ICV Legislative Update: Week of March 14, 2025
Legislative sessions can be grueling, especially weeks like this one where environmental and democracy advocates are at the Statehouse every day fighting to protect our state and Hoosiers’ rights.
So we want to start this week’s update with something that might seem obvious: We are so grateful to partner with you in this work.
We know it often feels like an uphill battle to stand up for our environment and civic participation, but it feels much better knowing we’re doing it together. Thank you for all you do for Indiana!
CATCHING UP WITH ICV
This week, we testified against Senate Bill 424 and Senate Bill 10. You can read our testimony on Senate Bill 10 here, and we were part of this Indiana Capital Chronicle story about the ongoing legislative effort to force utility customers to pay for rate hikes related to big utilities’ experimental technologies like small nuclear reactors.
Delaney Barber Kwon, the community and government affairs manager for Indiana Conservation Voters, asked the committee to consider alternative ways to support SMR development, like tax credits, public-private partnerships and more.
FIND A THIRD HOUSE MEETING IN YOUR DISTRICT
There’s never been a better time to communicate your concerns about what’s happening at the Statehouse with your local elected officials. You can find them back in your home district at Third House meetings.
Learn more about Third House meetings in this blog post.
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.
BILL UPDATES
Things are moving quickly at the statehouse! Make sure to take action before it is too late!
✅ SUPPORT: Senate Bill 422 supports technologies to make our energy grid more efficient and reliable for the future. SB 422 will be eligible for 3rd reading on Monday and has gained bipartisan support.
🛑 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. Use our link to action below to contact your legislators to vote NO on raising your monthly utility bills.
– SB 424 passed out of the House Utilities Committee on Tuesday and will be eligible for 2nd reading on Monday.
🛑 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.
– HB 1037 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee on Monday, 3/24 at 10am Rm. 431. Take Action below ⬇️
🛑 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!
– SB 10 was held on Wednesday in the House Elections Committee. We expect further committee discussion to continue. It is important to take action before a potential reappearance!
👀 BILLS WE ARE WATCHING IN THE SECOND HALF 👀
😐 NEUTRAL: Senate Bill 4 establishes a permitting structure for significant water withdrawals. This is a fantastic step forward for water stewardship, but we feel it is incomplete without the categorical inclusion of groundwater and water quality considerations.
😐 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 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. Use our link to action below to contact your legislators to vote NO on raising your monthly bills.
🛑 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!
Ask Speaker Huston to Preserve Student Voter ID
ICV joined our coalition partners, All IN For Democracy, in signing an open letter to Speaker Huston agreeing with his skepticism about the numerous anti-voter bills moving through the House and asking him to oppose SB10, which would eliminate school ID as a valid form of voter identification—potentially disenfranchising thousands of students.
You can reach out, too! Help our partners at Common Cause Indiana thank him for saying that and ask him to kill SB10.
GOOD NEWS SATURDAY
Is spring finally here? Are we heading into another bout of winter? We live in Indiana, so who knows, really?
If you’re just excited to get outside whether it’s 75 or 45 degrees, consider joining ICV and the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter a week from today for their World Water Day Wetland Walk.
It’s a great opportunity to reconnect with the earth and each other, and if nothing else, stomping around in the mud is good for the soul.
UPCOMING EVENTS
March 17: Confront the Climate Crisis: We Rise Together Statehouse Day
March 17: NAACP Advocacy Day 2025
March 22: World Water Day Wetland Walk
March 29: Just Transition NWI: No False Solutions Action Meeting
