INDIANAPOLIS — "Hyperbole" was the word of the day for Rep. Ed Soliday, chairman of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee in the Indiana General Assembly, who said people are resorting to it when talking about utility costs.
Soliday (R-Valparaiso) joined the other members of the study committee Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis where they were tasked with reviewing annual reports from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
He said no one likes it when rates go up, but when he looks at a graph in their annual report that compared utility prices to the Consumer Price Index, it shows water rates going up significantly. That's because they are working to fix infrastructure left without attention because the number one thing was "keeping rates at zero," Soliday said.
"So, we put legislation in place to fix that infrastructure. We invested for the future," Soliday said. "And we've done the same thing with electric. But the same people keep crying. And they lie to people and say you can have zero increase in rates. That is a lie."
The 20-year veteran of the Indiana Legislature said the hyperbole is from both sides of the aisle, and the media has not been responsible in covering the issue.
"Are people supposed to climb poles in the middle of a thunderstorm for free?" he said after calling out hyperbole.
Soliday said it was an outrage to suggest if he and Sen. Eric Koch, his utility counterpart in the Senate, could lower rates they wouldn't.
Nothing like that had been said, or suggested, during the committee meeting Tuesday. But Soliday and Koch were just two of many legislators featured in an IndyStar story that reported on an energy lobby that spent tens of thousands of dollars currying favor with legislators.
The story specifically highlighted Koch, R-Bedford, and Soliday as committee chairmen with a lot of power who were wined and dined as they led the charge on legislation to incentivize small modular reactors.
Consumer advocates have repeatedly said SMRs are too costly for residents and would lead to higher rates.
Hot summer brings 'frenzy'
Soliday said he asked his wife how much they spend on an average utility bill. The couple lives in NIPSCO territory in northern Indiana. Soliday said she told him $200. But in July they spent $400.
To that he asked her about utilization, because he said they both have some control over that.
He said there's some appreciation to be had that actual bills are cyclical.
"They're very low in March," he said. "They're very high in January."
That was to put the hyperbole in some context, he said. As they are trying to fix infrastructure and to rebuild a generation system, it doesn't help.
Soliday said with the summer heat, it's every day, "what can we do to reduce rates."
"And we have the extremists out there, they've got their media friends, and they're just in a frenzy and 'boy we're going to raise some money on the back of this one,' and 'we're going to campaign and win some seats on the back of this one,'" Soliday said. "You know what I care about is the consumer. And how can we get them fair rates and have a system they can depend upon that can be restored quickly and will meet the needs of businesses that want to come here. And that is a very, very complex task, and is becoming more and more difficult with all the hyperbole."
Soliday brought up multiple times individuals using rate increases for political attention. He called it "unconscionable."
He's right that the summer heat has led to a push from consumers and advocates for rate reform. The Courier & Press wrote a story on that earlier this month.
But the push isn't new. Evansville residents have dealt with inordinately expensive power bills for more than 15 years now.
The Courier & Press interviewed Christopher Norrick, a DAACE representative who has spent years trying to get politicians to address CenterPoint Energy bills. He said it reminded him of a similar outcry in the winter of 2021 and 2022. That’s when a 271% jump in natural gas distribution rates rocketed heating bills to unheard-of heights.
This summer the outcry came as a state-ratified base-rate increase saw CenterPoint customer's average bills swell by 25%, and as unforgiving heat left air conditioners running constantly for much of July and August.
But Norrick said this time around it isn't just low-income residents standing up to speak out, but local businesses as well.
Familiar rhetoric for CenterPoint customers
Soliday's attitude toward complaints about high costs could be familiar for CenterPoint customers in Southwestern Indiana who pleaded their case in 2024 during a public IURC hearing.
After that, in an official state filing, a CenterPoint official called affordability concerns residents expressed at the field hearing “extreme scenarios.”
In that same filing, Richard C. Leger, then senior vice president of CenterPoint's Indiana electric branch, said affordability can only be “easily addressed” in a “utopian world.” Leger is now CenterPoint's senior vice president of gas business.
Affordability is one of the five pillars of Indiana's energy policy, something several residents brought up in their testimony at the public field hearing. But Leger said that doesn't mean CenterPoint has an obligation to ensure "all customers can afford the bill."
Instead, he said, energy is meant to be affordable and competitive across customer classes − residential, industrial and commercial.
"In a utopian world, affordability would be easily addressed," he states in the testimony. "That said, affordability is a complicated matter that crosses all socioeconomic factors and means many things to many different people."
Leger stated in his testimony that he attended the field hearing in February 2024 and acknowledged passion from those who spoke. More than 70 Evansville-area residents and elected officials took to the mic and begged the IURC to reject CenterPoint's proposal.
Due to CenterPoint's monopoly in the Evansville area, customers called themselves "hostages." Some said they had to choose between paying their surging utility bills and buying groceries and prescriptions.
"We listened carefully, and understand the public sentiment presented," he stated. "A common theme emerged around affordability, or lack thereof, as it relates to their utility bills."
Yet, Leger's testimony to the IURC is specifically meant to rebut the comments from the public.
Leger stated a bill analysis CenterPoint performed showed the "extreme scenarios" testified to at the field hearing were not the normal situations customers were in. Those allegedly "extreme" examples included stories from retirees on fixed incomes, families with special-needs children and local officials asking for some relief for their constituents.