More than 50 advocates of wind and solar energy production marched from the Four Freedoms Monument to Vectren Corp. on Wednesday evening, urging the Evansville-based utility to use those resources and set retirement dates for aging, coal-fired power plants.
Every three years, Vectren must update its Integrated Resource Plan, which is a 20-year roadmap for energy production. The requirement had been every two years. Vectren will reveal its latest IRP on Nov. 29.
The Sierra Club and its allies made their opinions known on Thursday as the sun set over Downtown.
They carried signs and homemade wind turbines, chanting things such as "Ain't no power like the power of the sun cause the power of the sun don't stop." They said poor air quality in this region causes health problems such as asthma.
Mallory Rodenberg, an Evansville resident whose father is a Vectren retiree, told fellow marchers that Vectren can "show us that corporations can be agents of change for good."
During the march, two representatives of the marchers, Wendy Bredhold and Jean Webb of Evansville, met with Vectren CEO Carl Chapman and Chase Kelley, Vectren vice president of marketing and communications.
"Mr. Chapman very graciously met with us. He said they have run a lot of different models, a lot of different scenarios taking into account the recent presidential election and many other variables ... and we'll all figure out what they do on Nov. 29," said Bredhold, a representative of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, and a former City Council member.
Kelley described the meeting as productive, and she pointed to the Integrated Resource Plan's scheduled release on Nov. 29.
Vecrtren is taking public input into account while writing the plan, Kelley said. The utility says it is considering consumer cost, the environment and a list of other factors. Vectren's residential utility rates are the highest in the state.
Vectren revealed in July that compliance with one Environmental Protection Agency regulation, which forbids unburned pieces of coal from being mixed with water, would cost the utility $240 million in upgrades to its plants in Posey and Warrick counties.
Once it's revealed on Nov. 29, Vectren's IRP will remain subject to approval by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in the spring, following a public comment period.