Senate removes SMR cost‑recovery language; consumer‑protection amendment fails

The Indiana Senate on April 10, 2025, approved an amendment deleting language that would have let utilities recover development and preconstruction costs for small modular reactors (SMRs) and rejected a separate consumer‑protection amendment that would have required third‑party affordability analysis, caps on rate increases and explicit protections for low‑income households.

Supporters of the consumer‑protection amendment, offered by Senator J.D. Yoder, said the changes were narrow, targeted and intended to ensure ratepayers would not shoulder unexpected costs. "This amendment does 3 critical things and it deals with transparency, affordability, and equity," Yoder said. He described requirements for utilities to include year‑by‑year rate‑payer impacts in project proposals, a third‑party affordability analysis, a prohibition on rate increases over 5% without a mitigation plan, and measures to protect…