Guest column: Stop ratepayer robbery and oppose nuclear reactor bills

Chicago Tribune

14-02-2025

In standing-room-only NIPSCO rate case hearings this winter held by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), folks came out on blustery evenings and proved a point: Hoosiers cannot afford higher bills. From senior citizens still working full time yet bundled in sweaters and coats in their dark homes to school administrators explaining how another rate hike will eliminate teachers and necessary learning tools, the choices everyday Hoosiers are making are dire. Today, three proposed laws are winding their way through the statehouse, forfeiting what could amount to billions of tax dollars raising our utility prices even higher.
House Bill 1007 and Senate Bills 423 and 424 would use Indiana's electric customers as the majority financers of dubious, multibillion-dollar nuclear power schemes called small modular reactors (SMRs). For instance, House Bill 1007 offers tax credits to these companies, taxes that should be used to fund schools and essential services. Clearly, the needs of power-hungry data centers are being prioritized over the needs of our communities. During session hearings, I listened as lawmakers, undeterred in their loyalty to monopoly electric companies and private corporations, repeatedly declared that 'Indiana will lose out, get left behind, forfeit business' if we don't incentivize SMRs, delivered with an urgency that would make a snake oil salesman blush.
All three of these bills gut regulatory oversight, allowing utilities to begin charging customers for SMR projects before applying for approval, without ever applying for approval, or even if the project never breaks ground. No worries, though, because, according to an author of SB 423 and 424, ratepayers should rest assured that the IURC will not allow any unreasonable cost requests. This is laughably cold comfort when the IURC has consistently approved utility rate hikes, regardless of heart-wrenching public testimony from consumers begging for relief while our electric companies report significant profits.
We cannot ignore the underlying subtext of these bills: they may ultimately delay coal plant retirements and give the IURC authority to deny closures to serve data centers. The coal-burning NIPSCO Michigan City Generating Station (MCGS) is scheduled to shutter in 2028. Still, its fate and the millions of tons of toxic coal ash on the lakefront remain uncertain. Last week's settlement agreement between NIPSCO and LaPorte County commissioners included the prospect of 'a combined cycle gas turbine or gas peaker generating plant or locating battery energy storage systems or other energy technologies at the site.' This legislation could easily exploit this settlement and roll back the MCGS closure and other pending retirements, including the RM Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield and beyond.
Basic facts should raise common sense suspicions about these bills: there are no operating SMRs in the U.S. today. Even if proven workable, SMRs would take 8-10 years to become operational, while renewable energy options like wind, solar, battery, and geothermal are deployable today. These projects are not cost-effective. For example, NuScale's SMR project, developed for a municipal utility in Utah and Idaho, saw costs balloon to $9.3 billion by 2023, leading the utilities to exit the project. SMRs produce even more waste than a traditional nuclear plant, which is toxic, radioactive, and lasts for thousands of years. This issue could exacerbate the cumulative impact of pollution in already-burdened regions like Northwest Indiana. As we have seen in our area with BP Whiting's recent benzene leak, state agencies fail to provide adequate oversight, enforcement, and emergency communications on industrial incidents and violations.
Indiana monopoly utilities and data-driven corporations are acting like schoolyard bullies, with our lawmakers acting as henchmen, taking advantage of our communities, environment, and climate for corporate gain. It is past time to stop state-sanctioned ratepayer robbery and demand a just and equitable transition from fossil fuels. Join us in contacting your legislators and opposing these bills.