Letter: Utility companies shouldn’t burden ratepayers with mistakes

If I decide to build a new house, the cost is mine.

If I overspend, choose a bad contractor, or the project doesn’t deliver what I promised, my neighbors are not forced to pay for it.

Yet that is exactly how Indiana’s utility system works today.

Investor-owned utilities are allowed to build massive solar and battery projects, then go to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and ask permission to recover their costs—and protect their profits, by charging customers higher rates. Even if the project underperforms. Even if the savings never materialize. Even if customers never asked for it.

That’s not how risk works in the real world.

Homeowners don’t get guaranteed returns.
Small businesses don’t get to pass losses onto the public.
Farmers don’t get a rate hike when a crop fails.

Utilities should not be treated differently simply because they are large, powerful, and well-lawyered.

When the IURC allow companies to “recoup” costs and profits from failed or questionable projects, accountability disappears. The utility wins either way. The customer always pays.

The role of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is to protect the public interest—not to function as a financial backstop for corporate decisions. Ratepayers should not be forced to insure utility profits.

If a project truly makes sense, it should stand on its own merits without guaranteed recovery from families already struggling with rising electric bills.

If I can’t send my construction bill to my neighbors, utilities shouldn’t be allowed to send theirs to us.

Indiana residents deserve fairness, transparency, and real protection—not a system where risk is privatized and losses are socialized.

John Kaltenbacher
Holland