IBLC: Emissions deregulation will hurt Hoosiers across the board

On Sept. 14, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would be rolling back Obama and Biden-era regulations which required coal and gas power plants to capture 90% of climate-altering pollution by 2032. The previous administration estimated that these regulations would prevent 1,200 premature deaths, 360,000 cases of asthma and 57,000 lost workdays. Today, Gov. Mike Braun was joined by a representative of the EPA to announce Indiana will happily oblige these rollbacks.

State Rep. Earl Harris Jr. (D-East Chicago), chair of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus (IBLC), issued the following statement on behalf of the IBLC:

"Gov. Braun alleges these deregulations will save billions of dollars in energy production. Even if that is the case, what we save on energy production we will have to spend in healthcare mitigating the harms of this disastrous decision. Hoosiers simply cannot afford any measures that would further jeopardize our health and our environment. Indiana is already one of the most polluted state in the nation. We are 36th in the nation for health care outcomes – in part due to our high rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes – and have the tenth highest per-person healthcare costs in the nation. Gov. Braun cannot claim this move is about 'affordability' when our healthcare costs are bound to skyrocket as a result. It is reprehensible for the Braun administration to jeopardize public health in order to potentially lower utility bills when there are better paths toward affordability that won’t make our state sicker.

"This decision will hurt Hoosiers across the board but will disproportionally impact Black Hoosiers and low-income Hoosiers. A 2026 report found that Black Americans are more likely than their white counterparts to live near coal plants. In 2023, the World Resources Institute found that 45% of Americans living within 30 miles of a coal or energy plant are 'disadvantaged' economically. There are countless ways to lower utility rates without sacrificing the health of our vulnerable neighbors. This is a careless approach from Gov. Braun, and Hoosiers will pay the price."