand and representing a nearly 75% increase in statewide electricity consumption. Dozens of additional, pending data center proposals in Indiana could add to this total.
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The Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission approved a 15-year, 90% personal property tax abatement and a 10-year, 60% real property tax abatement for the Sabey data center in Decatur Township.
Staff estimated that the subsidy package would reduce property taxes paid by the data center by $240 million over that 15-year period. It projects creating only 75 permanent jobs.
Consideration of a separate subsidy package for the Metrobloks data center was pushed to the October 21, 2026 MDC meeting.
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IDEM issued a draft water pollution permit for NIPSCO that would allow it to mix waste streams from the Schahfer coal plant and coal ash with the wastewater from a new Amazon data center and a new 2,600 MW methane gas combined cycle power plant in a settling basin prior to discharging the combined wastewater into the Kankakee River, as further detailed in an April 10th NIPSCO submission.IDEM is accepting public comments through October 22, 2026. Click on the link and scroll down to "How can you participate in this process?" to find the instructions to submit your comments.
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New drone photos of the Google data center under construction in Fort Wayne show extensive impacts at the site. IDEM approved a Google request in September to destroy the wetlands to make way for the data center. -
The Google data center in Fort Wayne is expanding its sanitary sewer system to accommodate more than 3 million gallons of water per day (GPD) at peak and 763,000 GPD on average, according to an IDEM filing.
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Indiana’s new Commerce Secretary Chuck Goodrich, is remaining CEO of Gaylor Electric despite his appointment, local media reported. Gaylor Electric designs and builds data centers, among other developments. Secretary Goodrich also serves on the board of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), which has awarded lavish subsidies to data centers in recent years.
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As of mid-September 2026., at least 28 counties and 10 municipalities in Indiana have enacted a data center moratorium or ban, according to CAC’s research. -
The IEDC approved a 25-year sales tax exemption for a crypto-mining operation from Terra Hosting in Vermillion County at a former military site, according to IEDC documents.
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President Trump lashed out at Americans opposing data centers in their communities, saying their communities would “end up being backwards and poor” in a social media post.
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Would you support or oppose a data center being built near where you live? As of August, 75% of Americans said they would oppose a data center being built near where they live, a stunning reversal in public opinion from 1 year before, when only 42% of Americans opposed them, according to polling by Heatmap Pro / Embold Research.
CAC Shoutout
CAC gives a shoutout to our colleagues at the AI Now Institute. The AI Now Institute is a policy research institute on artificial intelligence that develops policy strategies to redirect away from the current trajectory of unbridled commercial surveillance, consolidation of power in very few companies, and a lack of public accountability.
Our colleagues at the AI Now Institute have put together extensive resources on data centers, including a free online training series and a robust policy toolkit, geared toward stopping, slowing, and restricting rampant data center development in the U.S. at the local and state level.
CAC in the News
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CAC Executive Director Kerwin Olson spoke with Kara Kenney at ABC6, criticizing a settlement agreement between Governor Braun and former IURC Commissioner Andy Zay. After Braun fired Zay, Zay filed a lawsuit claiming he was unlawfully fired without cause, resulting in a settlement in which Zay received $625,000. His $625,000 payday will come out of the IURC budget, resulting in less funding for IURC staff, consultants, and resources, further undermining utility affordability in Indiana.
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CAC Program Director Ben Inskeep wrote about the powerful unity we’re seeing across Indiana as Hoosiers work together to protect their communities from the many risks from AI data centers in the Indiana Capital Chronicle. -
CAC Lead Organizer Bryce Gustafson and Program Director Ben Inskeep were quoted extensively in a Guardian article about how communities across the United States are uniting to push back against data centers. “Data centers are the physical manifestation of the greed and the hubris and the power of the AI oligarchs,” said Bryce. “That gets people thinking about why we are allowing these tech billionaires to just run roughshod over our state.”
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CAC Program Director Ben Inskeep was quoted in the Chicago Tribune, stating, “The general assembly has passed law after law over the past two decades that give our utilities the ability to add these tracker mechanisms or [bill] surcharge mechanisms that allow for these frequent rate changes.” -
Our Program Director Ben Inskeep spoke with Fox 32 Chicago about NIPSCO double charging at least 4,000 gas customers, which is currently being investigated by the IURC. “We’re talking about potentially one of the largest and longest lasting gas metering problems of any utility in US history. We’re looking at 4,000 customers so far that have been identified as being double charged for gas service - potentially for years on end.”
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Our Executive Director Kerwin Olson spoke with Fox 59 about the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s plan to investigate NIPSCO following the long power outages that lasted up to two weeks last month. “We would certainly hope that the IURC would conduct some hearings to hear from the public, especially the folks up in Gary and Portage and Hobart and other places that suffered for a long time without power,” Olson said.
