Sierra Club statement on Vectren-CenterPoint merger announcement

EVANSVILLE, IN - On Monday, Vectren Corp. of Evansville and CenterPoint Energy of Houston, Texas, announced a merger agreement.

In response, Evansville resident Wendy Bredhold, Senior Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Indiana and Kentucky, released the following statement:

“This is the culmination of a sales process Vectren reportedly began months ago, but has been preparing for much longer. Indiana’s investor-owned utilities make their profits on the guaranteed return from their capital investments. The more ‘steel in the ground,’ the greater the profits for the utility. All of the projects for which Vectren has sought approval - the $514 million infrastructure plan, the $68 million mandatory smart meters, the $900 million fracked gas plant and 23-mile pipeline -  were intended to increase the value of the company to a buyer and maximize profits for shareholders, not serve customer needs.

“In preparing this deal, Vectren CEO Carl Chapman and top executives were thinking only of their profits and their platinum parachutes, while saddling our community with debt for decades to come. Now they will take their multimillion dollar payouts and run, crippling our community with their costly projects. Still pending approval is a $900 million fracked gas plant. Vectren should scrap those plans and force CenterPoint to go back to the drawing board in 2019, when the utility’s next 20-year planning process is scheduled to begin. CenterPoint should create a new generation plan that truly serves customer needs and begins to move our community beyond economically risky and polluting fossil fuels.”