INDIANA HAS GREAT POTENTIAL TO BE A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY LEADER IN THE U.S. — CREATING CLEAN JOBS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY, WHILE REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Indiana had  experienced significant progress on both fronts. Indiana has nearly 86,215 jobs in clean energy (Clean Energy Trust, 2022). A new report from the group Working Nation, forecasts that the demand for green jobs in Indiana will increase nearly 30% over the next five years.  Indiana’s dependency on coal for its electricity — the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. — has gone down from 77.7% to 47.3% in just nine years (IURC, 2021).

In the spring of 2022, rooftop solar saw a victory thanks to HB 1196. Homeowners can now petition their HOA to install rooftop solar as long as they meet certain requirements.

That said, Indiana trails fellow Industrial Midwest states on a variety of sustainable energy public policies and has ranked #1 in the Midwest and #8 in the U.S. in terms of energy related carbon emissions per capita (EIA, 2022).

IECE-J40 supports, and actively advocates for, public policies that facilitate investment in utility-scale green clean renewable energy, customer-owned renewable energy, and energy efficiency.  Dedicated public policy in these areas, with an eye towards stabilizing and reducing energy bills for Hoosiers, would enable Indiana to be a better magnet for clean energy jobs and improve our state’s public health standing as well.  In 2023, IECE-J40 support the 21st Century Energy Policy Development Task Force to provide serious consideration of battery storage, demand response practices, and distributed energy as a benefit to grid reliability. We are now urging state legislators to support a comprehensive Climate Action and Job Bill with equity to ensure that the Blacks and other disadvantaged communities are not left behind.