Submitted for use on: April 22, 2025
Word Count: 377
As a state senator, I hear from my constituents on many different topics and issues impacting our local community. Recently, I have heard an overwhelming number of reports from residential, commercial and industrial constituents throughout northern Indiana over inconsistencies with services from the Northern Indiana Public Service Company.
These constituents have told me that not only has NIPSCO's services not been up to their desired standards, but also the electric prices are skyrocketing.
To help address these concerns, I have been in a series of meetings with other local legislators and industry leaders to discuss these issues and what we can do to help.
In the first meeting, I joined area lawmakers and President of NIPSCO Vince Parisi to discuss these issues. We discussed the poor services constituents have been receiving and NIPSCO's rate costs, which appear to be higher than all other utilities in the state.
In the next meeting, I joined Indiana Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources Suzanne Jaworowski and a representative for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to further discuss the problems. We were also joined by Tactical Energy Group, a representative for Lippert, Forest River and THOR Industries working with major manufacturing and commercial power users.
During this conversation, we discussed how the exceptionally high rates and the lack of timely services are costing the industries in northern Indiana millions of dollars. These excessive rate costs and poor services have even caused some corporations to delay work or even move projects to Michigan.
It was also brought to our attention that the power quality our industries are receiving is causing problems with the quality and timely delivery of locally manufactured goods and services.
The third meeting, which was held Wednesday, April 16, included Secretary Jaworowski and others from her department, several members of NIPSCO, including President Parisi, several members from the IURC and myself. The group discussed the problems I have previously outlined and we are working with NIPSCO to correct the issues many of our constituents have had.
This will certainly be a long, drawn-out process, but NIPSCO has promised to work with the Indiana Office of Energy Development and the state legislature to find solutions to these problems. I will continue to advocate for our local community as these conversations continue.
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State Sen. Blake Doriot (R-Goshen) represents Senate District 12,
which includes portions of Elkhart County.
Click here to download a high-resolution photo.
