ICV Legislative Update: Week of February 21, 2025

OUR THIRD HOUSE MEETING CALENDAR IS LIVE!

As we enter the second half of the legislative session, we compiled a calendar of “Third House” events, where lawmakers hold meetings in their home districts to get feedback from their constituents.

If you know of a third house event in your community that we missed, please respond to this email and let us know the details so we can include it in our list. Learn more about Third House meetings in this blog post.

As you consider the issues ICV is engaged on, here are some sample questions you can ask lawmakers at a Third House meeting in your community:

💡 ENERGY

• How will you protect Hoosier ratepayers when multiple bills this session create more pathways for utility bill increases
• Can you discuss how the Indiana General Assembly could implement more renewable energy to make our energy bills cheaper and our state more competitive?
• How do you feel about the energy affordability crisis and ways to solve it?

💦 WATER

• What conservation strategies do you think are most effective for ensuring long-term water availability in Indiana?
• What steps are you taking to ensure that the financial burden of water pollution, contamination, and flooding is borne by those responsible rather than Hoosier consumers and ratepayers?
• What specific policies or initiatives is the Indiana General Assembly considering to improve water quality in our state?

🗳 DEMOCRACY

• What ideas do you have about how we can improve Indiana’s historically low rate of voter turnout?
• [For youth/young adults] Do lawmakers like you have any role to play in encouraging young people like me to participate in Indiana elections?
• I’m concerned that there’s too much division and partisanship in our community. What are your thoughts on turning nonpartisan positions like school boards into partisan positions?

CROSSOVER WEEK

We are officially in crossover week. Legislators will return home to their districts which is the perfect time to set up a meeting or attend a third house event. Discover which bills are still alive below.

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TRACKING DEMOCRACY BILLS

You’ll notice starting this week that we also are including democracy-related bills in our legislative roundup. You might wonder why.

We’ve got “voters” in our name, and our success as advocates for clean energy, water and air depends on Hoosiers’ right to express their views via elections. Attacks on voting rights make it harder for you to engage with your government, and that makes it harder to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions they make that affect our daily lives.

👀 BILLS WE ARE WATCHING IN THE SECOND HALF 👀

✅ SUPPORT: Senate Bill 422 supports technologies to make our energy grid more efficient and reliable for the future.

😐 NEUTRAL: Senate Bill 4 establishes a permitting structure for significant water withdrawals.

😐 NEUTRAL: Senate Bill 423 Small modular nuclear reactor pilot program. We are encouraged by SB 423’s pilot project model which allows multiple stakeholders to bear the financial risk and advance this new technology in Indiana. However, it contains identical language from SB 424 allowing utilities to bill ratepayers upfront for project development costs and does not require financial risk sharing between public/private partners.

🛑 OPPOSE: Senate Bill 424 creates a pathway for utilities to bill ratepayers up front for SMR project development costs before anything is built and does not require project completion.

🛑 OPPOSE: Senate Bill 425 Energy Production Zones. This bill includes language to incentivize land re-use for new energy projects by limiting local control of project siting. Unfortunately, it excludes wind and solar energy from participating in energy production zones.

🛑 OPPOSE: House Bill 1007 shifts costs of small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) and outdated coal generation costs on to ratepayers and taxpayers.

🛑 OPPOSE: House Bill 1037: Stormwater management. This bill could remove the ability for localities to require stormwater permits for construction projects under an acre. This could significantly increase flooding and pollution and reduce water quality across the state, costing taxpayers money.

🛑 OPPOSE: Senate Bill 10: Voter Registration. This bill removes student ID from the list of acceptable voter ID, and unnecessarily discourages young people from participating in elections. Take action: Our partners at Stand Up Indiana have made it easy to let your lawmakers know that you oppose SB10! 

🛑 OPPOSE: House Bill 1680: This sweeping election bill creates additional voting barriers for naturalized citizens, opens the door to increased voter intimidation, burdens houseless people and disenfranchises independent voters by closing Indiana primaries.

🛑 OPPOSE: Senate Bill 287 and House Bill 1230: By injecting partisan politics into Indiana school board races, these bills will increase political division in schools and make it difficult for ordinary citizens and members of the military to serve their communities.

CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS

🚨 Tell Indiana lawmakers consumers can’t afford to bankroll utilities + big business! 🚨

Indiana lawmakers currently are considering multiple bills that would shift the enormous potential costs of development and deployment of untested energy production onto ratepayers. One bill would even allow utilities to charge ratepayers for losses if the state forces them to keep burning dirty, expensive coal.

Contact your representative today and tell them you want utilities and big businesses to pay for their own research and development of experimental technologies. Hard-working Hoosiers can’t afford any more charges on their monthly bills!

Say no to paying for developers’ messes!

Developers are asking lawmakers to sign off on shifting cleanup costs from their messes to taxpayers. Without proper measures in place, these messes send dirt and sediment into our waterways and sewers, backing them up and causing flooding and poor water quality that end up costing YOU more money to fix. Tell your senator today that you don’t want to pay for developers’ messes!

GOOD NEWS SATURDAY

We made it to crossover…enough said.

NEW FACEBOOK GROUP!

¡Únete a Indiana Conservation Voters en Español, un espacio para defensores del medio ambiente que hablan español y quieren hacer una diferencia en Indiana! Aquí podrás conectarte con otros activistas, recibir información sobre políticas ambientales y aprender cómo tomar acción para proteger nuestro aire, agua y comunidades. No importa si eres nuevo en el activismo o ya tienes experiencia, tu voz es importante. Para más información, comunícate con Daniela Castellanos, organizadora comunitaria de Indiana Conservation Voters, al daniela@inconservationvoters.org. ¡Te esperamos!

UPCOMING EVENTS

February 24: Indiana RSS REAP/Non-Profit Solar 101: Crawfordsville

February 24: Virtual Mid-Session Legislative Briefing on the 2025 Indiana General Assembly (Citizens Action Coalition)

February 26: Virtual Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia Solar Action Team Meeting (Solar United Neighbors)

February 26: Indiana IN-PERSON *MULTI-CITY* Solar Action Team Meeting

February 28: 2025 Indiana Sustainability and Resilience Conference

March 4: Virtual Sharing Your Story: How Renewable Energy Is A Part Of Indiana’s Past, Present And Future (Homegrown Hoosier Power)

March 10: 2025 Audubon Great Lakes: Advocacy Day at the Indiana Statehouse

March 17: NAACP Advocacy Day 2025 (10 a.m. at the Statehouse)