Northwest Indiana lawmakers call for legislative investigation into NIPSCO’s storm response
Northwest Indiana's Democratic House delegation, joined by the ranking minority member of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee, today called on Speaker Todd Huston to direct the General Assembly to investigate NIPSCO's response to the Aug. 11 derecho that left hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers without electricity — thousands for more than two weeks.
In a letter sent to the Speaker, Chair of the Legislative Council, the lawmakers urged the Personnel Subcommittee of the Legislative Council to assign the topic to the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications interim study committee under SECTION 2 of Legislative Council Resolution 26-01, and to hold public hearings in the affected communities of Northwest Indiana.
The delegation specifically asked that the study committee (1) take public testimony in the Region rather than only at the Statehouse, so that members hear directly from residents and small businesses who went without power, and (2) require NIPSCO to appear before the committee for questioning.
“Northwest Indiana residents have endured more than two weeks without electric service,” the lawmakers wrote. “Those residents are frustrated that despite paying ever-higher rates to NIPSCO, the utility struggled to restore service while Illinois utilities restored service within four days of the disaster.”
Reports have circulated of out-of-state line crews providing aid who described the emergency response as poorly coordinated.
The House Democrats cited the General Assembly's independent responsibility to examine what went wrong and to be prepared to file legislation when the session convenes in January.
“The General Assembly has a responsibility to perform its own independent, public investigation of NIPSCO’s response to ensure it is prepared to introduce any necessary legislation during the upcoming legislative session,” the letter stated. “We should be acting with a sense of urgency to ensure any shortcomings in the response to this natural disaster are not suffered again by Northwest Indiana or any region of our state.”
A copy of the letter is available here.
Signed by: State Reps. Carolyn Jackson (HD 1-Hammond), Earl Harris Jr. (HD 2-East Chicago), Ragen Hatcher (HD 3-Gary), Randy Novak (HD 9-Michigan City), Chuck Moseley (HD 10-Portage), Mike Andrade (HD 12-Munster), Vernon G. Smith (HD 14-Gary), and Matt Pierce (HD 61-Bloomington), ranking member of the House Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications.