Gov. Mike Braun created a new task force to address Indiana’s growing demand for energy — largely driven by AI data centers, new manufacturing plants and electric vehicles. But consumers — who will be paying for the things needed to meet that demand — don’t have a seat at the table.
The new Strategic Energy Growth Task Force will mostly be made up of people Braun appointed to the state’s departments of energy, environment and natural resources — as well as industry groups and utility leaders in the legislature.
Consumer advocates weren’t invited. Governor Braun said the task force is about choosing the state’s energy source of the future — which, in his opinion, will be small modular nuclear reactors.
None of them have been built in the U.S. yet and many current projects gone way over budget. One federally-funded project was canceled in 2023 after more than a decade of work and nearly $9 billion in costs.
Braun said whether utilities should take on more of the financial risk is a separate discussion he’s “happy to have.”
“We all pay an electric bill and some of that risk may need to be shouldered more by those entities than what it’s been in the past," he said.
But Braun signed bills this year that further shift the financial risk of small nuclear plants onto consumers.
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Consumer advocates question how the state can choose the way it will generate energy in the future without fully considering the cost.
Kerwin Olson is with the consumer and environmental advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition.
“This task force, to me, appears to be, ‘Let's build, build, build, build, build and we'll figure out the costs later,’” he said.
Olson said deciding if an energy source is affordable is a critical part of the state’s process. If that gets left out, he said it will lead to higher costs for both utilities and their customers. Olson said groups concerned about public health and the environment should also be heard on the task force.
Joseph Rompala is an attorney representing the very groups the task force is working to serve — large energy customers like industrial companies and data centers. He said any solutions the state comes up with need to work for the customers too — not just utilities or grid operators.
“Because if they don't — if they don't make economic sense — customers won't pursue them," he said.
Rompala said industrial companies and data centers also have a big role to play in helping to meet the energy demands of the state. They can choose times to ramp down their operations to save power and some are generating their own electricity.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or on Signal at IPBenvironment.01. Follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.