#3 IN Electric Utility Projects $4 Billion Savings Ending Coal, But Lobbyist Scott Pruitt On Scene!

When Indiana's third-largest utility analyzed the economics of its power plants last year, it decided it was time for a big shift—away from the coal power that had long sustained the business and toward renewable energy. The coal plants simply weren't paying off anymore. In fact, shutting them down would save about $4 billion over 30 years. But the utility, NIPSCO, knew it would face a fight. Indiana is second only to Texas in generating electricity from coal, and the state has several coal mines and politically connected coal companies.

Coal interests launched a campaign to try to stop NIPSCO's plan and hired former Trump administration EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt as a lobbyist to persuade the legislature to intervene. But this fight, so far, isn't going as the coal industry had hoped. Many of the state's institutions, including legislators and even the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, have resisted coal's aggressive push.

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Utilities across the country have been coming to the same conclusion. This time it's in a Republican-leaning state with no renewable energy mandates. Vectren, another Indiana utility, has also proposed closing one coal-fired power plant and part of another.

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With time running out in the legislative session, Hallador Energy—which has a subsidiary coal company in Indiana, Rail Point Solutions—announced it had hired Pruitt, the former EPA administrator who resigned in 2018 amid ethics scandals, as a lobbyist. Pruitt's job, according to a Hallador news release, was to persuade lawmakers to add a provision to the state budget bill that would prevent utility regulators from making decisions based on federal rules that the Trump administration's EPA is in the process of rolling back. "Who better than Scott Pruitt to aid the Indiana legislature on what Trump energy policy will look like?" Hallador said. That, too, was rejected. Again, utilities and business groups opposed the proposal, including the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. "Not one person we've talked to or heard from—except for Scott Pruitt and Rail Point—thinks the moratorium will benefit ratepayers," Indiana Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kevin Brinegar said in a statement.

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