Nearly 3,000 petitions delivered to AES demanding clean energy for Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – AES Indiana customers and clean energy activists delivered nearly 3,000 petitions to the capital city’s hometown utility Wednesday morning, demanding a rapid transition from dirty, dangerous fossil fuels toward the clean energy resources the community deserves. 

AES Indiana has shown signs of progress by evaluating more renewable energy options as one resource plan it’s considering for the future. But the utility still has another plan under consideration that includes more climate-disrupting fossil fuels in their 20-Year Energy Plans, even as the price of coal and gas continue to increase, and AES customers are now on the hook for an approximately 12% increase in their bills starting this month. AES will share the results of their latest long-term energy planning process next month.

“It’s outrageous that we’re standing here today, in 2022, the impacts of climate disruption all around us, and still–still–asking AES Indiana to announce retirement of its Petersburg Super Polluter coal plant, one of the worst-polluting and largest coal plants in the U.S.,” said Wendy Bredhold, senior representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Indiana and Kentucky. “In Sierra Club’s report card grading utility transitions to clean energy, AES’s last energy plan received a D. And spoiler alert: This year, pending announcement of their updated energy plan, AES is getting an F. Doesn’t our capital city deserve better?”

AES’s Petersburg coal plant is the worst water polluter in Indiana and one of the worst air and climate polluters in the entire country. When Petersburg is operating, AES charges customers millions of dollars to run the plant, even when cheaper energy is available.Customers would save money if the company bought cheaper energy from the market. Instead, AES designates the plant as “must-run,” even when operating costs exceed revenues.

“By continuing to extract and burn climate-wrecking fossil fuels, we are making energy unaffordable for hard-working Hoosiers,” said CAC Executive Director Kerwin Olson. “There is a better path forward that is cheaper, cleaner, and that will create local, sustainable jobs that can’t be outsourced. Let’s put our energy dollars back into our communities and the pockets of everyday Hoosiers. We can and must do better.”

Carol Tiller, social action coordinator of the Indiana Conference of the United Women in Faith (formerly called “United Methodist Women”), agrees that AES must act quickly to not only stop burning fossil fuels, but to clean up its ongoing pollution. “Our world has been polluted in its land, water, and air and this has affected individuals worldwide.” Tiller said. “We have in Indianapolis a coal plant that was closed, but AES’s coal ash pond still is contaminating our land and White River because it doesn’t have a clean closure of its coal ash pond. We are not taking care of the world if we don’t start planning today to use more renewable energy.”

Tonyisha Harris, of the youth group Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE), which collected and sent 200 of the 2,850 petitions delivered today, added, “Young people are making their voices heard and their actions count by advocating for the end of fossil fuel dependency and coal plant closures. ACE has collected petitions from young people who have made it clear that AES must close the Petersburg coal plant by 2028. As one of the dirtiest air and water polluters in the country, it cannot be allowed to continue operating.”