Vanderburgh County Council votes to oppose CenterPoint request to hike rates

Sarah Loesch, Evansville Courier & Press
·2 min read

EVANSVILLE — The Vanderburgh County Council voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to pass a resolution opposing CenterPoint Energy's request for a rate increase.

This follows the resolution trend set by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners late last month. Since the commissioner's unanimous passage of a resolution in opposition, Warrick County Commissioners, and other neighboring county bodies have done the same.

Wednesday, the county council solidified its opposition, as well.

Joe Kiefer, sitting in as acting president for the meeting, introduced the resolution and said the opposition was focused on how "punitive" the rate increase request is to residents in Southern Indiana.

Last Thursday, ratepayers and public officials were present at a public hearing, telling the IURC to say no to the increase which would take a residential electric bill for 1,000 kilowatt hours from $207.20 to $253.40, according to the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor.

A letter with the county council's resolution will be sent to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, which decides the outcome of CenterPoint rate requests.

Bob Deig, the council's newest member after a recent caucus of Vanderburgh County Democrats, said it was great to see all of the people in attendance at the public hearing.

"This is the largest one I've ever seen," he said.

Deig, a former Indiana State Senator, said the issue with CenterPoint rates is really a state-level, legislative issue.

"What you see, the hearings, there's also something built in for utility companies which allows them to raise rates without you seeing them," he said. "They're called trackers."

The most recent example of a tracker increase was last year. The IURC approved CenterPoint's request to increase one of its bill trackers by more than 200%.

In July 2023, CenterPoint requested to have its "reliability cost and revenue adjustment" tracker raised 221.82% for a residential customer.

The request moved the rate from $-0.007460 per kilowatt hour and to $0.009088, adding approximately $16 a month to a resident's bill if they use 1,000 kilowatt hours.

Deig said it's important to talk with local Indiana legislators and committee chairs in the Indiana Legislature, and tell them to stop the trackers.

"You never see those, you see your bill is going up but you don't know why," Deig said. "While I say this is great, the local people coming together, it's a state issue and we really need to address it with our legislators as well."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Vanderburgh County Council votes to oppose CenterPoint rate increase