Watchdog turns heads by standing up to utilities
Indiana Utility Consumer Counselor Bill Fine is tasked with making sure Hoosier households and business aren’t overcharged for electricity, natural gas, water or wastewater.
Indiana Utility Consumer Counselor Bill Fine is tasked with making sure Hoosier households and business aren’t overcharged for electricity, natural gas, water or wastewater.
Citizens Energy Group said crews are “conducting rapid inspections of all downtown sewer infrastructure to identify potential issues” after problems below the surface forced closures of two intersections this month.
Attention commuters: Citizens Energy Group announced Thursday afternoon that it had to close another busy downtown intersection because of problems with the underlying sewer system.
Indianapolis Power & Light has agreed not to raise the fixed monthly rate it charges most of its residential customers, under a rate-case settlement it reached with the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor and other stakeholders.
The move represents the latest action by Trump’s EPA to boost the struggling coal industry by rolling back environmental and public health rules enacted under his predecessor.
Citizens Energy Group said crews have been working 24 hours a day at the intersection of Ohio and Pennsylvania streets to repair a century-old sewer line that collapsed 15 feet beneath the surface.
A busy downtown intersection could remain closed through the weekend while crews repair a sinkhole that developed there Wednesday, Citizens Energy Group said Thursday afternoon.
If approved by Indiana utility regulators, the agreement would cut the monthly electrical bill of a typical household by an average of 5.6 percent.
The publisher of Indianapolis Business Journal and its sister newspapers plans to relocate in March to the Indianapolis Power & Light Co. headquarters building in the southeast quadrant of the Circle.
In a sharp rebuke, the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor said IPL’s $96.7 million rate increase is unjustified. It is recommending a much smaller increase.
Democrat Jared Evans said the council members are hoping to “raise awareness” about the issue and persuade state regulators to drastically reduce the amount IPL raises its rates, “if they don’t decline this altogether.”
About 27,000 city-funded streetlights will be updated with the more energy-efficient, light-emitting diodes through spring 2021.
Operating as T-Mobile, the company would have about $74 billion in annual revenue and 70 million wireless subscribers.
CenterPoint Energy Inc.’s purchase of Vectren would take out Indiana’s 13th-largest public company, with $2.4 billion in annual revenue. Every county surrounding Marion County receives service from Vectren.
Gov. Eric Holcomb on Monday appointed former state representative David Ober to an open spot on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and promoted interim IURC chairman Jim Huston to chairman.
The shakeup means that Rafael Sanchez, who has led the Indianapolis operations since June 2016, is out and will be replaced by a company official who will lead both Indiana and Ohio operations.
Citizens Energy Group said profit nearly tripled, to $90.1 million, on higher operating revenue in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
The five-person commission regulates $14 billion in electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water and sewer utilities. It approves utility projects and determines how much utilities can charge customers.
Volunteers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have twice planned to do the work but cold, snow and ice have caused delays.
Public utility regulators from Oklahoma to Massachusetts are considering lowering the rates that homeowners and businesses pay, after the passage of a federal tax overhaul that reduced the corporate income tax rate by 14 percent.