If your electric bill has been climbing, you're not imagining it. Indiana residential rates jumped 17.5% in a single year — the steepest increase in two decades. And CenterPoint Energy, which serves most of District 48, now charges the highest residential electric bills in the entire state.

Here's what happened: utilities spent over $500 million installing pollution controls on aging coal plants, then retired those same plants. Ratepayers are now repaying that investment — plus profit margins — for power stations generating zero watts. The IURC approved an $80 million annual revenue increase for CenterPoint in February 2025. Average residential bills rose about $44 per month.

Meanwhile, the CenterPoint CEO earns approximately $18 million in total compensation. And 174,015 Indiana households were disconnected from electricity in a single year.

Even Governor Braun — not exactly a consumer advocate — said in September 2025: 'We can't take it anymore.' When the governor says rates are too high, you know it's bad.

This is one of the core issues I'll fight for in the State Senate. Utility companies should not be allowed to charge ratepayers for investments in plants they then shut down. Executive compensation should be disclosed and scrutinized in every rate case. And our district — home to three of the nation's largest coal plants — deserves a real energy transition plan, not just corporate press releases.