Return to state-by-state climate policy map
This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law
Coal accounts for about 70% of Indiana’s power generation, with about 20% coming from natural gas and 10% from renewables (primarily wind). Indiana gets about 1900 MW from large-scale wind farms. It also gets 4.5 MW from small-scale wind, which receives some preferential state tax treatment. Solar gets similar tax treatment. In addition, five of the state’s utilities offer net metering. 143 MW of solar are connected to the grid. In 2015, about 870 Indiana customers used net metering. The state has a 10% renewable portfolio standard.
In May 2017, Governor Eric Holcombe signed Senate Bill 309, which phases down support for solar by eliminating net metering so that after 2022 new solar installations will receive the lower, wholesale rate for power they sell back into the grid (rather than the higher retail rate they currently receive).[1]
Why is Indiana so much less receptive to renewables than Ohio and Michigan (each discussed in subsequent sections)? No doubt there are more complicated explanations, but raw politics must have something to do with it. President Trump won relatively close victories in Michigan and Ohio with margins below 10%, but he carried Indiana, long a far more Republican state than its neighbors, by nearly 20%. Thus, the Republican grasp on Indiana is stronger, and there is correspondingly less need for conservatives to compromise with Democrats or moderate Republicans. The result is a set of policies that are somewhat at odds with regional resources and economics.
- Scott L. Miley, “Some Hoosiers Seek Energy Policy Amid Solar Battle,” Tribune-Star (May 7, 2017), http://www.tribstar.com/news/local_news/some-hoosiers-seek-energy-policy-amid-solar-battle/article_cd64bc3b-331f-5256-92b6-c604980a1d85.html.