The 21st Century
Energy Task Force, formed by Indiana’s General Assembly during the 2019
legislative session, voted Thursday to pass its final recommendations after
months of testimony.
But some task force
members and consumer advocates criticized the recommendations as being so
vague they could give a shield to lawmakers to pass legislation favorable to
the state’s struggling coal industry.
The 15-member panel
is recommending that the General Assembly pass a law that would create a
mechanism to be used by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission “to assure
generation and transmission resource adequacy throughout Indiana.” Another
recommendation calls for a law that would set forth “specific metrics and
goals” for generation capacity and reliability.
Neither
recommendation, however, gave specifics on how such laws would address the
dramatic shift by utilities from coal to cleaner sources of energy such as
wind and solar power.
Task force member
Rep. Matt Pierce, a Bloomington Democrat, said several of the
recommendations were too vague to support and could lead to legislation some
lawmakers say the task force blessed.
“We haven’t laid
out in specific way what these metrics should be or even the parameters for
them,” Pierce said.
Rep. Ed Soliday, a
Valparaiso Republican and the task force’s co-chair, said legislation has
already been drafted on both recommendations, but he did not give specifics.
The panel’s report
is not binding and it’s still up to the Indiana legislature to put it into
action. The task force includes members of both houses of the legislature,
along with academics, the state’s utility consumer counselor and utility
advocates.
While the panel has
encouraged renewables -- emphasizing that renewable energy
is important to keep Indiana competitive in attracting and retaining certain
businesses Ñ it also wants to keep fossil fuels around.
Electricity
affordability and reliability is a huge issue in Indiana, which is the
nation’s most manufacturing-intensive state. Steelmakers, automakers, retail
superstores and other large customers consume massive amounts of electricity
every day.
In recent years,
large Indiana utilities have announced plans to shutter thousands of
megawatts of coal-fired generating capacity in favor of cheaper fuel
sources, such as natural gas, solar and wind.
Some consumer
advocates contends the report’s language could lead to controversial
mechanisms recently passed in Illinois and Ohio that bailed out struggling
power plants.
“We fear it opens
the door to a bailout of Indiana’s coal fleet, or at a minimum, it could
extend the life of un-economic coal plants which should be retired now,”
said Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition of
Indiana.
The Indiana Energy
Association, a trade group representing five investor-owned utilities, said
it looked forward to working with lawmakers to address the findings and
recommendations. The group said those include initiatives to “keep Indiana
competitive in attracting and retaining businesses” and encouraging
renewable energy resources without “compromising the reliability and
affordability of electric utility service.”
“We’ll continue to
work with the state legislature on policies that support these goals,” said
Danielle McGrath, the group’s president.
Â