Indiana manufacturers are absorbing cost decisions made in Washington, in utility boardrooms, and in federal courtrooms simultaneously — and the window to position ahead of those outcomes is open right now, not after Duke Energy Indiana's December HEA 1002 filing closes the template.

Four stories are converging this week: the HEA 1002 multi-year rate framework and Duke's December deadline, a unanimous federal appeals court ruling that directly undermines the legal authority behind NIPSCO's two forced-operation coal orders, the EPA's finalized repeal of Biden-era greenhouse gas limits for power plants, and Indiana's first nuclear reactor targeting a 2028 deployment at NWS Crane.

HEA 1002 Multi-Year Rate Framework: Duke Files by December, and Tracker Consolidation Is the Entire Ballgame

House Enrolled Act 1002 — signed by Governor Braun in March — replaces Indiana's old rate case system with a three-year rate cycle, plus performance penalties tied to affordability and outage restoration. Duke Energy Indiana files first, by mid-December 2026. The other four Indiana utilities follow on a statutory schedule.

The worst case, and it deserves direct attention: Sarah Freeman, who spent nine years as a regulator at the IURC before moving to the Regulatory Assistance Project, named it plainly. Her words: "That, on a bill, would very likely look the same as what bills look like now." She was describing a utility that complies with the multi-year structure on paper but does not roll its trackers into base rates. Tracker consolidation is what determines whether HEA 1002 actually bends the cost curve for your facility or simply reorganizes the paperwork around the same charges.

Duke's December petition is the first real indicator. Watch for how much tracker cost it proposes to fold into base rates — and how much it leaves outside the cap.

There is also a competitive asymmetry worth tracking. NIPSCO has stood up a new affiliate — NIPSCO Generation LLC, or GenCo — to serve hyperscale data center customers including Amazon and Alphabet with a dedicated roughly 340-megawatt generation pool. None of Indiana's other four utilities have a comparable structure. If you are a large industrial customer, the question is whether your load qualifies for anything like that arrangement — or whether you are the residual customer base subsidizing it.

For more on how tracker charges have moved Indiana bills before HEA 1002, see IURC Opens Investigation Into Indiana Utility Tracker Charges — What It Means for Your Power Bill.

D.C. Circuit Campbell Ruling: What It Means for NIPSCO Schahfer Costs

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled unanimously Friday that the Department of Energy exceeded its authority under the Federal Power Act when it forced Consumers Energy's J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan to stay open past its scheduled May 2025 retirement. The court found, in Judge Cornelia Pillard's words, "no emergency within the meaning" of the statute.

That ruling is now the leading appellate precedent directly on point for the parallel April 2026 legal challenges targeting NIPSCO's Schahfer Units 17 and 18 and CenterPoint's Culley Unit 2 in Indiana. Whether it formally binds those cases depends on venue and procedural posture — but no court reviewing DOE's Section 202(c) authority can now ignore Pillard's reasoning.

Here is the operational reality that makes this worse than most people realize. CenterPoint reported to DOE that Culley Unit 2 was fully available for only five of its first 48 days under the emergency order — and MISO never called on it during those five days. NIPSCO's public MISO outage disclosures indicate both Schahfer units were expected to be unavailable for most or all of the third 90-day order period. The DOE's reliability justification is undermined not just legally, but by the utilities' own reported numbers.

NIPSCO has already filed to recover $38 million from customers for just the first three months of forced Schahfer operation. The company previously estimated keeping Schahfer beyond 2025 could require more than one billion dollars in spending due to chronic mechanical failures on aging equipment. That figure dwarfs Michigan's $259 million price tag at Campbell — and it has received almost no public attention. Map how the fuel adjustment clause tracker flows those costs into your rate schedule before a retroactive cost-recovery proceeding at FERC or the IURC prices it for you.

For the fuel adjustment clause mechanics behind forced-operation cost recovery, see Fuel Adjustment Charges: What Indiana C&I Operators Need to Know About This Line Item on Your Electric Bill.

EPA Greenhouse Gas Repeal: Does Coal Extension Lower Indiana Electricity Prices?

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin finalized the repeal of the Biden administration's requirement that existing coal plants and new natural gas plants control 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions. The announcement was made Monday at the G20 energy ministers meeting in Houston — against the backdrop of Indiana's Gibson Generating Station in Princeton, Duke Energy Indiana's 3,132-megawatt facility, which had already proposed extending its operating life to 2038.

The administration's cost-reduction argument has a direct problem. EIA's most recent delivered-fuel data shows coal generation costs running materially above combined-cycle gas in the MISO footprint. That cuts against the rationale for extending coal on cost grounds. Duke is betting on extended coal capital costs flowing through its HEA 1002 rate cases. NIPSCO is exiting coal entirely by 2028. Those are materially different long-term cost and risk profiles — and which utility serves your site is not an abstract question.

For Indiana manufacturers with European export exposure, the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is phasing in regardless of what Washington does. If you export CBAM-covered goods to the EU — primarily steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, or hydrogen — embedded emissions from your electricity supply factor into the certificate cost. Indiana's grid mix makes that exposure worse than a European competitor's. If you are outside those covered categories today, assess your exposure now; the covered-goods list is expanding. Factor the Duke-versus-NIPSCO trajectory into your next procurement cycle accordingly.

NWS Crane Microreactor: Indiana's First Nuclear Reactor and Supply Chain Timing

Indiana's first nuclear reactor is targeting a September 2028 deployment at Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane in Martin County — and Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks in Indianapolis is already in the supply chain for the Janus Program vendor slate.

Nuclear supply-chain qualification typically runs 18 to 36 months. With a 2028 target deployment, vendor slates for critical components tend to lock in early. If your firm does precision machining, specialty materials, or power conversion work and Crane is on your radar, the time to engage the primes is now — not after the filing window closes.

For a deeper look at what operators should diligence before signing anything connected to small modular or microreactor projects, see Small Modular Reactors and Microreactors for Commercial & Industrial Power: What Operators Need to Diligence Before Signing Anything.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: What does HEA 1002 actually change about how Duke Energy Indiana sets my rate, and when will I see it?

A: HEA 1002 moves Duke to a three-year rate cycle with performance penalties tied to affordability and outage restoration. Duke files its first multi-year plan by mid-December 2026. Whether your bill actually changes depends on how much tracker cost Duke proposes to consolidate into base rates — the filing is the first real signal, and you should be watching for it.

Q: NIPSCO has been recovering Schahfer forced-operation costs through my bill. Does the D.C. Circuit Campbell ruling stop that?

A: The Campbell ruling removes the primary legal authority DOE cited to order Schahfer to stay open — but cost recovery for amounts already incurred is a separate proceeding at FERC and the IURC. Map your fuel adjustment clause tracker now so you know your exposure before a retroactive proceeding prices it for you.

Q: Duke is extending Gibson coal to 2038 while NIPSCO exits coal by 2028. Does that mean Duke customers pay more long-term?

A: EIA delivered-fuel data currently shows coal generation costs running above combined-cycle gas in the MISO footprint, so extending coal on cost grounds is not straightforward. Duke's bet is that extended coal capital flows through future rate cases. NIPSCO's exit carries its own transition costs. Which trajectory is worse for your bill depends on how each utility structures its HEA 1002 filing — there is no clean answer yet.

Q: My facility does precision machining. Is the NWS Crane microreactor project a realistic supply chain opportunity?

A: Potentially, yes — but the window is narrow. Nuclear supply-chain qualification runs 18 to 36 months, and with a 2028 target deployment at Crane, critical-component vendor slates tend to lock in well before that date. Engage the primes now if this is on your radar; waiting until the project is public knowledge typically means the roster is already set.