Chemical-maker Vertellus Specialties Inc. will spend up to $1.1 million and change air-emission monitoring practices at its
plant on the southwest side of Indianapolis under a proposed settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Veolia Water Indianapolis, which manages the city’s water utility, has appealed an order issued by state utility regulators
that limited a major rate increase sought by the city.
Resigned to inevitable government curbs on their carbon dioxide emissions, about
all Indiana utilities could do was say which poison they’d prefer to swallow. They’re closer to
getting their favorite poison, with the U.S. House passage June 26 of a bill that would create a market
for trading carbon dioxide permits.
Bose McKinney & Evans’ defense of an Evansville company in a high-stakes environmental-contamination lawsuit has degenerated
into a fiasco, with a federal judge sanctioning both the client Red Spot Paint & Varnish Co. and law firm and ordering
each to pay half the plaintiff’s
legal bills.
On May 15, the Wall Street Journal published a letter from Gov. Mitch Daniels laying out his sharp opposition to the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act, which would set limits on carbon emissions to combat global warming.
The Indiana Recycling Coalition scored big in the just-concluded session of the Indiana General Assembly with the passage
of House Bill 1589, which requires that electronics manufacturers help pay for recycling of their old televisions and computer
monitors.
A trade group for the state’s telephone companies is wringing its hands over budding efforts of electric companies to offer
so-called smart grids to better monitor and manage electric distribution.
Cap and trade could lead us to a much cleaner, more prosperous future or it could devastate our economy.
In a move to delay construction of expensive new generating capacity, Indianapolis Power & Light wants to roll out “smart”
electric meters to help customers conserve electricity.
Local health groups are aghast at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s decision to end contracts with six
local air pollution control agencies.
Sugar Creek Utility Co. wants the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to grant it rate relief for the 84-lot manufactured
housing community Riley Village.
An electric co-op supplying power to customers in 48 central and southern Indiana counties could face a perilous spike in
its financial load following a $120 million claim against it by insurance giant John Hancock Life Insurance Co.
State environmental regulators are catching an earful for what some businesses complain is a rush to aggressive new rules
for remediating land contamination. Developers worry the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s proposals, which
could require comprehensive site cleanup, will discourage brownfield redevelopment, especially the reuse of tainted-but-valuable
land in urban areas.
Helped by a combination of plant closures and better emission controls, industrial air pollution in the nine-county region
has fallen 14 percent since the economic boom of the late 1990s, a federal database shows. But even with the reductions, the
metro area will struggle to comply with reduced ground-level ozone limits announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
March 12.
Utility ratepayer groups say House Bill 1496, which is stuck in committee, is typical of what they see as a disturbing trend:
allowing utilities to pass the cost of mandates directly to consumers. HB 1496 would require Indiana’s coal-reliant electric
utilities to generate at least 10 percent of their power from renewable energy sources like wind and landfill gas.
The cost of a pollution-control project at Indianapolis Power & Light’s Harding Street generating station has soared over
budget by $60 million, or 38 percent, and the utility wants its 465,000 customers in Marion County and nine others to help
foot the bill.
