The bill's author, Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, said he's going to take the next few days to review the House's changes before determining whether to ask the Senate to approve it or send the bill to a conference committee to restore its original wording.
TThe House voted 66-30 to amend the bill with language that prohibits the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission from extending or entering into contracts for Energizing Indiana’s statewide energy efficiency program after Dec. 31
Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc.’s recent expansion into the South has thrust the Carmel group into a dispute over whether it has to pay for using another firm’s power lines.
The Obama administration is squaring off at the Supreme Court with industry groups and Republican-led states, including Indiana, over a small but important program aimed at limiting power-plant and factory emissions of gases blamed for global warming.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission openings generated heavy interest. Gov. Mike Pence added a second round of interviews in order to hear from 21 candidates.
The Merrillville-based utility estimates rates for its 457,000 electricity customers will rise 0.5 percent in 2015 and then about 1 percent per year through 2020 under the plan approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
The Pence administration is discussing whether to include electric-utility deregulation in a new state energy policy, making Indiana one of the few states since California’s electricity crisis to consider opening its market to competition.
Sen. Jim Merritt said the existing energy-efficiency program is unfair to industries because many of them are already paying for sophisticated in-house programs focused on cutting energy use and pursuing other efficiencies.
A controversial power plant planned for southern Indiana has quickly and quietly moved forward after developers said they no longer planned to pursue the project.
Lack of transmission lines keeps green energy from flowing to the Midwest.
Tuesday's annual report by The Solar Foundation said Indiana saw a 178-percent increase in solar-industry jobs from 2012 to 2013.
The Indiana Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded a former regulatory attorney for negotiating a job for himself with Duke Energy Corp. while presiding over a case involving a Duke project.
Duke Energy Indiana is taking proposals for solar power projects called for under a settlement the utility reached last year with consumer groups.
A utility that provides electricity for more than 582,000 homes and businesses in Indiana and Michigan has begun a $500 million project to improve infrastructure over the next eight years.
Natural gas customers in central Indiana will pay $30 to $50 more than a year ago when they receive their January gas bills because of the unusually cold weather.
Central Indiana propane dealers are rationing their inventories to help supplies last and transporting propane here from as far away as Mississippi, Kansas and South Carolina. An estimated 500,000 Hoosiers rely on propane to heat their homes.
Twenty-one candidates are in the running to fill two openings on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
Many distributors in the Midwest are limiting the amount of propane they deliver to customers. And the Indiana attorney general’s office is urging Hoosiers to conserve the amount of propane used to heat their homes.
NiSource, which operates the largest natural gas distribution company and second largest electric distribution company in the state, could be acquired by a company seeking to profit from the shale-gas boom.
Streets were closed Monday morning near the Central Library as utility crews tried to suss out the cause of the leak.
