Gov. Braun appoints members to IURC nominating committee as three commissioner positions prepare to open up

INDIANAPOLIS — Tuesday, Gov. Mike Braun named Indiana Energy Secretary Suzanne Jaworowski, former Indiana State Representative Dollyne Sherman, and Floyd County business executive Cory Cochran to the nominating committee of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC)—the state agency responsible for regulating and overseeing Indiana utilities.

The three will join four other members of the IURC nominating committee appointed by legislative leadership (one from each caucus). The committee was formed in response to three IURC Commissioners announcing they would step down later this year.

The committee will review applications, interview candidates and recommend finalists to Gov. Braun later this year.

“I encourage anyone interested to apply,” Gov. Braun said. “We’re seeking entrepreneurial individuals that are going to think out of the box, and they’re going to have a special attention to rates that Hoosiers bear in general.”

“A lot of people have expressed interest, but we don’t know who will apply yet,” Sec. Jaworowski said. “The application process starts today.”

This comes as AES Indiana is seeking an almost $200 million rate increase from the IURC. The head of the Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor, Abby Gray, recommended that the IURC reject that request.  

“This will effectively, you know, be a quorum, if you will, of the commissioners,” said Kerwin Olson, the executive director of the consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition. “We’ll have three out of the five be, be brand new…Gov. Braun has the opportunity here to certainly reshape the commission, you know, in whatever image he would like to see.”

When asked about whether applicants would need to agree with the OUCC’s recommendation, Gov. Braun said he’s looking for applicants who want to better balance energy generation with the needs of taxpayers.

“Ratepayers, I think, have taken the brunt of it, and each utility is going to have to make sure they make the case that they’ve not gone above and beyond covering inflation at a reasonable growth quotient,” Gov. Braun said.

This also comes as Google withdrew a rezoning petition earlier this week for a proposed data center in Franklin Township.  Gov. Braun said he also wants to see more data centers go from paying 80 percent of generation costs to 100 percent of those costs.

“Any data center is going to have to expect that if, since one could use up to five percent of our current generation, that they’re going to have to be responsible for paying for it,” Gov. Braun said.

But Olson said a big part of the problem is years of legislation, he says, has minimized the IURC’s ability to hold utilities and data centers accountable.

“What we see in legislation is speeding up that process where the IURC only has five days to review an application, you know, the commission has to issue an order within 90 days of something being filed by the utilities, and that’s, that’s unmanageable,” Olson said. “Hopefully, with Governor Braun placing an emphasis on consumers and rates, we’ll see a more balanced approach at the legislature, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

According to Sec. Jaworowski, the application portal will be open through October 14. Final interviews are expected to take place in late October.