One Voice, Strong Connections: Meaningful Outcomes from Legislative Session

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During the 2026 Indiana General Assembly, IEC achieved meaningful outcomes for its member cooperatives by presenting a clear, unified voice on key energy and infrastructure issues. By aligning priorities and communicating consistently, we were able to effectively advocate for policies that support reliability, affordability, and local control.

The strength of relationships built with legislators was equally important, which allowed for more productive dialogue and a deeper understanding of the unique role cooperatives play in rural communities. Active engagement from cooperative representatives like you helps reinforce these messages, demonstrating real-world impacts and ensuring that lawmakers heard directly from the people they represent.

Together, this combination of unity, relationship-building, and grassroots involvement positioned electric cooperatives as trusted, influential voices throughout the legislative session.

Below is a summary of IEC’s efforts this legislative session.

HOUSE ENROLLED ACT 1002: ELECTRIC UTILITY AFFORDABILITY

House Enrolled Act 1002 introduces new consumer protection mandates for Indiana utilities, including cooperatively owned utilities. It strictly prohibits electric and gas utilities from disconnecting residential service for eligible customers receiving state heating assistance. Additionally, utilities cannot terminate service for eligible customers when a local National Weather Service office forecasts a heat index of 95 degrees Fahrenheit or higher at least 48 hours in advance. Utilities must also provide delinquent residential customers the opportunity to enter into reasonable amortization agreements to pay off their balances.

For IURC-jurisdictional electricity suppliers, the bill mandates the implementation of levelized billing plans for customers eligible for home energy assistance beginning after June 30, 2026. These suppliers must also establish and fund low-income customer financial assistance programs by July 1, 2026, contributing an annual amount equal to at least 0.2% of their jurisdictional revenues for residential customers. Furthermore, these suppliers must submit quarterly reports to the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor detailing open accounts, disconnections, and accounts delinquent for more than 60 days.

Finally, the legislation shifts ratemaking procedures by requiring electricity suppliers to file three-year multi-year rate plans. These plans must incorporate performance incentive mechanisms that measure the utility against specific performance metrics, adjusting authorized returns based on customer affordability and service restoration goals. Notably, rural electric cooperatives and municipally owned utilities are explicitly excluded from the definition of “electricity supplier” for these performance-based ratemaking requirements.

Bill Outcome: Governor signed the bill into law Feb. 26, 2026.

IEC Engagement: IEC was engaged on this bill before session began. During initial conversations and drafting, IEC successfully minimized the bill’s impact on cooperatives to just the summer disconnection provisions, rather than including them in the mandatory budget billing and low-income program provisions. We also were successful in getting the language around the summer disconnection provision in the introduced version as “extreme heat warning.”

During the House Utilities Committee, the bill was amended to change the summer disconnection moratorium to apply a blanket moratorium from June 1 to September 23, which, combined with the winter disconnection moratorium, would have created a six-and-a-half-month disconnection moratorium. IEC quickly engaged the bill author and the House to voice our concerns. Although we advocated for reverting to the “extreme heat warning,” the House adopted a compromise amendment setting the disconnection prohibition threshold at a 95-degree heat index, rather than a blanket months-long moratorium.

On the Senate side, we provided light opposition testimony at the Senate Utilities Committee on this provision, ensuring we were on the record to highlight the unintended consequences of increasing arrearages and spreading bad-debt risk across other member-consumers who pay their bills.

Cooperative Impact: Cooperatives are already prohibited from terminating residential electric service between Dec. 1 and March 15 for customers eligible for and applying for state heating assistance. HEA 1002 also requires cooperatives to suspend disconnections for those same eligible customers when the National Weather Service forecasts a heat index of 95 degrees Fahrenheit or higher at least 48 hours in advance for the customer’s service area. Additionally, cooperatives must provide on their websites, no later than June 1, 2026, information explaining how customers can contact the heating assistance program.

HEA 1368: CARBON

House Enrolled Act 1368 primarily establishes a comprehensive state-level regulatory framework for carbon sequestration projects to enable Indiana to obtain primary enforcement authority (primacy) from the EPA for Class VI underground injection wells. Additionally, the legislation includes an unrelated provision requiring all utilities to accept certain payment methods (including credit cards up to $10,000) from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and to consolidate billing for DNR properties upon request.

Bill Outcome: Governor signed the bill into law March 12, 2026.

IEC Engagement: IEC primarily monitored this bill after receiving feedback from members that the bill’s provisions for DNR billing practices are already standard practices and should not unduly impact any cooperative billing operations.

Cooperative Impact: Electric cooperatives providing retail service to DNR-owned properties must accept electronic funds transfers (wire or ACH) and credit/debit card payments up to $10,000 without artificially limiting transaction amounts or restricting the number of payments per invoice to fewer than five. Furthermore, if the DNR requests it, the cooperative must provide a single, consolidated invoice for an entire DNR property, regardless of how many meters, connections, or buildings are located there. However, if full consolidation is not possible due to billing system constraints, the cooperative must consolidate billing to the greatest extent possible.

HEA 1406: Tax and Fiscal Matters

House Enrolled Act 1406, among other things, amends the minimum valuation limitations for assessable depreciable personal property for utility companies. Under the legislation, the total valuation of a taxpayer’s assessable depreciable personal property placed in service on or before January 1, 2025, cannot be less than thirty percent (30%) of its adjusted cost within a single taxing district. While depreciable personal property placed in service after January 1, 2025, is generally no longer subject to this minimum valuation limitation, the act creates an explicit exception for utilities. Specifically, depreciable personal property remains subject to the minimum valuation limitations if it is owned by a light, heat, or power company. Furthermore, this minimum valuation limitation continues to apply to depreciable personal property owned, operated, or held in trust by a utility company of a consolidated city.

Bill Outcome: Governor signed the bill into law March 12, 2026

IEC Engagement: The 30% minimum floor valuation for assessable depreciable personal property tax for utilities (including cooperatives) language moved around multiple bills this session, including House Enrolled Act 1210, Senate Enrolled Act 4, and finally landed in House Enrolled Act 1406. IEC aligned its efforts with the Indiana Energy Association to advocate for a reversion or optionality for utilities to be re-assessed at the 30% minimum floor that was eliminated by the property tax bill, SEA 1, last year. IEC engaged the chairs and members of the House and Senate fiscal committees to advocate for the reversion, which was adopted.

Cooperative Impact: Without this change, cooperatives would have had to keep two “systems” for capital investments — depreciable personal property prior to Jan. 1, 2025, subject to the 30% minimum floor, and depreciable personal property post Jan. 1, 2025, with no floor. The issue, however, is that the new capital investments after Jan. 1, 2025, could not take advantage of favorable tax treatment by being calculated as a “system” with existing, heavily depreciated assets to offset otherwise lumpy tax assessments.

SENATE ENROLLED ACT 224: DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

Senate Enrolled Act 224 primarily focuses on the administration and reorganization of state water resources. It outlines the specific procedures and requirements to transform the Maumee, St. Joseph, and Upper Wabash River basin commissions into watershed development commissions. The bill establishes the structural, voting, and membership guidelines for these new commissions and details how the property, records, and funds of the former basin commissions will be transferred.

Bill Outcome: Governor signed the bill into law March 5, 2026

IEC Engagement: The introduced version of SEA 224 created significant per-foot easement fees for any utility lines crossing state-owned property that would have had a significant financial impact for member cooperatives. We quickly engaged the Department of Natural Resources and members of the Senate Natural Resources Committee to express our concerns. We were successful in securing language within a larger amendment to SEA 224 in the Senate committee to fully repeal that language, nullifying our concerns with the bill as it moved forward.

Cooperative Impact: Because IEC removed the harmful language from the bill, it has no impact on cooperatives.  

SENATE ENROLLED ACT 240: SURPLUS INTERCONNECTION SERVICE

Senate Enrolled Act 240 mandates that, beginning after December 31, 2029, any integrated resource plan filed by an electric utility must include an analysis of the potential for “surplus interconnection service” to meet immediate capacity and energy needs. This analysis must assess utility-owned facilities with surplus interconnection service exceeding 20 megawatts, and it allows utilities to solicit and include information on the potential use of such service at third-party facilities. The bill also amends the criteria the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) must consider when acting on petitions for the construction, purchase, or lease of generating facilities filed after December 31, 2029. Specifically, the IURC must consider whether the petitioner analyzed the use of surplus interconnection service as an alternative or in conjunction with the proposed project, and whether the project will actually utilize or allow for the use of that surplus service. Finally, the legislation requires the IURC to conduct a comprehensive study evaluating the potential use of surplus interconnection service to safely, reliably, and cost-effectively meet system demands, with a report of its findings to be included in the commission’s annual report due before October 1, 2027.

Bill Outcome: Governor signed the bill into law March 5, 2026

IEC Engagement: IEC was active on working the Surplus Interconnection Service language before it was a public bill. We provided significant edits that trimmed the preliminary draft language by about half and removed mandatory provisions that would have forced Hoosier Energy and Wabash Valley Power Alliance to submit plans beginning this year to acquire surplus interconnection service. We successfully secured our amendment, which largely relegated the bill to requiring generation and transmission cooperatives to include it in the integrated resource planning process after December 31, 2029, and minimized the overall impact of the required evaluation. After the amendment was adopted, we testified as neutral on the bill.

Cooperative Impact: For electric utilities required to file integrated resource plans (IRPs), including generation and transmission cooperatives, any IRP filed after December 31, 2029, must contain an analysis of how surplus interconnection service could meet immediate capacity and energy needs. This requires assessing the potential use of unused interconnection capacity at utility-owned facilities exceeding 20 megawatts and permits soliciting similar information on viability from third-party facility owners. Furthermore, when a cooperative petitions the IURC for the construction, purchase, or lease of a generating facility after December 31, 2029, the commission is now statutorily required to consider whether the cooperative analyzed the use of surplus interconnection service as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, the proposed facility.

SENATE ENROLLED ACT 258: NUCLEAR FACILITY PERMITS

Senate Enrolled Act 258 amends Indiana environmental law by eliminating specific state-level permitting requirements for nuclear facilities. The bill repeals the mandate requiring operators to obtain a permit from the state department before constructing, operating, or increasing the capacity of a nuclear-powered generating facility or a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Consequently, it also removes the state board’s authority to adopt rules regulating radiation hazards, discharge limits, and monitoring procedures for these nuclear sites. While the separate state permit is abolished, entities proposing to construct these facilities must still file an environmental feasibility report with the state department concurrently with their preliminary safety filings to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The act includes an emergency clause, making it effective immediately upon passage.

Bill Outcome: Governor signed the bill into law Feb. 17, 2026.

IEC Engagement: IEC testified broadly in support of the bill in both the House and Senate Utilities Committees, as it reduces duplicative state permitting requirements. IEC did not see a need to change any language in the bill.

Cooperative Impact: None

DEAD BILLS

Some bills IEC worked on that failed to move before the deadlines include:

  • House Bill 1041 established minimum standards and requirements for the installation and maintenance of communication lines in the public rights-of-way (also commonly referred to as “line pollution”). The bill died without a committee vote.
  • House Bill 1064 created unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) regulations to limit or prohibit UAV flights over private property. IEC successfully negotiated an amendment that created exceptions and carve-outs for electric utilities operating UAVs. The bill died without a committee vote.
  • House Bill 1247 established penalties for operators (including cooperatives) that failed to meet the two full working day requirement in the Indiana 811 law to mark facilities. The bill died without a committee hearing.
  • House Bill 1333 created specific zoning exceptions for electric generation facilities, battery storage, and large loads (e.g., data centers) upon meeting certain terms and conditions. IEC successfully negotiated the removal of harmful language that would have allowed a bypass of exclusive utility service territories for these large load users. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate without a vote.
  • Senate Bill 54 prohibited local units of government from establishing a zoning overlay district for solar energy projects unless certain requirements were met, effectively prohibiting solar projects in Indiana. The bill died without a committee hearing.
  • Senate Bill 168 required electric generation asset reports to the IURC, which would have applied additional (and legally conflicting) regulation on cooperatives. The bill died without a committee hearing.
  • Senate Bill 206 exempted communication service providers from the Indiana 811 law for certain hand-digging excavations on residential private property. The bill died without a committee hearing.

OTHER BILLS

IEC monitored the following bills but did not actively work on them. Bills in this category are typically bills authored every year but fail to pass, were destined to fail, or not directly related to IEC members, but still important to maintain awareness:

  • House Bill 1084 / Senate Bill 74 exempts plug-in home solar units from Indiana law regulating distributed generation. The bills died without a committee hearing.
  • House Bill 1120 prohibited the retirement of coal-fired resources. The bill died without a committee hearing.
  • House Bill 1213 / Senate Bill 83 / Senate Bill 184 repealed the sales tax on utility services. These bills all died.
  • House Bill 1276 / Senate Bill 272 allowed nonresidential electricity customers to choose their electric supply service from a competitive electricity supplier, effectively establishing retail electric restructuring in Indiana. The bills died without committee hearings.
  • Senate Enrolled Act 271 created enhanced criminal penalties for attempting to sell telecommunications network wire illegally. The bill passed the legislature and is awaiting the Governor’s action.
  • Senate Enrolled Act 277 created significant reductions and repeals in regulatory authority for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The bill passed the legislature and is awaiting the Governor’s action.