Dive Brief:
- After spiking the "Energize Indiana" program last year, the state's Senate has passed a bill requiring utilities to show how they plan to boost efficiency on a rolling three-year schedule, WBAA Public Radio reports.
- The measure faces opposition from environmentalists and some in the state House. Critics are concerned about costs to ratepayers because the bill fails to limit how long utilities can recover revenue lost to efficiency programs through rate increases.
Dive Insight:
Gov. Mike Pence last year declined to veto a controversial bill that spiked the state's energy efficiency program, Energizing Indiana. Now lawmakers are considering a new bill to encourage efficiency, but though it passed convincingly in the Senate the measure may face opposition from House lawmakers.
“They’re going to come in eventually on a base rate case, they’re going to get all those fixed costs covered but they’re still going to get that energy efficiency lost recovery, year after year after year,” Rep. Matt Pierce (D) told WBAA Public Radio.
According to the Sierra Club,the state's decision last year made Indiana the first to roll back energy savings goals.
After the program was defunded, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission issued a report finding the state was saving $3 for every $1 spent on residential efficiency. On the commercial and industrial side, the savings were as much as $5.49 for each dollar spent.
