Indiana Grid Debate, Ryobi Fatality, and July Jobs Miss: TEG Daily August 10, 2026

Indiana manufacturers are absorbing grid cost risk they cannot source their way out of, a workforce pool that is shrinking rather than recovering, and OEM audit exposure that arrives faster than any IOSHA citation, and none of those pressures resolve on their own. Today's brief covers three stories that all point the same direction: the HB 1007 data center cost-shift debate from last month's Indiana Ag Policy Summit, a fatal incident at Ryobi Die Casting in Shelbyville, and a July jobs report that buried a manufacturing-specific warning under a headline number that does not reflect your hiring reality.

Questions for Your Morning Huddle

Q: What does HB 1007's 80 percent reimbursement provision actually mean for Indiana manufacturers?

A: HB 1007 requires large-load customers like data centers to reimburse at least 80 percent of new generation and transmission costs built to serve them. But the Citizens Action Coalition has flagged that utilities are not required to invoke that provision, meaning Indiana manufacturers could be left absorbing a share of those infrastructure costs through their rates, with no guaranteed protection from the statute.

Q: What is Indiana's CWIP statute and how does it expose ratepayers to SMR construction costs?

A: Indiana's Construction Work in Progress statute allows utilities to bill customers for generation projects before those projects are built and operational, including if the project is later cancelled. For SMR development specifically, that means Indiana ratepayers could begin paying for reactor construction costs years before any power is generated, with no refund mechanism if the project collapses the way NuScale-UAMPS did in 2023.

Q: What happens to an OEM supplier after a workplace fatality, what is the audit risk?

A: After a serious workplace incident, OEMs including Honda and GM have historically initiated supplier quality reviews that go beyond IOSHA's investigation. Those reviews assess production continuity risk, and in past cases they have escalated to dual-sourcing decisions. If Ryobi Die Casting is in your supply chain, confirm your exposure now, before an audit notice forces the conversation.

Q: Why is Indiana's 3.3 percent unemployment rate misleading for plant managers tracking hiring conditions?

A: The June gains that held Indiana's rate at 3.3 percent were driven by health services, construction, and trade, not manufacturing. Indiana manufacturing wages are growing at 2.6 percent versus 4.0 percent nationally, and the Indiana Business Research Center projects unemployment rising to 4.4 percent by year-end. The headline masks a tightening, wage-lagging factory labor market.

Three actions for this week. First, pull your annual electricity spend and model what a 15 to 20 percent rate increase does to your per-unit cost on your highest-consumption lines, then audit every demand-response and time-of-use program your utility currently offers. For background on how those rate structures work, the post on time-of-use demand rates for Indiana commercial and industrial facilities is a useful starting point. Second, check your skilled trades compensation against Michigan and Ohio benchmarks before the August 28th BLS revision resets the hiring narrative. Third, if Ryobi is anywhere in your supply chain, confirm your exposure today, and schedule your next lockout/tagout audit on high-temperature and high-pressure equipment before an OEM asks you to.