Indiana House pulls the plug on state's energy efficiency program

Senate Bill 340, which now must be re-approved by the Senate, requires the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to wind down the program by the end of the year, rather than forcing electric customers to pay $1.2 billion to keep it going another five years.

"The low-hanging fruit for this program is gone," said state Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, the sponsor. "This will be a very, very expensive program going forward.

But state Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said without energy efficiency efforts, ratepayers instead will get stuck with the cost of building new power plants, such as the $3.2 billion Duke Energy facility at Edwardsport.

The measure authorizes the state's electric utilities to establish independent energy efficiency programs.