Pierce comments on utility affordability hearing conducted by the IURC

Today, March 24, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) held an investigative inquiry into Indiana's investor-owned utilities: AES Indiana, CenterPoint Energy Indiana, Duke Energy Indiana, LLC, Indiana Michigan Power Company, and Northern Indiana Public Service Company, LLC (NIPSCO). 

State Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington), the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Energy, Telecommunications and Utilities, released the following statement on the hearing: 

“I welcome the IURC’s decision to finally focus on utility affordability. The questions raised today should have been the focus of the prior Commission during all the rate cases when it approved rate increases. The question is what concrete action will the IURC take to help Hoosier families struggling to pay these bills?

 “The Indiana General Assembly should not escape scrutiny. Time and again, it has chosen utility profits over customer costs. The Commission should analyze the General Assembly's past decade of giveaways to utilities and recommend changes in the law to give the Commission the power necessary to rebalance a regulatory process the legislature has stacked against customers who pay the bills.“