Whitley Yates: Indiana vs. BlackRock: Who really holds the power?

When the board of trustees for the Indiana Public Retirement System voted to dismiss BlackRock from handling the state’s pension portfolio, headlines framed it as another battle in the national war over ESG investing. But the real story isn’t about ESG or Wall Street activism. It’s about power—literally.

Indiana made its stand, but BlackRock made one of its own. Through its Global Infrastructure Partners unit, the firm is backing a $38 billion deal to acquire AES Corp., the parent firm of an Indianapolis-based utility that serves over 530,000 customers, including nearly 470,000 homes across central Indiana.

AES fuels the data centers driving America’s AI boom. This isn’t some obscure asset. It’s part of the electric heartbeat of modern life. It keeps your fridge cold, your business humming and the servers running everything from TikTok to tax records.

Therein lies the problem. BlackRock is too massive to exile from Indiana with a single vote. It touches everything: utilities, infrastructure, logistics. The lights in our homes, the data pipelines of tomorrow, the very servers powering this debate all pass through companies connected to BlackRock. Indiana might close its pension portfolio to the firm, but it can’t flip a switch without brushing up against BlackRock’s balance sheet.

That doesn’t make Indiana powerless. Quite the opposite. Gov. Mike Braun’s early moves suggest he understands how much leverage states still hold. His appointments to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, the agency that sets utility rates and reviews long-term plans, signal a willingness to put ratepayers before investors. Utilities might be privately owned, but they operate within a framework the state defines. Indiana has shown increasing resolve to ensure those frameworks reflect Hoosier households, not just shareholder returns.

We saw this when Indianapolis communities last month rejected Google’s proposed $1 billion-plus data center, citing concerns over the strain on AES’ already-stressed energy grid. Some viewed the cancellation as a lost opportunity. But it also revealed something deeper. Hoosiers are starting to weigh the true costs of development, including pressure on energy systems, local infrastructure and the pace of change in their own communities.

So the question isn’t whether Indiana can “ban” BlackRock. It can’t, and it doesn’t need to. The real question is whether Indiana will continue to assert its authority over how global capital intersects with local life. BlackRock can buy the deed, but Indiana still writes the rules. The IURC sets the guardrails, and the governor’s appointees decide how tough those guardrails really are.

BlackRock might buy the breaker box, but Indiana decides how the switches get flipped. And in this game, the power struggle isn’t over. Early signs suggest Indiana plans to play offense, not defense.•

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Yates is director of diversity for the Indiana Republican Party, a political commentator and a law degree candidate. Send comments to [email protected].

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