Duke Energy is planning to replace its Cayuga coal plant in Vermillion County with a new natural gas plant.
More than 40 people showed up on a weekday afternoon in Bloomington to give their thoughts on the proposal.
Along with many others in the crowd, Judy Owens — a Monroe County veterinarian and a Republican — expressed disappointment that Duke plans to continue burning fossil fuels.
“It’s been a while since comfortable summer days were the norm. Look around, call it what you will: Our climate is changing. We have an opportunity to slow the decline in our quality of living, but we have to actually do something," she said.
Last year the Sierra Club gave Duke an F on its climate commitments, far lower than any other investor-owned utility in the state.
The proposal would only increase the average residential customer’s bills by $1.87 cents. But Duke recently raised rates by more than $18 a month.
Hopi Stosberg is the Bloomington City Council president, but spoke as a resident and Duke customer. She expressed frustration with how the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and state lawmakers have overseen the state’s utilities. Stosberg called it “morally reprehensible” for Duke to make a profit off of an essential service.
“We’re stuck as customers, wherever it is that our housing is. We get one choice for an electric carrier. We don’t get to shop around and look for lower prices,” Stosberg said.
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Duke Spokesperson Angeline Protogere said the utility needs reliable, 24-7 power like natural gas to support adding roughly 116,000 new customers in the past decade.
“Certainly data centers have been in the news, but what we are seeing in our service area is a diverse amount of growth," she said.
That includes companies like Entek, Stellantis and Ford Meter Box — as well as booming residential areas like Hamilton County. Meta is also building a data center in Jeffersonville.
Protogere said the new gas plant would not only replace the existing megawatts of capacity at Cayuga, but also add another 470 MW.
It's unclear whether Gov. Mike Braun's executive order to review and potentially extend the life of Indiana's coal plants would affect Cayuga.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.