Indiana House passes measure to bolster nuclear, retain coal for AI data centers on utility customer dime

The Indiana House passed a bill on Thursday that aims to help ensure AI data centers coming into the state have the massive amount of power they need — primarily by subsidizing small nuclear plants and keeping coal plants online.

House Bill 1007 would allow an Indiana utility to pass along some of the cost of developing a small modular nuclear reactor to its customers — even if the plant never gets finished.

So far, none of the ones in the U.S. have. One federally-funded project was canceled in 2023 after more than a decade of work and nearly $9 billion in costs.

READ MORE: AI data centers threaten to derail climate progress in Indiana

Another part of the bill requires utilities that want to close a coal or natural gas plant — or repower it with a different source of energy — to replace it with the same amount of energy capacity or more. That could put renewable energy like wind and solar at a disadvantage.

If Indiana orders a utility to keep a plant open, the utility could get approval to charge ratepayers to continue running the plant as long as those costs are “just and reasonable.”