By Cate Charron
Indiana Business Journal
Jennifer McCormick, the Democrat running for Indiana governor, proposes banning ratepayer dollars from being used for lobbying and reinstating a Mitch Daniels-era energy efficiency program, according to her utility policy plan announced Thursday morning.
Utility costs have been brought up “nine out of 10 times” as an issue while she has been on the campaign trail, said McCormick, who is running against Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and Libertarian Donald Rainwater.
“I cannot overstate how much this topic is on the minds of so many Hoosiers because it is just a checkbook drain for so many who are trying to make ends meet,” she told reporters Thursday morning.
Her plan calls for reinstating net metering, a system that allowed Hoosiers who produced their own energy through solar panels to receive credits for the excess power they sent to the grid. Under Indiana’s old net-metering systems, customers were credited at a 1-to-1 rate.
In 2017, the legislature began rolling back that incentive, and homeowners are now paid at a lower rate for their surplus. And those installing new solar systems after June 30, 2022, no longer qualified for net metering.
The lack of a net metering is one of the reasons Indiana ranks near the bottom for going solar, according to alternative energy advocates.
McCormick said she would work with Republican lawmakers to bring back what she says was a popular initiative.
McCormick also said she wants to reinstate the energy-efficiency goals of the Energizing Indiana program, which was implemented under former Gov. Mitch Daniels in 2012 and killed by the legislature in 2014.
The program, which was paid for through a fee on household and business electric bills, was aimed at conserving energy use through home energy audits, commercial and industrial rebates, energy-efficiency lighting rebates, school education campaigns and weatherization for low-income homes.
Former Gov. Mike Pence didn’t sign the bill that killed the program, but he elected not to veto it.
McCormick said her proposal to the renew the program was an example of her bipartisan approach.
He overall plan also would prohibit certain uses of ratepayer dollars, such as for lobbying, advertising, trade association dues and political contributions.
McCormick also said she would change the current makeup of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and appoint leaders who “are committed to advocating for ratepayers, ensuring that the commission operates with the same competitive pressure that would exist if utilities were not protected from competition.”
Braun has not issued a specific energy plan during his campaign for governor, but plans to continue releasing policy specifics in partnership with conservative policy organization Hoosiers for Prosperity, Opportunity & Enterprise leading up to the election.
On his web site, Braun says “Indiana should embrace an energy policy that unleashes the prosperity of our state’s abundant natural resources and embraces new technologies that can deliver clean and affordable energy. Mike Braun will stand up to those that are forcing a transition to technologies that can’t meet energy demands, risk rolling blackouts, mean higher costs and will lead to lost jobs for thousands of Hoosiers.”
