The Indiana state legislature convened on January 8 and provided a glimpse at the energy future Governor Braun and State Lawmakers have in mind for Indiana. Multiple bills (House Bill 1007, Senate Bill 423, and Senate Bill 424 ) were introduced paving the way for a gold rush of unproven small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) development in our state. Simultaneously, HB 1007 throws up roadblocks to retiring coal plants that are driving our climate crisis while polluting our air and water. At the center of it all are taxpayer handouts to billion dollar tech companies, and customer payouts to monopoly electric companies.
The A.B. Brown coal plant stopped burning coal in October 2023. HB 1007 could delay the retirement at coal plants like this one across the state.
Should these bills become law, we face costly detours on the road to affordable renewable energy that benefits all Hoosiers.
Today, there are no examples of functioning SMR’s in the United States - this technology remains unproven and obscenely expensive. In 2023 the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) exited plans with NuScale to build 462 MW of nuclear power generation, a small amount of power. An understandable decision after the estimated cost of construction had risen to $9.3 billion and the promise of building Small Scale Nuclear Reactors was a failure. To put those costs in perspective, Duke Energy’s disastrous 798 MW Edwardsport Coal Gasification plant has cost customers $3.5 billion. It’s no surprise that Duke is pursuing SMR’s given their history of profiting off of experimental technology.
These bills could put Hoosiers on the line for the costs of developing unproven SMR’s, and reverse the progress our utilities have made in transitioning away from coal to affordable renewable energy. Hoosier customers shouldn’t be forced to pay massive rate increases for private companies experiments with nuclear power if these bills become law. Customers are already being asked to put too many of our hard earned dollars into aging and expensive coal plants operating past their useful life. Adding more delays and regulatory costs to retiring coal plants will only compound the energy affordability crisis faced by Hoosier families.