Home » Utilities

Utilities

Articles

New utility consumer counselor is no stranger: Former Ameritech lawyer may have to reach out and touch consumer watchdogs

Consumer groups didn’t get a ponytailed zealot to head the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor. No surprise there. Gov. Mitch Daniels has been fond of appointing ex-industry insiders to lead agencies charged with monitoring those same industries. What the OUCC gets in former Ameritech attorney David Stippler is, at the very least, a man who already knows the utility industry in Indiana. The Evansville native has argued before its regulatory agencies for many years. “They don’t have to forge a…

Read More

Legislators tackle range of business-related measures:

Property tax reform took center stage during the just-completed session of the Indiana General Assembly. But lawmakers also grappled with a host of other measures with business implications. A roundup appears below. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT One of the session’s most divisive issues-whether to penalize companies that hire illegal immigrants-died during the waning hours. Under the legislation, introduced by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, companies could have had their business licenses suspended, or revoked after three instances. The Senate and House passed…

Read More

VIEWPOINT: Indianapolis’ utility acne syndrome

It took decades of turning a blind eye to get here: Indianapolis has draped itself in utility poles. Walk, ride, jog or drive to any major street in Indianapolis, with the exceptions of a few designated boulevards, streets and avenues. Take a mental picture of where you are. Now, with Photoshop in your mind, remove the web of utility poles and wires from that picture and quickly open your eyes. We’re visually strangled by them. Few streets are exempt from…

Read More

Citizens drops plan to use synthetic gas: Indianapolis utility says it can tap other suppliers and pay favorable prices

Citizens Gas has closed the valve on plans to buy synthetic natural gas from a $1.5 billion coal gasification plant slated for southwestern Indiana, leaving two other Indiana utilities as the initial customers. The Indianapolis gas utility attributed the pullout to the diversification of its gas supply since the Indiana Gasification LLC project was announced in October 2006. Citizens also signaled it would look at buying more supply through a gas purchasing authority it and two other municipal utilities created…

Read More

Office tower bounces back: Renovated National City Center recovering from loss of Simon

Once reeling from the loss of its largest tenant, National City Center now has a rising occupancy rate amid a major renovation that is resuscitating the aging office building. Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc. vacated 182,000 square feet in National City Center by moving to its new headquarters a block away in the fall of 2006. The departure left the 16-story tower at the southwest corner of Washington and Illinois streets 28-percent unoccupied after years of being nearly full. Owner…

Read More

Uphill battle ahead: State poses tough test for new enviro leader

By the time Jesse Kharbanda earned a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford, the University of Chicago student already knew he wanted to advocate environmental policies in the developing world, someday. Eight years later, some might say Kharbanda has landed in the developing world, all right-Indiana, insofar as it’s considered the backwater of environmental stewardship. One might recall the state’s 49thplace ranking in a 2007 review of “greenest” states by Forbes magazine. Only West Virginia-a national leader in illiteracy-scored worse….

Read More

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: The right time for climate change may finally be here

While the world’s political climate is heating up, its economic climate is cooling down. Meanwhile, the real climate is finally getting the attention it really deserves, as the “tipping point” has been reached. Green is everywhere these days. New York Times For homes that no longer grow in value. If the personal consumption rates in China rose to the levels of the United States, annual oil consumption in the world would go up more than 100 percent! Oil consumption in…

Read More

Bills would require utilities to reduce reliance on coal

Two bills in the Indiana Legislature would require utilities that operate here to supply up to 25 percent of their electricity from renewable resources such as wind, landfill gas, and plant and animal waste. Backers say utilities need more incentive to diversify from coal-based power generation.

Read More

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: The worst of this year’s technology snafus

Another year gone, and yet another Christmas gift for you. Every year, I collect examples of utterly horrendous technological snafus and write about them. No matter how awful your own meltdowns may have been, they can’t have been as bad as these, so enter the new year with a light heart. The first example of disaster is fresh in the news still, at least in reports from the British Broadcasting Corp. The English government has lost disks with personal information…

Read More

eGix buyout sets up Bell battle

The fiercely competitive local telecommunications landscape should get even more heated, following Cincinnati Bell Inc.’s
$18 million acquisition of Carmel-based eGix Inc. eGix provides bundled voice and data services, as well as high-speed Internet
access and messaging products, to about 17,000 commercial customers.

Read More

Biz issues move to back seat: Property-tax reform leaves little time for other work

Reforming the state’s property tax system will consume so much of the legislative session that the Indiana General Assembly isn’t expected to give much attention to other issues pertinent to the business community. Compounding matters is the fact that the session, which runs from mid-January to mid-March, is of the short variety, meaning legislators have less time to debate issues than they would during the long, odd-year meetings. “I think [property tax reform] is the most intense and voluminous issue…

Read More

EYE ON THE PIE: Are unions really that important?

Uncle Uriah Marcus visited us on Thanksgiving. It took over a week to recover. He blames “the @#%$# unions” for most of our state’s woes. Uncle Uriah asserts “them big unions scares businesses away from Indiannie.” A sample of his views: High property taxes: It’s the teachers’ union’s fault because teachers keep pushing up their earnings and reducing their responsibility. Congestion in cities: Bus workers’ unions keep fares too high for anyone to ride the bus. The battle between the…

Read More

Niche firms thrive despite anonymity: Some small businesses don’t need storefronts to keep customers coming

Whimsical Whisk isn’t your neighborhood bakery. Pastry chef Clare Welage never wanted it to be. She started the patisserie in 2004 with plans to differentiate herself from the competition by making desserts from scratch using all-natural ingredients, designing items specifically for the customer and-just as important-going without a storefront. “I’ve always felt that if you open up a storefront and you have a specialty product, something somewhere gets compromised,” Welage said. “Ultimately, it’s the quality of the product or it’s…

Read More

Union says utility owes $115M

In a case with huge financial implications for Indianapolis Power & Light and Virginia parent AES Corp., a labor union and
16 IPL retirees have asked regulators to force the utility to pay up to $115 million to back-fund a retirement plan it spun
off in 2001.

Read More

Power plant opponents claim Duke, governor interfered: IURC head received letter, press release referring to Edwardsport project

Groups opposing Duke Energy’s coal gasification plant proposed for Edwardsport allege the utility and Gov. Mitch Daniels tried to sway regulators with improper contact and political pressure to get the $2 billion plant approved. They “are clearly trying to back-door the public decision-making process,” said Jerry Polk, an attorney representing a group led by Citizens Action Coalition. Polk this month filed a complaint with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, citing a Sept. 25 letter an executive from Duke’s Charlotte, N.C.,…

Read More

Ex-Duke exec, wife tackle senior housing: Horns have nationwide plans for The Stratford Cos.

Richard and Wendy Horn have had their share of separate real estate successes. Now, they’ve combined their corporate talents as a husband-and-wife team to lead an upstart senior housing developer. Richard joined The Stratford Cos. in May 2006 as chairman and CEO, and has since moved its headquarters from St. Louis to Indianapolis’ north side in Parkwood Crossing. He is known within commercial real estate circles as a former veteran of Duke Realty Corp., where he enjoyed a two-year stint…

Read More

Commentary: Region is missing benefits of planning

Good urban design can create value for communities, individuals, the economy and the environment. The potential benefits include better public health, greater social equity, enhanced land values, a more vibrant local economy, reduced vehicle emissions and a more sustainable use of non-renewable resources. Central Indiana lacks geographical barriers to growth. Land is abundant and reasonably priced. However, the region lacks a cross-jurisdictional plan to manage growth and maximize the benefits from it. Instead, fields grow corn one season and homes…

Read More

Landlords bring pipe to fight with regulators: Prospect of state oversight brings flood of protest

The state’s apartment industry, backed by firms that landlords hire to bill their tenants for water and sewer service, says state officials are legally all wet if they try to regulate the industry as utilities. Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission jurisdiction “does not extend to the regulation of a landlord’s water pipes any more than it may extend to a homeowner’s garden hose,” Clayton Miller, a Baker & Daniels attorney representing the Water Sub-Billing and Conservation Coalition, told the commission last…

Read More

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Investing in liquid assets? Try giving water a good look

G e o – p o l i t i c a l events and the media keep our focus on the price of oil, its potential supply interruptions and the need to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil. Very little is written or reported about another very strategic resource-water. A top United Nations official addressing the 17th Annual World Water Week in Stockholm last August stated that water is going to be the dominant world issue far into…

Read More